The RPI football team has lost several key skill players to graduation and is looking to some new faces to lead them back from last year’s disappointing 3-6 season. It was the first year that Joe King’s squad has posted a losing record in his 12 seasons as head coach of the Engineers.
When asked why the team’s performance dropped off so sharply from its 1999 performance (9-0, with an appearance in the NCAA playoffs), King said, "We didn’t finish a lot of our games last year. We lost four games in the fourth quarter last year when we had the lead."
He also cited injuries as a cause—the Engineers lost five starters early in the season. But the biggest reason, he said, was that "I didn’t do my job—we didn’t play together."
"I emphasize it to the kids all the time: ‘It’s a team game.’ But last year it didn’t seem to get through," he said.
Running back Wayne Evans noted that the team didn’t communicate well last year, saying there was a "lack of leadership," but he doesn’t expect that to be a problem this season.
"We’ve got a big senior class this year, and there will be a lot of young guys stepping up," he said, and they will help the team to work together.
King also expects the team to do well, in large part due to the recent addition of five new assistant coaches: Butch Becker, Keith Clickner, Wayne Halayko, Sam Marro, and Matt Vittengl. Becker, Clickner, and Halayko have all been on the Engineers’ coaching staff before, and Vittengl’s name will certainly be familiar to RPI football fans—he led the defense as a linebacker from 1996-1999, amassing 98 tackles during his senior season, and was awarded the athletic department’s Career Athlete of the Year Award in 2000.
The staff faces an uphill battle, however. From last year, the team has lost both starting quarterbacks, its leading rusher, one of its leading receivers, its starting tight end, its leading returner, three starters in the defensive backfield, and its starting placekicker of the past four years.
Two untested sophomores, Dan Cole and Flynn Cochran, will be looking to fill the role of starting passer. Neither of them played on the varsity squad last year. Cole played for the JV team, and Cochran has taken the last two years off from school for religious reasons.
On the receiving end for RPI, receptions leader Richard Mokay and standout tight end Brian Moran have moved on. Captain Evan Cochran returns, however, and figures to improve upon last season, in which he led all players in receiving yards with 419. Besides him, the receiving corps has seen very limited action, and the Engineers’ passing game will have a lot to prove this fall.
The running game figures to be stronger. In the backfield, Joe Prymas returns for a fourth year at starting fullback. Evans, who was second in rushing yards for the Engineers last season, will pick up most of the slack at the tailback position, with Brian Neglia also seeing some playing time at both positions.
The offensive line is back at full strength this year, with Nate Doyle and captain Kevin Solli coming off of injuries last season to join seniors Lou Gerlock, Tom Cuomo, and Mike Bukowski, who started for an offensive line that led the way to 189 rushing yards per game during the 2000 season.
On the other side of the ball, RPI is strongest up front. Senior Micah Suggs led all players in tackles last year, and John Menjik and captain Ed Petkovsek also return for their fourth year on the varsity team. The linebackers also look solid, with only one starter departing from last season. They figure to especially benefit from the leadership of Vittengl, who was brought on specifically to coach the linebackers, and captain Marc Blevins.
The secondary is the Engineers’ biggest question mark, with the loss of All-American Chris Swartz and two of its three other starters. Captain Chris Speck will need to provide some leadership here—while RPI is quite deep here, with eight other players hoping to see some action, very few of them have seen much playing time.
Special teams is also missing Swartz, who was the team’s leading returner. Senior Jim Sears, Evan Cochran, and Evans are all expected to fill this role. Sophomore Matt Verenini has some very big shoes to fill at kicker; he replaces Eric Byrne, one of the best kickers in Engineer history. Chris Comisky got a lot of work at punter last season, and his 36.2-yard average earned him all-UCAA status.
Overall, the team has a lot of depth but relatively few experienced players off the line of scrimmage. This is a squad with very few playmakers, and some of the younger players are going to have to step up if the team is to do well. Most notably, the passing game is going to have to gain the respect of opposing defenses so that they can’t key in solely on our runners; if this happens, expect good things from the Engineers this year.
