2009 Preview - Northeastern State

2008 Recap
Similar to ENMU last year, NSU came into the season hoping to simply get better. And they did. In his first season at the helm, Head Coach Kenny Evans’ Riverhawks showed some fight and nearly pulled off a few upsets. They only lost by 4 to Midwestern, by 6 to East Central in Overtime, by 1 to A&M-Commerce, and by 1 to Southwestern Oklahoma. If they had pulled off wins in those 3 close games against LSC North foes, they would have finished 3rd place in the LSC North, right behind Central Oklahoma and Southeastern Oklahoma.

The Offense averaged only 18.4 points per game. Only Angelo State would score less in the LSC in 2008. They finished last in total yards per game at 258. The rushing and passing averages were near the bottom of the conference, but they did seem to improve as the season went on. The Riverhawks threw for 262 yards against SOSU, racked up 458 total yards against Southwest Baptist and 537 total yards against East Central.

The Riverhawk Defense didn’t fare much better in 2008 and will need a lot of improvement if they want to have a chance this season. They finished towards the bottom in Total Defense and Scoring Defense, and gave up an abysmal 450 total yards per game. They lost LSC North DB of the Year Broderick Mondy and 1st Team LSC North CB Curtis Mayfield, so there will be a big need for defensive players to step up.

2009 Outlook
Out with the old
WR/RS Jarrett Byars (1st Team)
CB Curtis Mayfield (1st Team)
S Broderick Mondy (1st Team, DB of the Year)
WR Damien Henderson (2nd Team)

Welcome Back
K Jared Homer (1st Team)
DT T.J. Raymond (1st Team)
RS Prince McKinney (2nd Team)
LB Terrence Gaston (2nd Team)
LB Johnny Evans (Honorable Mention)
P Joe Kok (Honorable Mention)

In with the new
WR John Turner
WR Edward Victorian
TE Chris Johnson
TE Logan Cawyer
QB Pat Cook
RB LaRon Elmer
OL Delvin Herndon
DL LaQuantum McDonald
DL Caom Hensen
DB Rashad Johnson
DB Nick Dobler
DB Steven Alexander
DB Brian Johnson
DB Darryl Byrd

All Conference Candidates
PK Jared Homer
DT T.J. Raymond
RS Prince McKinney
LB Terrence Gaston
LB Johnny Evans
P Joe Kok


Big Games
September 26 vs. East Central
October 3 @ A&M-Commerce
October 10 vs. Southwestern Oklahoma

Best Case Scenario
5-5 Coach Evans brought in a pretty good recruiting class - many of them upper classman transfers - that could step in and produce quickly. If the Defense can slow teams down a little, the offense may have enough juice to squeeze past a few of the beatable teams in the LSC North and their 2 out of conference games.

Worst Case Scenario
2-8 The Defense continues to give up huge amounts of yards/points, and the offense doesn’t click as well as it did in a few of their games last year. Might see the Riverhawks handing over the reigns to younger kids to build for the future mid-way through the season and a record like this could be the result.