FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2006
Contact: Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Associate Commissioner

Trinity tabbed as favorite for 14th SCAC Football title

SUWANEE, Ga. – Change is in the air as the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) prepares to kick-off its 45th year of football.

For the first time since 1998, the league has a new member as Austin College replaces Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on the conference schedule. Even more change is coming in 2007 as Birmingham-Southern College and Colorado College join the fray – giving the league an all-time high nine football-playing institutions.

But for all that change, some things, at least on the SCAC gridiron, remain the same. In exclusive preseason voting by the league’s head coaches, Trinity was tabbed as the favorite to win its 14th consecutive football championship on five of seven ballots and received 47 points in the voting process. (See page 2 for complete voting results)

Over the last 13 seasons, Trinity has captured eight outright (93, 94, 97, 98, 99, 01, 02, 04) and five shared SCAC football titles (95, 96, 00, 03, 04) and has gone 62-5 in league play; 124-24 overall. Trinity’s streak of 13 consecutive league titles is the second-longest current streak in Division III. Mount Union has won 14 consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference championships.

The Tigers went on the NCAA playoffs for the ninth straight time, the second-best active streak in all of Division III football. Mary Hardin-Baylor beat Trinity 35-6 in the NCAA first round at E.M. Stevens Stadium.

DePauw was the coaches’ second pick with 44 points, including two first-place votes. The Tigers were a perfect 5-0 in league play last year – earning a share of the SCAC football title for the second time since joining the league in 1998.

Hurricane Rita forced the cancellation of last season’s DePauw/Trinity match-up and with both teams running through the remainder of the its conference schedule unblemished, the result was just the second two-way tie between teams with undefeated conference marks in league history. In 1975, Rose-Hulman and Sewanee: University of the South both finished with 4-0 marks. Rose-Hulman had just entered the league a year prior and all schools had not yet worked the Engineers into their schedule rotation.

Rounding out the 2006 predicted order of finish: Centre College and Sewanee both finished with 26 points and tied for the third slot. The SCAC coaches tabbed Millsaps College as the fifth pick with 23 points followed by Rhodes College with 21 points and Austin College with nine points.

Several outstanding players return to the SCAC gridiron in 2006, including preseason D3football.com all-American Dustin Allen of Trinity. The senior defensive lineman had a league-leading 15 tackles for loss last season, including nine sacks and seven quarterback hurries.

Senior quarterback Wesley Satterfield of Sewanee and senior receiver Adam Clark of Centre return after sharing SCAC offensive Player-of-the-Year honors last season (with graduated receiver Robert Kelner of Trinity). Satterfield returned from a broken hand in Week 4 and led Sewanee to a 5-2 mark down the stretch – averaging 192.7 yards of total offense per game during that span. Clark led the league in both receptions (50) and receiving yards (700) last season. His current career average of 63.3 yards receiving per game ranks eighth in SCAC history.

Quality running backs abound in the SCAC in 2006. Senior Adam Blandford of Centre led the league with 978 yards rushing last season – the sixth-highest single-season rushing total in school history. Jeremiah Marks of DePauw rushed for 881 yards in nine games (97.9 yards per game) and a league-leading 17 touchdowns. Entering his junior campaign, Marks is currently one of just five backs in SCAC history to average over 100 yards per game for a career (100.2 yards/game). Junior Tyson Roy of Millsaps looks to return to form after an injury-plagued 2005 season held him to just 407 yards in seven games. Roy led the SCAC in rushing as a freshman with 1,046 yards. Junior Tyler Lake of Rhodes finished third in the league with 828 yards on the ground last season – the most yards by a Lynx running back since Darrell Brown rushed for 1,142 in 1996. Junior Blake Mears of Sewanee rushed for 765 yards in 10 games, including a SCAC season-best 287 all-purpose yards (152 yards rushing / 116 yards receiving / 19 yards kick returns) in a 31-28 victory over Centre.

The league’s newest member, Austin College, returns the team’s leading tackler from a year ago, sophomore linebacker Scooter Means. Means had 78 stops in 2005, including 11 tackles for loss, two sacks and three forced fumbles.

The conference has three new head coaches this season. Two assistant coaches were promoted to head coaching duties during the off-season as six-year assistant coach Matt Walker takes over the DePauw program, succeeding Tim Rogers, and defensive coordinator Mike DuBose takes over for David Saunders at Millsaps. DuBose will take the helm of his first collegiate team since leading the University of Alabama from 1997-2000. Austin also has a new head coach as Ronnie Gage takes over the program, succeeding David Norman who led the Kangaroos for 12 years.

Also of note, the annual gridiron battle between DePauw and Wabash (113th meeting) will be nationally televised this year on the high definition network HDNet.