WEST LIBERTY \u2013 Coming off a Top 10 national ranking and a trip to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs, West Liberty head football coach Roger Waialae likes what he\u2019s seen from his veteran Hilltopper squad heading into the final week of preseason drills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 27 seniors back and that\u2019s really enabled us to get a lot done,\u201d Waialae said. \u201cWe\u2019re to the point now where most of our players have been here for a while so we\u2019re not starting from scratch. We\u2019ve added a few tweaks to keep things fresh but our main goals were to fine tune what we think we do well and shore up the areas we needed to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Liberty led the nation in scoring and total offense a year ago and has just about everybody back from the first offense in college football history to feature a 4,500-yard passer, a 1,500-yard rusher and three 1,000-yard receivers.<\/p>\n
All-American junior quarterback Zach Amedro, runnerup for the Harlon Hill Award as the NCAA Division II Player of the Year after leading the nation with 49 TD passes and 4,945 passing yards, isn\u2019t working out with the team. With only one semester of eligibility remaining, he\u2019s sitting out the spring in order to use that last semester in the fall.<\/p>\n
Waialae says Amedro\u2019s absence may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve probably only seen Zach two or three times this semester because he\u2019s been staying away from the team,\u201d Waialae said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other hand, it\u2019s opened up a lot more reps for our other quarterbacks and they\u2019ve really stepped up. (Freshman) Tyler Tucci might be the most improved player on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The quarterbacks certainly don\u2019t lack for quality targets.<\/p>\n
Junior All-Region tailback Kevon Calhoun scored 26 TDs and rushed for 1,529 yards \u2013 both school records \u2013 last fall.<\/p>\n
Junior TE Ryan Travis (104 catches, 1,250 yards, 14 TDs) was a consensus All-American while junior WR Kashif Walls (61 catches, 1,321 yards, 22 TDs) made several All-America teams. Fellow junior WR Willie Walker (51 catches, 809 yards, 8 TDs) combined devastating blocking skills with game-breaking downfield speed.<\/p>\n
One of the most talented receiving corps in the nation is being put to good use building strength on the other side of the ball this spring, especially in a secondary which was susceptible to the big play a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defensive backfield was a focus in recruiting and it has been a focus in the spring,\u201d Waialae said. \u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen so far, our defense is catching up to our offense in terms of quality depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have six or seven kids at the corners with six or seven more at the safeties and they can all play. Two of the transfers \u2013 Dashon Fooks and Alec Wood \u2013 have stood out but we have 10-12 kids for the five secondary spots. Competing against our receivers every day has really accelerated their development. I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll be much improved in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2009 Hilltoppers set the bar extremely high, rolling to an outright WVIAC championship, winning a school-record 11 games and finishing the year ranked No. 9 in the nation.<\/p>\n
Waialae \u2013 the reigning WVIAC Coach of the Year \u2013 says his 2010 edition won\u2019t back down from the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably had the best offseason in terms of conditioning since I\u2019ve been here,\u201d Waialae said. \u201cWe had a taste of success last year and it just made us hungry for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Liberty will close out its spring football drills this week with the annual Black and Gold intersquad game on Saturday. Kickoff is set for noon at Russek Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEST LIBERTY \u2013 Coming off a Top 10 national ranking and a trip to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs, West Liberty head football coach Roger Waialae likes what he\u2019s seen from his veteran Hilltopper squad heading into the final week of preseason drills. \u201cWe have 27 seniors back and that\u2019s really enabled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n