MEC Football: West Liberty Picked 7th
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — The West Liberty University football team was one of several squads projected as potential contenders Wednesday when the Mountain East Conference coaches revealed their 2016 Preseason Poll.
Defending champion Shepherd, fresh off its run to the 2015 national championship game, was installed as the preseason favorite during Media Day at the Bridgeport Conference Center. Coach Monte Cater’s Rams received 9 of 11 first-place votes and 99 points. Charleston, which made its NCAA Division II playoff debut last fall, was second with two first-place votes and 92 points. Concord was third at 74 points.
Coach Roger Waialae’s Hilltoppers were part of a five-team logjam behind the three front-runners, ranging from Glenville State in fourth place with 61 points to West Virginia State in eighth at 49 points. West Liberty slotted in at No. 7 with 55 points, just six shy of Glenville’s fourth-place total. West Virginia Wesleyan (23) checked in at No. 9 with UVA-Wise (18) and Urbana (18) rounding out the list.
With 15 starters and 42 lettermen returning from an injury-riddled 2015 season, Waialae is convinced WLU has what it takes to emerge from the middle of the MEC pack.
Senior QB Dakota Conwell, a two-time All-MEC pick, has established himself as one of the top run-pass threats in the region, throwing 46 TD passes and racking up better than 5,300 yards of total offense in his two years on the hilltop after transferring in from the University of Arizona.
“Dakota has improved every year he’s been with us,” Waialae said. “Everything we do offensively pretty much runs through him. He’s one of the best pure football players to ever play for me but what he brings to the table more than anything is leadership.”
Junior WR Anton McCallum, another two-time All-MEC selection, is one of the top returning receivers in the conference after catching 41 passes for 732 yards and eight TDs a year ago. Several redshirt freshmen and transfers have been added to the receiving mix, including Dan Monteroso, a graduate transfer from Purdue who played the last three seasons with the Boilermakers.
After being decimated by injuries a year ago, the defensive secondary may have been the Hilltoppers’ most improved unit in the spring. Three-time All-MEC DT Darnell Vickers and leading tackler LB Garrett Vulcano provide senior leadership on this side of the ball along with senior CB Solomon Dixon, a former starter at the University of Idaho who battled injuries throughout his 2015 debut campaign at WLU.
“We went through some adversity a year ago,” Waialae said, “but we’re a much better football team now because of it. Our biggest areas of improvement were in maturity and leadership. We only have 15 seniors but with so many guys forced into action last season, this is one of my more experienced teams. After a great spring, we can’t wait to get back on the field in a couple of weeks and pick up where we left off.
The fourth season of MEC football kicks off under the lights Sept. 1 when Glenville State plays host to Urbana and UVA-Wise travels to Tusculum (Tenn.).
The Hilltoppers open the 2016 campaign on the road with a noon Sept. 3 kickoff at Concord.
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