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D3football.com ranks Scots 12th
in
preseason
Release Date:
August 10, 2009
MONMOUTH, Ill. —
A Website
specializing in Division III football is the latest to tab the
Monmouth College football team as one of the favorites to compete
for a national title.
D3football.com
ranks the Fighting Scots 12th in its preseason poll as voted on by a
nationwide panel of 25 coaches, sports information directors and
media members. The newest ranking – released last weekend – follows
earlier rankings for Steve Bell’s troops by two sports
magazines. Lindy’s Sports Annuals and The Sporting News had ranked
the Scots fifth and 11th, respectively, this spring. Monmouth had
climbed as high as No. 14 in last season’s American Football Coaches
Association poll.
The Fighting
Scots, with 35 letterwinners returning this week, lost just one
offensive starter from their unit that led the nation with a 46.75
points-per-game average. Defensively, the Scots return five starters
from a potent sack attack, led by sack leader and Consensus Draft
Services (CDS) preseason All-American Anthony Goranson
(Bartlett, Ill./Belvidere) (12).
On offense,
quarterback Alex Tanney (Lexington, Ill./Lexington) and
offensive linemen Josh Kotecki (Peru, Ill./LaSalle-Peru) and
Dan Schwindenhammer (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame) joined Goranson
as preseason All-Americans on the CDS second team. Kotecki was named
to the first team by Lindy’s and to the D3football.com second team.
Tanney and Schwindenhammer were also named to the second team by The
Sporting News and D3football.com.
The two teams that
met for last year’s national title – Mount Union and the University
of Wisconsin-Whitewater – were ranked 1-2 by Lindy’s and
D3football.com. The Purple Raiders and War Hawks traded places in
the Sporting News rankings. Mount Union defeated UW-Whitewater 31-26
in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl for the national title last December.
Monmouth finished
the 2008 season with a school-record 11 wins and advanced to the
second round of the NCAA playoffs. The Scots completed their second
unbeaten regular season and earned their second Midwest Conference
title since 2005.
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