SEARCHING FOR AN IDENTITY

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In the last two seasons, the offense has garnered a large part of the recognition for the football team’s back-to-back Mid-American Conference championships.

This season, the defense wants the same kind of exposure.

While last season’s offense carried the team to a second consecutive Mid-American Conference championship, the defense largely struggled, yielding 460 yards and 36.9 points per-game.

The team is without its two leading tacklers from last season, graduated linebackers Red Keith (148 tackles) and Ike Brown (106). In their absence, the focus lies on the entire defense.

“We have a big chip on our shoulder as a defense,” said sophomore linebacker Nick Bellore. “A lot has been said of us. We realize that we not a great year last year as a whole. We have to do everything possible to change our name and earn respect in the college football community and not feel like we’re getting carried by the offense.”

To do that, CMU will need to find players who can claim some of the tackles that will inevitably be available this season with the absence Keith and Brown. One of those players might be Bellore, who had 102 tackles of his own last season as a freshman.

“Nick Bellore is having the best camp he’s had. We expect great things from him, he’s the leader of our defense and I couldn’t be more pleased with him,” said coach Butch Jones. “I’m really, really excited about Nick, I think he’s going to have a great season for us.”

Another impact player could be junior linebacker, Tim Brazzel who after shifting from the secondary last season has impressed the coaching staff during his second summer at linebacker.

“An individual who’s looked extremely well so far in training camp is Tim Brazzel,” Jones said. “I’m really happy with Tim, he’s very explosive, he’s flying around to the ball.”

The team’s biggest change defensively might not have anything to do with what happens on the football field. In the team’s second season under Jones and defensive coordinator Tim Banks, Brazzel said the defense’s familiarity with the system and each other will be the biggest change.

“We all stayed up here, most of the defense and offense all stayed up here, we worked together and had cookouts,” Brazzel said. “We practiced at night, in the morning. We just bonded this summer and we know everybody better.”

However, Brazzel and the defense know all that matters as the performance on the field. Jones said he will not hesitate to mix up the starting linebackers to find the right group.

As a result, many players could see significant playing time at linebacker this season.

“We’re trying to find some replacement there – that has been an area of concern for us,” Jones said. “It may be a linebacker group by committee.”

sports@cm-life.com