Every year since 2006, the Colonels football team has produced at least one standout player, every one of them now playing for NFL teams. This year should be no different as returning starters and transfer players add star potential to this year’s team. Defense and special teams bring most of the talent as the SEC safety tandem of Tyson Andrus, a LSU transfer, and Jordan Nevels, a Kentucky transfer, should bring great intensity to the Colonels secondary this season.
Andrus transferred into Nicholls last season but lost a year of eligibility due to transferring from Ole Miss to LSU then to Nicholls. Nevels came to Nicholls last season, starting in two games and receiving playing time on special teams.
In the linebacker position, Garrick Spain enters the 2009 season as the teams leading tackler. An All-SLC selection as a sophomore in 2007, he also led the Colonels with 60 tackles along with two sacks and an interception return for a touchdown in 2008.
Apart from Spain, Nicholls recently received Ventura Community College transfer Ed James. The junior linebacker tallied 158 total tackles, 16 tackles for a loss and four sacks in his current career. He also had four interceptions and three forced fumble recoveries while playing in California.
As for special teams, the Colonels will not miss a beat as they return All-SLC junior punter Patrick Dolan and senior kicker Ross Schexnayder.
Dolan handled the majority of kickoff duties last season, and enters this season as a preseason All-American as voted by two news organizations (Lindy’s Football Magazine and Sports Network).
Dolan played in all nine games in 2008. He had 38 punts for a 42.4 average and a log of 57 yards while punting 10 times inside the opponent’s 20 yard-line. He was also named the SLC and LSWA Special Teams Player of the Week after last year’s game against Sam Houston State along with All-SLC First Team Punter and LSWA Second Team Punter recognition at the end of the 2008 season.
Schexnayder received SLC Special Teams Player of the Week twice while also gaining a preseason All-American Honorable Mention honors from Sports Network along with teammate Dolan.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Colonels go-to-guy, Antonio Robinson, should establish the teams’ wide-receiving core.
The 6-3, 195 lbs. senior led the team in receiving with 20 catches for 502 yards and six touchdowns in 2008.
When the Colonels needed a big play, he was the one they looked for as Robinson finished No.1 in the nation’s Football Championship Subdivision with a 25.1 yards/catch average while also having touchdown receptions of 63, 62, 58, 36 and two of 13 yards.
Robinson should bring a much-needed safety net to Red-shirt freshman quarterbacks LaQuintin Caston and Jacob Witt.
With talent returning on both sides of the ball, the Colonels should have less of a problem creating a new standout player to add to the names of past stars like Jacob Bender, Kareem Moore and Lardarius Webb.
The Colonels will showcase their talent this coming Saturday at 1 p.m. as they face off against Air Force for the first game of the season.
The game can be followed online through the Nicholls State University Athletics web page under GameTracker.
