There is no shortage of questions surrounding the University of Maine’s football team entering Saturday night’s opener against Football Bowl Subdivision team Florida International University in Miami.
How will the Black Bears replace 13 starters? Can quarterback Derek Robertson guide the team to a good season? How will the defense fare with virtually an entire new front seven? How are they going to replace their top two receivers and top four rushers? What kind of impact will the six new coaches have, especially offensive coordinator Steve Cooper and defensive coordinator Jeff Comissiong?
Because of these uncertainties and the fact the Black Bears went 2-9 last season (2-6 in the Coastal Athletic Association), the league’s head coaches picked UMaine to finish 13th in the 15-team league that was formerly known as the Colonial Athletic Association.
UMaine, which lost five games by four points or less a year ago, has 37 newcomers after losing 26 players to graduation or transfer.
Second-year head coach Jordan Stevens admitted he isn’t sure what to expect.
“We have a lot of new pieces. We will find out a lot about ourselves in this first game,” Stevens said. “There are going to be some highs and some lows. We will need to fix our mistakes and grow from the game.”
“I feel really good about the guys we have out there,” said senior quarterback Robertson. “We’re just going to take it week by week.”
The Black Bears will win more than two games and show significant progress but a winning record would be a stretch, especially when you consider they open the season with a Football Bowl Subdivision school and then North Dakota State, which has won nine Football Championship Subdivision titles in 12 years.
The players now know what to expect from Stevens, who wants them to be physical and aggressive, and he has gained a valuable year of experience in his first head coaching job.
Robertson started eight games in 2021 after Joe Fagnano was sidelined with a high ankle sprain. Fagnano was the starter last fall and had a mediocre season before transferring to the University of Connecticut, where he was scheduled to start their Thursday night opener against North Carolina State.
Robertson is reminiscent of former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer.
He isn’t flashy but he manages the game efficiently, doesn’t turn the ball over and can make enough plays to put you in the win column.
The Black Bears went 5-3 during his eight-game stint as the starter but he completed only 50.8 percent of his passes and that percentage has to be in the 56-58 percent range this fall.
It would also help if he could pick up some first downs with his legs. Fagnano was UMaine’s third-leading rusher a year ago with 296 yards.
Senior running back Tavion Banks and graduate student John Gay had just 34 carries between them a year ago but Banks shone in the Jeff Cole Memorial Spring Football game and has had a strong training camp. Gay has looked good, also.
Tristen Kenan is a true freshman with a lot of promise.
It will be of the utmost importance for UMaine to establish a consistent running attack.
Junior Montigo Moss, son of NFL Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss, had a breakout season last year with 35 receptions for 398 yards and a team-high six TD catches. He was third on the team behind the departed Zavier Scott (42 catches-434 yards) and Kobay White (37-411).
He will be a key component but will probably have the opponents’ best cover cornerback on him or he will be double-teamed. So he will have to work hard to establish some separation.
Veterans Michael Monios, Jamie Lamson and Trevin Ewing combined for 16 catches last fall with Monios accounting for 12 of them, and they will be joined by transfers Joe Gillette and Braeden Heald in the receiving corps. Heald played on special teams for UMaine last fall.
All five have the ability to make plays and they will need to.
Transfer Gillette, a cancer survivor, caught 70 passes for 928 yards at Lafayette.
Rutgers transfer Cooper Heisey, who missed last season due to injury, and sophomore Rohan Jones (4 catches) will try to fill the void left by the June transfer of All-CAA tight end and would-be captain Shawn Bowman, who went to Rutgers. Bowman had 31 receptions for 377 yards and 5 TDs.
The offensive line has three returnees who started at least seven games last season in right tackle Kevin Jones, Orland junior right guard David Gross and sophomore left tackle Darius Bell. Gross is coming off knee surgery and may or may not play at FIU but he is very close to returning.
Jones was a Phil Steele preseason All-CAA second team pick.
UMass transfer Joe Horn will replace All-CAA center Mike Gerace while graduate student Max Lovblad and redshirt-freshman Nicholas Cruji will be seeing duty at the guard positions.
“The offensive line has made tremendous strides from the spring until now,” Stevens said.
The Black Bears need to be productive on first and second down to avoid third-and-long situations and the line is going to have to give Robertson time to throw.
They also have to be more imaginative on offense and not shy away from trick plays to keep opposing defenses guessing.
On the defensive side of the ball, the secondary will be the strength of the unit with three starters back in senior free safety Robby Riobe, junior strong safety Shakur Smalls and junior cornerback Kahzir “Buggs” Brown. Redshirt sophomore and Old Dominion transfer Alhaji Kamar will be the other cornerback.
Brown and Smalls were the team’s third and fourth-leading tacklers a year ago with 59 and 48, respectively. Brown led the team in pass breakups with nine and shared the lead in interceptions with two. He was chosen to the Phil Steele preseason All-CAA second team.
Riobe had 38 tackles.
Graduate student Josh Lezin will be the nose tackle and he has played 40 career games at UMaine and is coming off a season in which he had 21 tackles in nine games. Senior end Jacob Tuiasosopo has appeared in 12 career games and will have a much more elevated role as a starter, as will junior tackle John Constanza (23 games) and sophomore end Xavier Holmes (two games).
Linebackers Brian Lee Jr. and Adrian Otero, who shared the team lead in tackles with 72, have departed, as has the other starting linebacker Xavier Nurse (29 tackles).
The three starting linebackers on Saturday, juniors Christian Thomas and Vince Thomas and sophomore Darius McKenzie, have limited experience with just 52 career games between them. But they are expected to make a smooth transition into their starting roles. The two Thomases each had 16 tackles a year ago and McKenzie had 14.
Last year’s UMaine defense was toasted for 54 plays of 20 yards or more and can’t afford a repeat.
As good as the secondary should be, the front seven still has to get consistent pressure on the quarterback to give the secondary a chance to make plays.
The whole unit has to tackle better.
Stevens expects his special teams to be solid with Bailey Timms and Aidan Cadogan being the punters; Cody Williams kicking field goals and Joey Bryson handling kickoffs.
