College football 2016: Expectations high for young Gorillas

Pittsburg State football wrapped up its preseason with 140 players on a mostly young team. That’s how coach Tim Beck will open his seventh season leading the Gorillas. Of all the unknowns entering a new season, one thing is certain.

“We’re a better football team than we were a year ago,” Beck said.

Though the Gorillas did post a winning record last year, the 6-5 mark was a low point for a program that is far more familiar with 10-plus win seasons than flirting with the .500 mark. Pitt State saw more losses a year ago than it suffered in the previous two seasons combined.

Getting back to the traditional winning ways of Pitt State football will have to come with another young roster. The Gorillas won’t have a single senior on the offensive line, but Beck said he still expects the line to excel.

“That will still be a strength. We’re a year older and a year stronger there,” he said. “Overall, camp has been a good one, and we’re still evaluating things but we like what we’ve seen.”

The line will be blocking for tailback Michael Rose, who returns healthier and ready for the starting job. The 5-foot-10, 177-pound junior averaged 5.7 yards last season as a backup with five touchdowns in eight games.

Quarterback John Roderique is back from an injury-shortened season as well. He threw for more than 1,200 yards in six games last year before a foot injury knocked him out. The sophomore will be one of the many young players who Beck expects to make an even bigger impact in 2016.

The skill is there, Beck said, but the knowledge and experience will have to increase as the season goes along.

“You can have a great athlete, but if a player doesn’t have that football knowledge it can make it difficult,” he said. “So for our guys, we’re a young team that’s going to need more experience out there. But that will come.”

Experience against strong competition will come early. Pitt State, which received votes in the American Football Coaches Association preseason poll but didn’t crack the top 25, will open the season with a Thursday night game against AFCA No. 20 Central Missouri on Sept. 1. Central Missouri was also picked No. 2 in the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association preseason poll just ahead of Pitt State, which was voted into a tie for third with Emporia State by the coaches and third outright by the media.

This story was originally published August 22, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "College football 2016: Expectations high for young Gorillas."