Yeomen lay another winless season to rest

The mark of any successful season, professional or collegiate, is a marked improvement from the previous year. One might glance at our beloved Crimson Thunder's record and immediately assume this year did not meet that criterion. But Oberlin's winless 1999 campaign must be taken with a grain of salt.

Head Coach Jeff Ramsey took over this program with his hands tied. He did not recruit the incoming first-years, and several key players from last year's team decided not to play. That left many young faces on an inexperienced squad, a disconcerting lack of depth and, simply, not enough skilled veterans at key positions.

"The biggest challenge was, [given the personnel], making the most out of practice. We could never do enough," said Ramsey. "Adisa [Chaney] playing running back and defensive line, Jabari [Spruill] playing wideout and moving Jason Ross to offensive tackle from tight end."

The lack of depth that plagues most of Oberlin's sports teams was magnified after Ross was forced into playing tackle, a position he never manned before. Also contributing to the thin squad were minor ailments to first-years Cody McCoy and Josh Shapaka and season-ending injuries to junior Jordan Kaltman and senior Kwesi Skinner.

The Yeomen's final match pitted them against the Saxons of Alfred University, a small arts college in upstate New York.

In the game's first series, first-year quarterback Chris Moffatt was hurried and sacked, forcing sophomore Bob Montag to punt from the endzone. Montag managed only a net of 27 yards on the punt, with the Saxons starting on OC's 33. Tailback George Eason began a momentous day on the ground by scampering for 33 yards on Alfred's first play from scrimmage. The Saxons would score twice more in the first quarter, putting Oberlin in a hole from which they would never recover.

Oberlin would manage a Montag touchdown catch and a rare Martin Mitchell field goal in the second period, making the score at the half a respectable 27-9, Saxons.

Any hopes of a comeback were dashed in the opening drive of the second half, when Alfred fullback Steve Rossi capped off a quick, efficient drive with a one-yard plunge to put his team up 34-9.

Eason would score once more as he racked up 197 yards en route to four consecutive Saxon scores in the second half. Moffatt put an end to the bleeding at the four minute mark in the fourth quarter when he snuck under center for a one-yard TD, accounting for the game's final points, and ending a lopsided Alfred 55-16 victory.

Saturday's loss marked the final game for seniors Spruill, Rick Kocher, Ross, Skinner, Chris Bedford and Dylan Ruga. Junior Geno Walker will not return next year as well.

The 1999 campaign saw brief flashes of brilliance from individual performers and a near-victory against the Earlham Quakers. But overall, the dominate themes were an inconsistent offense that struggled to run the ball the entire year, an inexperienced quarterback that shows sign of maturity and a thin, worn-out defense that could not keep up with the power running games their opponents brought to the table throughout the year.

Moffatt did break the school record for attempts and passing yards in a game with 62 and 342, respectively. McCoy also put his name in the record book, tallying the most receiving yards in Oberlin history with 176. After Shapaka was moved to wideout he had several brilliant games, including the Alfred loss, in which he caught seven balls for 102 yards.

As for the season statistics, McCoy finished with 36 catches for 423 yards, followed by Shapaka with 37 catches and 378 and Bob Montag with 34 grabs for 249 yards. McCoy and Montag each snared two TDs.

Moffatt rounded out his first year with a whopping 351 attempts, completing 172 of those for 1633 yards and a completion rate of 49 percent. The young snapper tossed seven touchdowns, but was intercepted 18 times.

On the defensive side of the ball, anvil Rick Kocher led the defense with 111 tackles, 80 coming by the way of the unassisted variety. Second was standout first-year Mike McClendon (whom many thought would be too small for linebacker), who tallied 108 tackles, 68 unassisted and two sacks. Rounding out the top three was strong safety Dave Smolev, who recorded 98 tackles, with 55 of them unassisted.

The production from new faces like McClendon is what surprised Ramsey the most. "The freshmen came in and produced so much, it was very pleasing. Chad Raver moving to wide receiver and Jason Ross to tackle [were also very pleasing]," said Ramsey. "It's also nice to see both Josh and Cody as wideouts." The speedy receivers combined with Moffatt's arm should make for a lethal 1-2 punch for years to come.

A winless season was Ramsey's greatest disappointment, but it was the little things that irked the coach every Saturday. "We had a Jeckyl and Hyde offense this year. We have to learn to capitalize on opportunities - we will create a red-zone situation [in practice] and respond to it," said Ramsey. A glaring example would be last Saturday's affair, in which the Yeomen came up scoreless on three drives in the red-zone.

Looking ahead to the 2000 season, Ramsey emphasized the most pressing needs as offensive and defensive line, then the secondary and running backs. "The blitz was the toughest thing, given Chris' [Moffatt's] inexperience and the youth on the line," said Ramsey.

Look for all of Oberlin's coaches to recruit heavily and bring more enthusiastic first-years to this budding program. Many have criticized the football team in the past, yet rarely take the time to recognize the obstacles that the squad must overcome - mainly frequent injuries, players going both ways and a defense that is on the field for far too long.

So all you naysayers can keep your mock grins to yourself, and if you want proof of success then check Ramsey's track record. This team is headed for winning ways.