Pre-season Opinion

Just over two weeks ago, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference held its annual Media Day activities at the Salem Civic Center. As part of the opening festivities, the gridiron coaches from the ODAC also put forth their opinions – and collective votes – regarding placement of respective teams and their projected finishes.

While preseason polls shouldn’t be the sole determinant of final placement – especially since E&H finished in a four-way tie for the top spot last season after being picked a distant seventh – I do feel obligated to put forth an opinion on the early projections: Good job! 

During previous years, I haven’t been exactly supportive of the entire poll. For this year, however, I had absolutely no qualms about the 2009 order. That 2009 order? 1. Hampden-Sydney  2. Emory & Henry  3. Bridgewater  4. Randolph-Macon  5. Catholic 6. Washington and Lee 7. Guilford.

(In case anyone cares, my poll looked like this: T1. Hampden-Sydney T1. Emory & Henry 3. Bridgewater 4. Randolph-Macon 5. Washington and Lee 6. Catholic 7. Guilford How did I get a tie? Well, I envisioned that H-SC and E&H would each lose one game, with one earning a tie-breaker over the other, blah blah blah, etc.)

One could certainly argue that any of the top four teams in the ODAC should be given first-place conference “cred.” Any time a quarterback comes back for his fifth and final year as a senior (rare in Division III athletics), that being Hampden-Sydney signal-caller Corey Sedlar, gives immediate justification for the Tigers – especially after suffering a season-ending loss to rival Randolph-Macon

Speaking of the Yellow Jackets, the squad from Ashland – despite their personnel losses – should also be in the mix, especially after what they did to end the season (see reference to those Tigers).

Don’t forget about the Eagles either. After E&H posted a road win at Bridgewater, the Eagles posted 30-point outbursts against defensive-minded foes at Washington and Lee and Catholic, with the latter sending the ODAC’s final Saturday into quite a tizzy.

That brings me to E&H. Sure, it looks like a hokey pick putting the locals in the top two of the ODAC, but it’s far from that. Way far from that. The Wasps possess, in my opinion, the best all-around player -- one whom I would match against any other ODAC athlete -- in preseason All-American Caleb Jennings. Case in point: Look at how Washington and Lee’s all-purpose back Stuart Sitterson resurrected the Generals over the last few years. I would certainly prefer an all-purpose back over any other individual on the offensive side.

Additionally, E&H has been consistently strong on the defensive side over the last three seasons and should be even stronger this fall with the return of preseason All-American Evin O’Sullivan, who missed much of last season due to injury.

But preseason polls shouldn’t be a determinant in anything, especially in the ODAC, where the last four champions have hailed from different institutions. After all, Washington and Lee, Catholic and Guilford – the lower three in the poll – play the same amount of games against the same schools.And based on what has happened over the last three seasons, the preseason favorite has not won the regular-season title. Does that mean we should have a recount midway through the season?

Nope. Let’s just play and see what happens in the wild – and always wooly – ODAC.