Can Edinboro football turn its experience into wins in PSAC West?
EDINBORO — To say Jake Nulph is excited for his trip to Pittsburgh would be an understatement.
Nulph, the fourth-year head football coach at PennWest Edinboro, will bring his Scots south Sept. 2 to open their season at Duquesne. He was an assistant with the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Dukes in 2018, a program which annually schedules heavily favored Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponents.
Nulph brought that hunger for competition with him to Edinboro, and his experienced group will face a pair of immediate tests in Duquesne and 2022 Division II national semifinalist Shepherd University. That’s how the Scots will get better, he maintains, as they hope to outperform their fifth-place preseason tabbing in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s West Division.
“A lot of my experience as a player and a coach is in the Northeast Conference. For our guys, it’s just an opportunity to play football,” said Nulph, who played at Robert Morris and also coached at Saint Francis (Pa.). “We want to play an FCS opponent in a non-conference game because it gets us ready for PSAC competition.”
Experience throughout the field
Edinboro returns 16 of its 22 starters from last season.
The list includes some common names and some not so common, including quarterback Isaac Bernard and four of the five offensive linemen in front of him. The Scots turned the ball over 31 times during last year’s 5-6 finish, a statistic that has been emphasized this preseason.
“Our defense was great at creating turnovers, but we need to be better in the red zone, on third down and at holding onto the football,” said junior lineman Gabe Hulslander, a second-team all-PSAC selection who started all 11 games at left tackle last year. “I think we’re harping on that in camp and creating our run game; being more physical on the offensive line.”
The Scots leaned heavily on their passing game last year, out-throwing their rushing game three-fold. Bernard, now a redshirt junior, completed 219-of-380 pass attempts (57%) for 2,120 yards, 11 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
Thaddeus Standfield returns after a redshirt sophomore season that saw him lead Edinboro in receptions (65), receiving yards (790) and receiving touchdowns (six). Nico Mrvos, Mike Watkins, Aaron Hopkins and Armani Bailey — each of whom tallied 25 or more receptions last season — all return, as well.
“Chemistry is a huge thing,” Hulslander said. “We have a lot of guys who have played a lot of snaps. It’s nice to be able to come back into camp, immediately gel with those guys and steadily climb.”
Remaining opportunistic
For as much as turnovers hindered Edinboro’s offense, they were a bright spot for its defense, which forced 21 of them.
The Scots return their top three tacklers in redshirt junior linebacker Clay Cunningham (125 total tackles), graduate safety Malcolm Johnson (86) and sophomore linebacker Wilfredo Diaz (85). Like each of Edinboro’s units, Nulph said, the defense aims to be a physical force that imposes its will for four quarters.
“We were an opportunistic defense, but our youth showed sometimes when we gave up a lot of the big plays,” Nulph said. “If we can cut our big plays down and continue to take the ball away, I like where we’re at.”
The Scots will kick off at Duquesne at noon Sept. 2 before hosting Shepherd at the same time Sept. 9. They’ll host Mercyhurst Sept. 30 and travel to Gannon Oct. 7.
Contact Jeff Uveino at juveino@timesnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter,@realjuveino.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Edinboro football ready for early-season tests with experienced group
