Aug. 30, 2006
Complete Game Notes
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ON THE AIR
• Tonight's game will air live on FoxSports New York. New York Metropolitan sports personality Carl Reuter will call the action with former New York Jet Marty Lyons as the analyst. The televised game is part of a multi-year agreement that Stony Brook signed with Madison Square Garden Network to air several Seawolves football and basketball games in the coming years.
THE SERIES WITH PRIDE
• Today's game will mark the 10th time in school history that these two teams have faced each other on the gridiron. Stony Brook trails the all-time series, 9-0, failing to win a game against the Pride thus far. Last season, Hofstra jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they topped the Seawolves, 55-0, in Hempstead, N.Y.
THE PRIORE STORY
• Chuck Priore will lead the Seawolves as their head coach, becoming just the the second head football coach in Stony Brook football history.
• Priore spent the last six seasons at Trinity College where he led the Bantams to a nation-best 30-game winning streak, four consecutive NESCAC conference championships, and three-straight undefeated seasons.
• Previously, Priore spent eight seasons as the offensive coordinatior and offensive line coach at the University of Pennsylvania, where he led the team to three Ivy League titles.
• Priore spent six years at Union as the offensive coordinator and strength coach. He also was the running backs coach under his college coach Bob Ford at Albany for three seasons.
OPENING THE SEASON
• Stony Brook has a 10-13 record in season openers since the inception of football in 1984. Since moving to Division I in 1999, the Seawolves have gone 2-5 in their opening contests.
HOME OPENERS
•The Seawolves are 12-10 in their home openers in their history, including going 3-4 since moving to Division I. Since the opening of LaValle Stadium in 2002, the Seawolves are 3-1 in their first contests of the season on the LaValle pitch.
THE STREAK
• When he left Trinity College to head up the Stony Brook program, Coach Priore owned the nation's longest winning streak. The Bantams had won 30 games in a row and four straight NESCAC Conference championships.
HOME SWEET HOME
• Stony Brook was 4-2 at LaValle Stadium last season, topping Bucknell in week one, falling to Georgetown and Monmouth in weeks three and four, defeating St. Francis in week six, Wagner in week nine, and Central Connecticut for the conference crown in week 10 .
DEFENDING CHAMPS
• Josh Dudash connected with Lynell Suggs on a 10-yard fade pass with 31 seconds to go to lift Stony Brook to a 23-21 victory over Central Connecticut State in the conference finale to clinch a share of the Northeast Conference Championship, the first NEC Championship in program history.
WELCOME TO THE BROOK
• On December 9, 2005, Stony Brook announced that Chuck Priore would be the new head football coach for the Seawolves. Priore, who led Trinity College to four consecutive New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) titles and a current 30-game winning streak, becomes the second coach in the program's history.
SCHOLARSHIP FOOTBALL
• Following the 2005 season, Stony Brook began to offer football scholarships for the first time in accordance with the NEC's restructured scholarship guidelines. Following the conclusion of the 2006 season, Stony Brook will compete as an independent and plans to phase in incremental increases in scholarship levels on an annual basis with the ultimate goal of reaching the full I-AA complement of 63.
NEW LOOK
•The Seawolves football team will have a new look this year, donning new uniforms in 2006. Stony Brook will be sporting a new silver helmet to match silver pants with a red jersey.
ABOUT THE PRIDE
• The Pride open up the season in a similar situation to the Seawolves with a new head coach. Head coach Dave Cohen will lead the Pride who return 64 players including 14 starters from last year's 7-4 squad. Leading the six offensive returning starters is senior tackle and co-captain Jed Prisby. Six starters also return on defense led by senior safety and co-captain David Darby. The kicking game is in the good hands of 2005 Associated Press I-AA All-American Rob Zarrilli.
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
• The Seawolves have posted an 11-6 record at LaValle Stadium over the last three years and have consistently been one of the biggest draws in the Northeast Conference. Last year, against Georgetown, SB drew 6,028 fans to fan-friendly LaValle Stadium, the fifth largest crowd in SB's football history.
AYE, AYE CAPTAINS
• Stony Brook will have four captains in 2006: Chris Tomasky, Dan Michitsch, Assad Hafiz, and Mike Cosentino will lead the Seawolves in 2006.
FOR THE FIRST TIME
• Stony Brook will start nine players for the first time this season, six of them on the offensive side of the ball. The offensive side will see Steve Council, Ali Khawaja, and Matt Smeader starting while Lynell Suggs, Assad Hafiz, and J.J. Cox will also get the starting nod. On defense, Adam Cooper, Chevar Rankins, and Cory Giddings will all suit up for the first time as Seawolves as starters.
SEAWOLVES PICKED THIRD
• Stony Brook was predicted to finish in third place in the Northeast Conference Preseason Poll, voted on by the league's coaches. Albany and Central Connecticut were tied for first place in the voting. The Great Danes were given four first-place votes, while Central Connecticut State, which earned a share of the conference title the past two years, received one first-place vote. The Seawolves were picked to finish third followed by Monmouth, St. Francis (PA), Wagner, Robert Morris, and Sacred Heart.
