Aug. 4, 2006

Stony Brook, N.Y. -

2006 Preseason Practice Schedule
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With a heat wave gripping the East Coast, the Stony Brook Football team returned to campus on Thursday for preseason camp, marking the earliest start to a season in program history. The Seawolves are back in town primed and ready to go for their first season under head coach Chuck Priore looking to defend its 2005 Northeast Conference crown. After a full day of meetings, the team hits the field today for its first practice at 3 p.m.

Stony Brook is embarking on an ambitious schedule that features two teams that finished last year ranked in the top 25 of the Sports Network I-AA poll, New Hampshire (5) and Massachusetts (19). In addition to these I-AA powerhouses, the Seawolves will face Long Island rival Hofstra and take on fellow 2005 NEC Co-Champions, Central Connecticut in their regular seasonfinale.

In 2005 the Seawolves were picked to finish seventh in the NEC and despite the critics, rallied to a 5-2 mark in the NEC and finished as Co-Champions along with Central Connecticut.

The 2006 Stony Brook squad welcomes back a total of 58 players including 15 starters. In addition, the Seawolves return a veteran punter and two place kickers with one year of experience under their belts. On offense, the Seawolves return five starters, but lose all but one offensive lineman. The Stony Brook offense has the most depth at wide receiver and returns a starting quarterback and a talented backfield.

The Stony Brook offense will change from more of a spread formation, to a one back set that is centered behind the running back. While the offense will take advantage of the wide receiver depth with three and four wide receiver sets, the offense will only be as good as its running backs. New to the offensive scheme will be two and three tight end sets as the Seawolves will look to the incoming recruiting class to make contributions.

For the defensive side of things, the Seawolves return all but one starter. With a switch to a 3-4 defense, the linebacker crew and safety position will have to learn new roles and duties to effectively stop the run.

On special teams, the Seawolves will benefit from another year of experience and welcome back three key members of the special teams unit.

Quarterbacks
With a move from a spread offense to a single back, the role of the Stony Brook quarterback will change for the 2006 season. Coach Priore will look for a quarterback to facilitate the offense, not be the centerpiece.

Those competing for time will be Josh Dudash, Andrew Garrett, Dan Sweeney and Anthony Hamilton. Dudash started all 11 games in 2005, throwing for 2,112 yards and 18 touchdowns. The 2,112 yards in a season was the third most in program history. Dudash was named team MVP for his efforts, those of which included a game that saw him pass for 411 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-37 win over Robert Morris. Garrett, who has seen limited action since he transferred from Hofstra, should see more time on the field in 2006. Sweeney and Hamilton have not taken a snap at the I-AA level, but look to put pressure on Garrett and Dudash as they have the potential to compete for playing time in 2006.

Running Backs
The running back will be the focus in the new Seawolf offense. The Seawolves will utilize two and three tight end sets to allow the running back to fuel the new offense.

After leading the Seawolves with 4.6 yards per carry in 2006, Assad Hafiz looks primed to make the move from the secondary back to the primary one. Hafiz gained 428 yards on the ground in 2006, including a 107 yard performance against St. Francis.

"In practice Hafiz proved that he can be, in my opinion, one of the top backs in the Northeast Conference," said Coach Priore. Coach Priore is looking for his backs to be great "one cutters".

Joining Hafiz in the backfield will be Tarrant Anderson, Luis Altimiranda, Steve Austin, Von Bryant, Conte Cuttino and Aaron Hale. With the solid mix in the backfield, Coach Priore is optimistic that his running backs can be the backbone of the offense.

Wide Receivers
The Stony Brook offense will still run three and four receiver sets to utilize the depth the Seawolves have at the wide receiver position, but only within the framework of the new offense.

The Seawolves welcome a mix of eight returners and two newcomers at widereceiver. Leading the group will be senior co-captain Mike Cosentino. Cosentino hauled in 19 catches for 176 yards in 2005 before being sidelined with an injury. Also back is Lynell Suggs, who tallied 334 yards on 18 catches with five touchdowns. "With Suggs' body control and big time play ability, he can build on the success of last year and become a big time player at Stony Brook," said Priore.

Joining Cosentino and Suggs are Saladin Davis and Dwayne Eley, who shared the majority of the kick and punt return duties in 2005, and Scott Kubrak who tallied 12 catches for 159 yards. Dan Berluti, J.J. Cox, Jr., Jerome Johnson, and Donald Lee round up the 2006 receiver core.

Offensive Line
The Seawolves only welcome one returning starter to the offensive line and will look to a mix of underclassmen and newcomers to step it up this year.

Back is starter Andrew Saraga, who saw action in all 11 games last year and joining him are Steve Council, Joe Gelpi, Juan Carlos Hernandez, Jason Herrick, Ali Khawaia, Lawrence Lovell, Jeremiah Massey, Emmett Phillips, Christopher Pugliese, and Jeff Santos.

Tight Ends:
With the move from a spread offense to a one back system, the Seawolves will have a greater need at the tight end position. Filling the role this year will be a senior and two freshmen.

Kevin Halonski will lead the tight end crew this season as the lone senior. Halonski has seen limited time at tight end in his career, as he played on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Joining Halonski will be a pair of freshmen in Jason Figorski and Chris Tyler. For the Seawolves to have success at the tight end position, they will need immediate contributions from the freshmen.

Defensive Line
The Seawolves welcome back all of their defensive line starters from a year ago, but with a move to a 3-4 set, their roles will change in 2006.

Seniors Kyle Brown and Tahir Messam are joined by sophomores James Harris, Chris Merkle, Adam Soivilien and Shawn Broome. In addition, newcomers Josh Auerback, Robert Montejo and Melaquan Saffold join the crew. Merkle looks to build on his solid freshman campaign, in which he totaled 67 tackles, including a team-best 10.5 for a loss and a team best 3.5 sacks.

Linebackers
With the new 3-4 defense, the linebacker position is divided into the inside and outside positions.The outsider linebacker position is new to the Stony Brook defense and coach Priore will look to players who played strong safety and weak side linebacker to learn a new role. This will mark the first time these student athletes have lined up against a tight end and rushed the quarterback.

At outside linebacker, the Seawolves will utilize returner Raymond Goodsir, Michael Meadows, Paul Perez and Richie Richards in addition to newcomers Mack Graham and Chevar Rankins.

At the inside linebacker position the Seawolves will lean on veteran players Chris Tomasky and Dan Michitsch in addition to Andre Jean-Pierre, Robert Parchment and newcomers Milo Otis, Tyler Santucci and Stephen Schwicke.

Cornerbacks
Six returners are back at the cornerback position. Seniors Kameron Sterling and Hasan Stewart bring the most game experience to the field this season and fellow returners Michael Derice, Andre Forbes, Sterling Goodwin and Leonard Wright, III will vie for more playing time in the 2006 season. New to the team in 2006 and ready to make contributions will be newcomers Ben Clements, Cory Giddings and John Smith.

Safety
With a move to a two safety set, the roles of the safeties will change dramatically in 2006. This year the safeties will be heavily involved withstopping the run and will have more involved roles in certain cover sets.

The Seawolves return five players with game experience who will be counted upon to learn the new schemes in preseason. Chris Alceus, Adam Barzar, Joey George, Francis Rivera and Mark Saraceni will provide leadership newcomers Rock Cantardi and Adam Cooper.

Special Teams
Back for his senior year as punter for the Seawolves is Sean McGinty. McGinty ranks second all-time with 176 career punts in a Seawolf uniformand should benefit from a new protection scheme. At placekicker, the Seawolves return Matt Weeks and Luke Gaddis. Both kickers were soccer players in high school and entered last year with no football experience. With a year experience under their belts they bothlook for a more consistent 2006.

Newcomers
The Seawolves welcome a recruiting class of 20 student athletes for the 2006 season. Not only does this mark the first recruiting class of the Chuck Priore era, but it is the first recruiting class since Stony Brook made the jump to scholarship football. Coach Priore and his staff brought in 12 new defensive players and eight on the offensive side of things.

The Priore Era Begins
2006 will mark the start of the Priore era at Stony Brook as he begins his quest to lead Stony Brook football to the I-AA scholarship level. It will take time to adjust to the new offensive and defensive schemes, but once Priore's system is in place there is no doubt that the Seawolves will be a force to be reckoned with in the I-AA level.