Sports

Rams eye return to top

• Albany State missed out on the conference title for the first time in four years last season and hope a year away can bring back the drive to return to the top.

Paul Dehner Jr.

MACON —Tuesday’s main interview period of the Georgia Hall of Fame Pigskin Preview felt much like last year’s SIAC football season.

People scanned the room with a look of surprise and said, “Where is Albany State?”

On Tuesday, Rams coach Mike White and running back Gary Neavins missed the primary portion of the event, misreading the time which said the event started at 10 a.m., instead arriving at noon.

Last season, it was the SIAC title the Rams missed out on. That was the first time they didn’t at least share the conference crown in four years.

Sitting at an empty table in the lobby of the Hall of Fame, watching other coaches and players leave the building, White admitted his team isn’t planning on letting what happened last season repeat itself.

“Last year, not winning it, I think they want to get back and understand how hard it is going to be to get back,” he said. “And we are willing to pay that price to get back.”

The Rams finished last season 8-3 overall and 7-1 in the SIAC. That was good for second place behind undefeated champ Tuskegee (11-0, 8-0). They lost, 66-35, to Catawba College in the first round of the Division II playoffs.

A memory of that second-place finish lingered inside the weight room, practice field and mindset of Neavins as he progressed through the offseason.

“It makes you work a little harder,” he said. “You feel like you deserve it, so you want to work harder for it.”

White decided to bring the junior running back Neavins with him to the event because he saw a team that was young in many spots last year suffer at times because of it.

Finding leadership in players like Neavins can be the difference between first and second. Neavins finished fifth on the team in rushing yards (346) but averaged 4.7 per rush. He will be thrust into the forefront not just when he has the ball this season.

“What you got to have, to have a sound program, are leaders in there leading by example and trying to keep the young guys straight and knowing what it means to be a Ram,” White said. “He plays a major role in how far we go.”

n EXCUSE MY BLING: Speaking about his team on Tuesday, Valdosta State junior Tucker Pruitt casually reached his hand up to scratch his face. He then smoothly returned the hand to his pants pocket.

In the process, he flashed the gaudy piece of jewelry dominating his right ring finger: the Blazers’ 2007 national championship ring.

Pruitt, a backup QB during the run which ended with a 25-20 victory against Northwest Missouri State, didn’t purposely show off his hardware. In fact, he says he rarely wears it.

He recognizes last year as an “unforgettable season.” But, now a starter under center, he also realizes for the sake of the Blazers’ title defense, he needs to acknowledge what last year’s team did and move forward.

Although, it’s a process. “The hard part is going to be forgetting about this year,” he said, pointing to the ring, “and moving toward next year — that is kind of where we are at. When we got these rings, the banquet was the last thing we had last year. Then we started to move forward, last year is only going to put a big bulls-eye on our chest and we are going to have to be ready to play every week.”

n NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Staring around a room of male coaches and players bustling about discussing their football team’s to the media, Georgia State athletic director Mary McElroy couldn’t help but state the obvious only moments before discussing the birth of her school’s football program which will begin play in 2010.

“I kind of feel like a little sister crashing my big brother’s party,” she said. “But that still is kind of nice.”

She sat in front of a light blue helmet with a mock Panthers decal slapped on the side — the first tangible sign of a football program that had mainly been an idea until recently.

Georgia State hired former Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky coach as well as ESPN analyst, Bill Curry, recently. With Curry on board and a place set up among the rest of the Peach State’s colleges, McElroy again peered around the room and began thinking about the possibilities for the 2010 schedule.

“There is some school around here with the initials GSU that is not us that we might want to play,” she said with a sarcastic laugh, clearly referring to Chris Hatcher’s Georgia Southern Eagles. “I need to go introduce myself to coach Hatcher.”

n REMEMBER ME: Every four years, Georgia Southern takes a trip to Athens and plays the Bulldogs in Sanford Stadium.

This year is that year as they will open the season between the hedges Aug. 30.

Many players on the Eagles had the Bulldogs on the top of their wishlist during their senior years of high school, but instead fell back on Division 1-AA GSU.

Senior Larry Beard is one of those players. For him, the idea of having a chance to show the Bulldogs what they missed out on acts as a special opportunity.

“I went to some (UGA) camps and that was one of my schools I did want to go to, but I am happy where I am at,” Beard said. “And I am ready to go see Georgia.”

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