Ben Byrum – Producer of “The Patrick Johnson Show” and 94.3 The Game
Heading into his third Pirate preseason training camp, head coach Mike Houston made it a point to ignore the criticism, but even more importantly ignore the preseason praise. As we look ahead to the 2021 Pirate football season, four players were named to some form of a prominent national award watchlist. The list of players selected to award watchlists include:
Jr. QB Holton Ahlers- Wuerffel Trophy
Soph. WR Tyler Snead- Paul Hornung Award
Sr. Punter Jonn Young- Ray Guy Award
Fr. Rahjai Harris- Doak Walker Award
Coach Houston emphasized the importance of ignoring the noise and focusing on the task at hand, which is of course, winning football games. The big talk of today’s press conference was the AAC’s Preseason Poll and the Pirates being ranked 8th (tied with Navy at 85 points) and Cincinnati being the heavy favorites in the conference. Houston closed the book on all the poll talk, saying “the only poll that matters, is the postseason poll”.
After many changes to the running back room with players such as former starting RB Darius Pinnix deciding to enter the transfer portal and Demetrius Mauney moving to the defensive side of the ball, one thing is guaranteed in the running back room, Harris & Mitchell WILL be the starters. Coming off a season where the freshman duo of Rahjai Harris & Keaton Mitchell shocked the American and Pirate nation, emerging to combine for over 1000 rushing yards, it’s pretty much set in stone those two will be the starters heading into 2021. Especially considering Harris earned AAC Rookie of the Year honors along with becoming the first true freshman in 16 years to garner first-team all-conference accolades. The even bigger question in the running back room is who will play behind those two? The current running backs on the roster is as follows:
Fr. Joseph “Pop” McKay- Central
Fr. Kavon Chambers- Fork Union
RS Fr. Asa Barnes- Village Christian
Soph. Maceo Donald- East Carteret
RS Fr. Derrick Alston Jr.- Garner
Fr. G’Mone Wilson- East Forsyth (Marshall Transfer)
With nobody in that room quite yet receiving significant playing time and only one sophomore, who as it stands is the only one with the most experience in that room, time will only tell.
If you can find any criticism of the Mike Houston era so far, it’s the transfers. Houston’s luck with transfers have been more miss than hit (look no further than Arkansas’ Chase Hayden or former Alabama cornerback Nigel Knott). The list of new transfers includes:
Fr. WR Tyree Saunders – Virginia Tech
Fr. DE Jasiyah Robinson – Michigan State
Fr. RB G’Mone Wilson – Marshall
Fr. S Devon King – Marshall
Fr. WR Ray Rose – UNC
Soph. OT Rob Vanderlaan – Oregon State
Fr. WR Jhari Patterson – Marshall
Soph. TE Aaron Jarman – Temple
Junior ILB >>> TE Ryan Jones – Oklahoma
Fr. ILB Wistar Allen – Richmond
Sr. S DJ Ford – UNC
A few notables from that list include the safety out of UNC in DJ Ford, all signs so far point to Ford being the starting safety for the Pirates this upcoming season. Meanwhile, Oklahoma transfer Ryan Jones is expected to switch to tight end, while Temple transfer Aaron Jarman is a ENC native having deep ties within the area.