By Gordon Voit
One man's obstacle is another man's treasure. Just ask Rick Candaele.
While coaches across the nation pull their hair out dealing with issues of academic eligibility, the face of the Stag football program uses the academic standards at Claremont Mckenna College to his advantage. Flipping the common coach's dilemma on its head, the 15th-year head coach has led the team to a 2-0 record in a system tailor-made to the squad's mental aptitude and penchant for physical play.
"Our players are well rounded," Candaele says. They are the true definition of the student-athlete. They put a lot of time into their studies, as well as practice and weightlifting. They understand that a team is a group of individuals working together, sharing common goals, and having great passion and enthusiasm for what they are doing. The special thing about CMS athletes is that they do it in our tremendous academic environment."
CMS Director of Athletics Michael Sutton agrees. "The thing you do with CMC guys is take advantage of their intellect," he notes. "We have the capacity to learn in a variety of modes: auditory, visual, tactileand we try to accelerate the learning curve."
After an off-season in which the team captains voluntarily turned up the intensity of the group's workouts, the Stags unveiled their new offensive scheme in full force, winning 22-7 in the team's opener against Lewis and Clark. Running out of the triple option, senior D.J. Lillard and sophomore Andrew Segal combined for 200 yards rushing alone, while the offense as a whole picked up 411 yards on the day.
"The guys that we play are usually bigger than we are, so we run an offense that fits our personality," Candaele explains. "We wanted to hold the ball, and we did that both games."
Aside from the functional aspect of the formation, running an offense that was made popular by teams like Navy and Air Force has the offense buzzing. "I'm really excited [about the triple option]," notes player D.J. Lillard. "It's just a fun offense. It's a dogfight the whole time, and it's how we like to play."
In week two against Puget Sound, the offense churned out 301 yards on the ground behind Lillard and quarterback Scott Yingling, a junior, who tallied 135 and 131 yards, respectively. However, the Stags sealed the 14-6 win behind some key defensive performances, including that of senior linebacker Scott Picciotto, who led the team with 13 tackles (2.5 for a loss) and a sack.
Although the Stags fell 38-0 in Los Angeles last year, this year's team is on a steady climb. The group finished 2-4 in conference play in 2007, followed by an improved 3-3 showing in 2008. In fact, knocking off the conference's Goliath wasn't out of the question for Sutton and Candaele, based on what they have seen from this year's team.
The Goliath in this case being last year's SCIAC champions: the Occidental Tigers. Hoping to defeat the elite team during a conference opener on Oct. 3 on Zinda Field, the Stags lost their early third-quarter lead, and the game ended at 42-21a score that an article on the CMS Web site reported "was not nearly indicative of how closely contested the battle was."
"The players were looking forward to the challenge," Candaele notes. "We were playing at home and we looked to be competitive. [Occidental doesn't] beat themselves, and they have good team speed, so you have to play at that tempo and not make too many mistakes."
The Stags won 21-14 the following week against the University of La Verne, but suffered losses against Cal Lutheran and Redlands in successive weeks. Upcoming games for the team are at Chapman University (Saturday, Oct. 31), Whittier (Saturday, Nov. 7), and the CMC Homecoming game on Saturday, Nov. 14 against Pomona-Pitzer.
Candaele says his players' understanding of team work and balance in athletics and academic endeavors allows them to look forward to the next weeks challenge "regardless of the outcome, win or lose, of the previous week.
"Our players truly believe they can win the next three games and finish 6-3," Candaele adds. "That is our goal."
Gordon Voit is a Chicago-based freelance writer