Fireworks on display

You haven't heard much, if anything, about an East Coast Offense in football.

West Coast Offense? Sure.

High schools, colleges, the pros, everybody has run/is running some form of coaching genius Bill Walsh's controlled passing scheme.

But East Coast?

Huh?

Wait.

"I think Coach [John] Troxell coined that phrase the other day in our meetings," offered Franklin & Marshall senior wide receiver George Eager.

When the subject came up recently, Troxell, F&M's fourth-year head coach laughed and asked, "Who's that? Eager?"

"Those guys want to dub it the East Coast Offense," he elaborated. "There isn't an East Coast Offense out there, so we're going to invent one."

Those guys Troxell refers to are Eager, junior Jay Ridinger and sophomore Jarrell Diggs, F&M's veteran trio of wideouts, and if all goes to plan they, and F&M's East Coast Offense, will be the talk of the Centennial Conference this fall.

Praised by followers of Diplomat football.

Cursed by the CC's defensive coordinator fraternity.

Eager, Ridinger and Diggs, along with sophomore quarterback John Harrison, sophomore running backs Alan Williams and John Kaschak, senior back Ryan Murray and junior tight end Michael Deutch, form the nucleus of a multiple offense that will be fun to watch.

And difficult to defend.

"I don't want to give away what we're doing," Troxell said coyly, "but ... I think you're going to see some neat things. You'll see every aspect of college football that you've ever seen."

The fun begins Saturday when the Diplomats kick off the 2009 season with a road trip to Washington & Lee before opening at home against Catholic University the following Saturday.

Picked to finish in the middle of a CC pack paced by Johns Hopkins and Dickinson, the Diplomats look to move up.

"[They're] the best in the conference, and we'll have our work cut out if we're going to catch them," Troxell said.

"We have to win the games we're supposed to. If we can upset a few people at the end of the season ... I'm hoping people will say, 'You know what, they're heading in the right direction.' "

It may seem the Dips were directionless after back-to-back 4-6 seasons, but a closer look reveals that four losses were to teams that played in the postseason.

"We lost to Hopkins by a point," Troxell said, "Moravian by three, Catholic by seven, they all went to the postseason. Muhlenberg went and we played them pretty tough [a 17-6 loss].

"Looking at this season, and I say this every year, I don't think there's anybody on our schedule that we can't beat — if we stay healthy and we play hard.

"Yet we're not that good that we can show up and just win games. I think we're going in the right direction. We just have to keep plugging away."

The first true freshman to start at quarterback for the Diplomats since 1979, Harrison completed 133 of 228 passes for 1,357 yards with 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

His prime targets were Eager (51 catches, 637 yards, 6 TDs) and Ridinger (26-234, 3).

Deutch caught 13 passes for 205 yards and a score. Diggs, a triple-threat talent, caught 17 balls for 292 yards and two TDs, threw a 67-yard TD pass, and ran eight times for 49 yards and two scores.

He also returned 23 punts for an average of 12.2 yards and found the end zone once.

Eager, who averaged 27.1 yards with a touchdown on 19 kickoff returns, can't wait for Harrison's sequel.

"We can do more," he said. "We can go right from last year, take what we did and add on."

After two seasons of struggling, success running the football was a pleasant add-on last year with Kaschak (176 carries, 602 yards, 2 TDs) pulling the wagon.

Despite being limited by injuries, Murray (86-295, 2) and Williams (54-148) were also part of the ground attack.

A welcome part. "In years past," Eager said, "when we weren't as effective as we would like, it was pass first to set up the run. Teams can't win like that."

"Being able to run the ball is huge at any level of this game," agreed Ridinger, who took his share of hits as a frosh running "Jet" sweeps. "[This year] there's definitely some very capable backs."

The only brake on all this giddy offensive anticipation is the relative inexperience of the offensive line. Green is good for the environment. Not in football.

"The only guy we have back is [right tackle] Clarke Miller," Ridinger allowed.

The 6-foot-4, 264-pound senior and three-year starter will be the glue that holds together a unit that could see as many as three freshmen in the starting five.

"They're starting to come together as a group," Ridinger observed, "and once everything is refined, I think they'll be pretty good."

"I will say this," Troxell avowed, "we will be no worse than we were a year ago. With a chance to be better."

Better, too, on defense, despite the graduation of stalwarts Zach Romash, James Gregory and Andrew Rocks.

"We lost a ton of leadership," said tackle Marc Surma, who defensive coordinator Craig Sutyak will look to to fill in that gap.

"There's a lot of talent left," Surma said. "We're solid in the secondary."

With Jeff Kellar (55 tackles, 39 solo, 3 INTs), Jeff Liberatore (45, 33, 2) and Barry Lovett (36, 29) returning, the defensive backfield is in good shape. Ty Savastio and Lipton Thompson will battle to fill the fourth spot.

Linebacking, too, is in good hands with returnee Shane Gray (45, 30) joined by James Freeman and Lewie Briggs, who combined for 29 tackles in limited action.

"Last year James Freeman was good enough to play in this conference, but the problem was he had two guys [Romash, Gregory] who made a lot of plays," said Troxell, who is also high on freshman Sam Massaro. "Wait until you see him play," he said, barely hiding his excitement.

With an emphasis on bringing in bigger, as well as more athletic, recruits, F&M is no longer being outsized on the line of scrimmage.

"They're not just a bunch of big bodies taking up space," said Surma, who has worked himself up to 6-3, 259.

"We've got a lot of young guys this year," he said. "They're going to get a lot of opportunities to be special."

Special wasn't quite the description of the Dips' special teams last year when it came to kicking, and a pair of freshmen will man those duties this year.

"Brian Prater is a weapon," Troxell said. "He's the first true punter we've had since I've been here."

Placement kicks became an issue last year, and Troxell hopes Devin Hunter is the answer to those woes.

"He's done a great job in terms of PATs," Troxell said. "I think he's going to do a good job on kickoffs.

"I'm still real concerned [that] he's not been great yet, accuracy-wise, on field goals."

That might be a question of adjusting to kicking off the ground, rather than a tee. Regardless, Troxell says, "He's our guy."

Schedule: (home games capitalized) Sept. 5, at Washington & Lee, 1 p.m.; Sept. 12, CATHOLIC, 1 p.m.; Sept. 19, DICKINSON, 1 p.m.; Sept. 26, at Juniata, 1 p.m.; Oct. 10, at Ursinus, 1 p.m.; Oct. 17, MORAVIAN, 1 p.m.; Oct. 24, MUHLENBERG, 1:30 p.m.; Oct. 31, at Moravian, 1 p.m.; Nov. 7, at Johns Hopkins, 1 p.m.; Nov. 14, GETTYSBURG, 1 p.m.