ORONO, Maine — Reporting day for the University of Maine football team in the old days normally would be a bigger deal, with players renewing acquaintances after a summer spent going their separate ways.
But in the high-intensity world of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, check-in day for many of the Black Bears on Friday merely represented the end of a brief respite between summer workouts and official preseason practices.
That’s because upward of 50 Maine players were on campus for part or all of the summer working out in anticipation of the quest for a second straight FCS playoff berth.
“We lifted, worked on conditioning and did skill drills,” said Tyler Eastman, a 6-foot-6, 319-pound senior left tackle from Old Town. “We worked out together, and when we weren’t working out we were doing other things together.
“The whole offensive line was here, it was great.”
As important as such off-season workouts are in getting players physically ready for the demands of preseason practices — the first of which is scheduled for 2:50 p.m. Saturday — the camaraderie developed during the summer can play a more subtle yet equally pivotal role in team success come late autumn.
“It speaks to the commitment of our players, especially the leaders of the team and more specifically our captains,” said 17th-year Maine head coach Jack Cosgrove of the high level of participation in the summer program. “They reached out to the players to do this because they want their team to realize its highest level and be able to compete for a championship.”
Warren Smith, a sophomore quarterback, was one player who may have derived even greater benefit from the summer workouts, in that he played for Iona in 2008 before transferring to Maine last winter in the aftermath of the Gaels’ decision to drop football.
“It’s great for team bonding,” said Smith, who enters training camp behind the likes of returning starter Mike Brusko and former Portland High standout Chris Treister on the quarterbacking depth chart. “It really helps the chemistry, because you can really get to know each other.”
Friday’s schedule involved Maine players picking up some football equipment and playbooks and signing various forms as they reported to campus.
For the veterans on the squad, it was a relaxed day. For the newcomers, it was another step in their transition to college football, and college life.
“It’s pretty exciting, especially for me because I didn’t get to play in one game last year,” said Terrel Walker, a freshman running back from Taunton, Mass., who is recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered during his high school team’s second preseason scrimmage last year. “I’m just glad to get the opportunity to play DI.”
Maine is coming off an 8-5 campaign good for the program’s first trip to postseason play since 2002, but the end of the season — particularly a 40-15 playoff defeat at Northern Iowa — has left the returning players wanting even more in 2009.
“We’ve been looking forward to playing again ever since we walked off the field at Northern Iowa,” said senior captain Brandon McLaughlin, who is switching from safety to linebacker this season. “Our season ended on a bad note, and everyone’s just been so focused on getting back on the field and starting to work toward getting back to the playoffs this year.”
Maine is set to return eight starters on offense — led by All-America running back Jared Turcotte of Lewiston — but graduated seven defensive starters.
Still, the defense figures to be solid with the likes of McLaughlin, defensive end Jordan Stevens of Temple and linebacker Mark Masterson back to lead the way.
“With defense, it’s really not so much about rebuilding as it is about replacing,” said McLaughlin. “That’s just how we’ve gone about doing it since I’ve been here.”
Maine was picked to finish third in the Colonial Athletic Association’s northern division in a preseason poll of league coaches, but with five conference teams having earned postseason berths last fall and eight of the CAA’s 12 teams ranked in the national Top 25, there’s a fine line between postseason glory and regular-season frustration.
Maine nearly experienced the latter feeling last fall until being selected as the CAA’s final playoff team despite ending its regular season with a 28-24 loss to New Hampshire.
“With a league like we play in, the separation between wins and losses really comes down to the people factor, the intangibles that are part of a team’s makeup,” said Cosgrove.
“We were the 16th team in [the 16-team playoff field] last year, and we’d like to be higher up that list. Can we? Yes. Will we? A lot of things can take place between now and then, but that’s the position we want to be in.”
Formally, at least, that quest begins today.
