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Forget the Atlantic-10 title, the NCAA playoffs and the top 25 weekly poll.
The University of Maine football team needs this win not for those outside forces, but for themselves.
With four games left in the season, they’ve posted an overall record of 2-5, while remaining winless in the A-10 at 0-4.
“Our offense has been struggling a little bit for the past couple of weeks but we got something going against UMass and that’s something that we want to continue to build on and get better and better at every week,” said senior wideout Kevin McMahan.
Last week, a move in the backfield proved to be an efficient one as the coaching staff used Arel Gordon in his usual position as receiver and also as a tailback.
“He gives us a little bit of an edge player,” said Cosgrove of Gordon. “You saw how we slipped him out of the backfield and we also ran the inside zone with him.”
Gordon finished the game with 153 all-purpose yards.
This week, UMaine will be looking for its first conference win as the Blue Hens of Delaware travel north to face the Black Bears.
The Hens bring with them a 1-3 conference record. Last week, however, Delaware snatched their lone conference win in a 34-28 upset of James Madison.
Offensively, Omar Cuff leads the way as both a receiver and running back. Cuff has recorded 851 yards on the ground, while catching 30 balls for 330 yards, and has reached the end zone 15 times this season. The offense as a whole has averaged nearly 196 rushing yards per game.
Blue Hens quarterback Sonny Riccio is back engineering the offense, as he has totaled over 1,300 yards, throwing just two interceptions in seven games to go with 10 touchdowns.
While quarterback Ron Whitcomb has thrown ten picks this season, his total yardage doesn’t fall much behind that of Riccio’s. Whitcomb has completed 57 percent of his passes for 1,258 yards and eight touchdowns.
McMahan continues to be the frontrunner of the receiving corps, as he totaled 180 yards last Saturday, grabbing two scores in the tough homecoming loss. McMahan ranks 18th in the country in receiving yards per game with 89.8.
Gordon will look to break the school record for career kickoff return yards, as he needs just 81 to accomplish this feat in only his junior season.
On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker John Mulhern paces the Blue Hens, recording 64 stops, while co-captain Jermaine Walker guides the Black Hole defense with 60 tackles.
“We definitely have a lot of room to work and I think that improvement will come throughout the weeks,” said Whitcomb after Saturday’s 35-14 loss against the Minutemen.
Kick off is set for noon at Alfond Stadium Saturday and can be seen locally on channel 5.
