Despite painful loss, plenty of football left in the season for PC

Mitchell Mercer, BlueStocking Sports EditorSeptember 24, 2021Leave a Comment

PC’s hard-driving Coach Kevin Kelley is making undeniable strides despite last weeks loss. © PC Athletics.

It’s the sportswriter’s curse. Making a prediction that doesn’t come true.

Prior to the Presbyterian College road contest at Campbell last Saturday, I predicted on my WPCX podcast, The Mitch Zone, that PC would squeeze out a 38-35 win over Campbell for their first road win of the season.

My bad.

After scoring 84 and 68 points, respectively, in their first two games of the season, the Blue Hose instead laid an egg at Barker-Lane Stadium last weekend, getting shut out 72-0.

As a life lesson to everyone moving forward: Never underestimate the Fighting Camels.

Now I had reasons for my pick. The Hose had huge positive momentum in their favor after two lopsided wins at home. On the other hand, the Campbell squad was 0-2 heading into the game with losses to Elon Phoenix and (former Ole Miss) Coach Hugh Freeze’s Liberty Flames.

All signs pointed to a PC victory.

But two weeks after covering himself with glory by throwing a record 10 touchdown passes, Quarterback Ren Hefley threw seven interceptions while the Blue Hose committed one mental error after another throughout the night.

All in all, it ended up being a long night for the team.

While some may view the loss as horrendous, I’m not turning into a Debbie Downer.

Scholarships. They are the main difference between the Blue Hose and the Camels: Campbell has them; PC doesn’t. Yes, PC scored a combined 152 points in their first two games—against lesser opponents—but at Campbell, they were playing a team with more skill at all position units.

Plus, Campbell Coach Mike Minter is highly respected. As a former standout safety for the Carolina Panthers, Minter has always fielded teams that have been competitive, despite his overall 36-46 record.

Looking to the PC side of things, there’s still a lot of football left to be played. The Pioneer Football League portion of the regular season opens Saturday afternoon as the Blue Hose take on the Dayton Flyers. And that’s good news for PC. There’s relative parity between all the PFL squads, and even with last week’s loss, the Blue Hose are in second place behind the Stetson Hatters with eight more games in the season to go.

Kelley has a long haul ahead of him if he wants to break the 16-year drought since PC’s last conference championship in football. At The Mitch Zone, we’ll be covering all the action.

Kelley’s potential to take the Blue Hose to heights the program has never seen before is undiminished.

Chill out, Debbie Downers! PC's Kelley Has a Blueprint for Success

It’s been 16 years since PC’s last conference football championship. And while 16 years is a long time to live on hope, at The Mitch Zone, we deal in facts not hope. And the fact is, Coach Kevin Kelley has a blueprint he can use to build a winner in Clinton.

Here’s how:

Recruiting and Scouting in the Southeast

Since Presbyterian College no longer offers football scholarships, the Blue Hose need to emphasize scouting and talent evaluations in order to get back to winning traditions. As former Super Bowl winning Coach Jimmy Johnson of the Dallas Cowboys once stated: “Your talent evaluator is the most important person there.”

That starts in the state of South Carolina for Presbyterian.

The good news for the Blue Hose is that there are a lot of successful high school football programs in the state, especially in the Greenville/Spartanburg area, Rock Hill/Fort Mill area, the Grand Strand and the state capital in Columbia.

According to 247Sports report, the state of South Carolina alone produced 93 total high school prospects in 2020. Many of them didn’t get Division I offers and had to go the junior college route or to lesser divisions in the NCAA.

Georgia and North Carolina will be key areas for PC as well, especially Atlanta and Charlotte, two of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. Casting the net wider, states such as Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia may prove a happy hunting ground for PC as well.

Kelley appears to understand well the paramount importance of recruiting locally, as his freshman class claims 24 players from South Carolina, 20 from Georgia, six from Florida and two from North Carolina.

Kelley has also hit the NCAA transfer portal as well as his old stomping ground at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Ark.

Quarterback Ren Hefley was brought in from Michigan, one of the most storied programs in all of college football. Meanwhile, Jalyn Witcher, Futa Shinkawa and Izarius Woods came from Pulaski.

The bottom line is that Kelley appears well aware that the Southeast will be critical for his program’s success, but he also has the ability to draw on relationships from Arkansas as well as talent interested in his unique style of football. And that bring us to…

Coaching for Success

In terms of coaching, Kelley has the best of both worlds: He’s retained some of the best coaches from the Tommy Spangler era while also bringing fresh faces into the room.

Joey Rock’s work with the offense last season (especially with previous starter Tyler Huff) got him an invitation to come back as offensive coordinator. Other notables from last year include defensive line Coach Kamren Mack and running back Coach Stewart Hunt.

As for the new faces, there’s Jeff Imamura as defensive coordinator. His resume includes stints in the NFL on the staffs of former Minnesota Vikings Coach Leslie Frazier and current Washington Football Team Coach Ron Rivera working with the likes of Chad Greenway, James Bradberry and Donte Jackson.

New hire Zack Kelley has been brought on to coach wide receivers, with Sam Witcher hired to help with defensive backs.

The coaching has also been a major positive for the players. Many bemoaned the loss of key contributors like Colby Campbell, Keith Pearson, Jarius Jeter and Jeffery Smith from last year’s team—but Delvecchio Powell II, Matthew Rivera, Kiran Turner and Jayden Martin have stepped up, indicating unsuspected strength on PC’s roster. We look forward to more of the same.

All of this is attributable to effective coaching: what an outstanding job Kelley has done focusing on the fundamentals of football rather than foisting a skill set onto his players. And that brings me to my final point.

A Program Builder

Wins and losses are one thing, but a successful culture is everything when you’re talking about rebuilding a program.

Not only does the coach need to connect with his players, he also needs to establish a positive vibe around the practice field and stadium to get the players to buy into his program.

Coach Kevin Kelley has taken on that challenge at PC.

The good news is that if Kelley holds and sets this standard of culture, the sky’s the limit for the PC football program. So don’t let Saturday’s loss to Campbell fool you.

The Blue Hose are still 2-1, and it’s obvious that Kelley has brought more excitement to campus. Winning games against beatable opponents builds momentum, and with enough momentum you will eventually produce lightning in a bottle.

But winning programs don’t evolve happen overnight, and everybody will need to be patient with the process, including Kelley himself. The key for Kelley will be The Big Three: recruiting and scouting the Southeast, building a great coaching staff that gets results the Kelley way and building a positive culture.

It’s a heavy lift, but if Kelley can achieve those things, the Blue Hose will have a blueprint for success.