The 2024 St. Andrews football team and the coaching staff during picture day on Saturday, Aug. 24 in Laurinburg, North Carolina.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews football program has had their share of adversities over the past couple of seasons under Head Coach Bob Curtin, winning just one game since the start of his tenure during the 2022-23 season, a 27-26 victory over conference rival Union on Oct. 8, 2022. Curtin, however, sees plenty of reasons for optimism on both sides of the ball that has him believing this year’s group is capable of winning some games this fall.
Starting with the offense, they have a new offensive coordinator this year in Greg Fowler, who Curtin called “very good” at his job. Curtin feels good about the scheme shift they implemented last year from being a wide-open spread offense that threw the ball a lot to one that was very focused on running the ball. This change is something Curtin wants to continue focusing on as they look to win the time of possession battle against their opponents and keep the opposing offense on the sideline.
“Last year offensively we made a drastic shift and we really focused on running the ball, which gives your opponents fewer opportunities to score on you as long as you take care of the ball,” Curtin said. “Going forward we’re going to continue to build on the run game we established and ensure that when we’re prepared to pass we’re capable of passing. Greg runs a style of offense that I want to see at this institution.”
That being said, Curtin admitted they will have to find ways to score a lot more points this year if they want to win some games. They averaged just 7.8 points per game during their winless season in 2023 and were shutout four times.
“We need to move the ball more efficiently and have less turnovers,” Curtin said. “We’re going to have to find the endzone quite a bit more than we did last year.”
On the defensive side of the ball, the team has a lot of good veteran pieces set to come back. Lavarius Heath-Lewis returns for his senior year to lead the secondary after making the all-conference team a season ago with three interceptions, five pass breakups, 51 total tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss. The team also has a pair of linebackers returning in John Brown and Tierell Milligan, who combined for 63 total tackles, three sacks, 11 tackles for loss and a pair of forced fumbles. Those three are some of the key names Curtin is excited to see this year as he looks for ways to prevent opposing offenses from scoring on the Knights, particularly in important situations.
“There’s some key guys coming back, those guys are going to set the tone on the defensive side of the ball,” Curtin said. “Stopping people when we need to, especially in critical situations like the end of the half or the end of the game is our top priority.”
The roster last year was very young with over 30 freshmen going through their first season of college football. They are set to be even younger this year, with Curtin saying they brought in about 60 new freshmen. That being said, Curtin is eager to see not just all the young talent brought in but also the experience last year’s freshmen class now has in addition to the transfers they acquired from other various institutions.
“I’m pretty excited because we’re going to bring 12 seniors, about 20 juniors and 30 sophomores that played last year back,” Curtin said. “We also got some really good juco transfers, some solid prep guys and some nice Division II transfers come in. Even though we’re heavier on the younger side, the experience that last year’s freshmen class got really bodes well for good football decisions, their football IQ has certainly increased so I’m really excited about that.”
As a whole, the main goal for Curtin this season is consistent improvement in all three phases of the game. He wants to always see them getting better and focusing on their weaknesses so they can advance their skillsets at all times.
“We have to clean some things up continuously, always get better,” Curtin said. “I always tell the guys that we have to focus on things we’re not good at. Good organizations focus on things that they’re not doing well so they can get better, average organizations focus on things that they’re good at and never really get better.”
The Knights will have their first opportunity to show the strides they have made as a program on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Erskine College for their season opener at 4 p.m. Their first four games will be on the road before they have their home opener on Oct. 12 against Union Commonwealth.