Franklin College football preview

Two football seasons, one calendar year.

Welcome to Franklin College football, which looks forward to taking the first steps in a return to some sort of normalcy Saturday with the season opener at Illinois Wesleyan.

Due to COVID-19, the 2020 campaign was postponed to this past spring. Coach Alan Hensell guided his first Grizzlies club, one that included only seven seniors and played only seven games, to a 4-3 record.

Different? Yes.

Strange? Absolutely.

“It was definitely an experience. So out of the ordinary, but sometimes you just have to get past that and get after it,” said senior defensive lineman Dante Darden, a first team All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference selection after making 25 tackles and leading the team in sacks with 5.5.

“It was just exciting to be able to play my junior season. We had a really young team, and I feel that’s going to benefit us this season. As a team, we’re pretty balanced. We have great players on both sides of the ball.”

Three quarterbacks saw varying percentages of game action in the spring, every one of them as freshmen. Dane Andrews, who established himself as the starter, is expected to be in the same role after throwing for 1,526 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Andrews has no shortage of quality teammates to throw and/or hand-off to considering the Grizzlies’ top ground gainers, sophomore Derek Thompson and junior Cameron Johnson, return, as do receivers Jarrett Gibson, a junior who was first team all-HCAC, and senior Ryan Poole, a second team all-league choice.

Two more all-conference picks will anchor the offensive line in senior tackle Evan Hosea and junior guard Justin Case.

Returning to lead the defense are safeties Nick Winders and Evan Stambaugh, seniors who led Franklin College in tackles with 53 and 47, respectively. The linebacking corps comprised of Charlie Moore, Aaron Black and Kody Wilkerson also returns, along with second team all-HCAC pick Tanner Swindle, a senior lineman. Senior kicker Carter Brown and junior punter Dylan Boswell are two more players who earned second team all-conference notice.

Only 38, Hensell hopes that the current pandemic will be the last one he has to navigate through in his career.

At the same time, he’s proud of how everyone involved in Grizzlies football embraced the many challenges in the spring, managed a winning record at an unusual time of year and returned more resilient than ever.

“The way we look at it is last year and us being so young, that was a great learning experience,” Hensell said. “We played all the games we had scheduled, we battled through adversity and I think gained a lot of really good experience out of it.

“I’m proud of the way the guys handled their business. I’m proud of how coachable they were. I’m proud of how they stuck together.”

Hensell expects better consistency out of this team, and is looking for players to take the next steps in their development. The Grizzlies have 18 seniors this season, including Stambaugh and defensive lineman Noah Ryan, who used the extra season of eligibility offered due to the pandemic.

“I did feel we made strides throughout the year,” Hensell said. “Finishing with the win at home against Defiance was a good way to finish out the season. I think we have a really solid senior class that’s been through a lot and played a lot. A good mix of seniors and juniors, but we also played so many freshmen last year who are now sophomores.

“Our goal every year will be to win the conference. That doesn’t change from year to year.”