Football to open season, finally

As the Jumbos take the field for the first time this season, against Hamilton this Saturday, the overall feeling among the players may be one of relief rather than nervousness. After practicing together for nearly a month, the team is anxious for real competition.

"It'll be fun to go out and play somebody finally. We've been here for a long time," coach Bill Samko said. "It'll be fun to play somebody else and see where we really are."

Fun aside, however, Tufts will be focused on the task at hand: getting its first victory of the season. This will be the first time since 1999 that the Jumbos have taken on the Continentals, when Tufts walked away with a 28-25 victory.

The opener against Hamilton on Saturday will be the only difference in schedule for the Jumbos from last year, when they opened the season with a 35-20 victory over Wesleyan. This year the Continentals replace the Cardinals in Tufts' schedule, as Hamilton tries to recover after posting a 6-34 record over the past five years.

While Tufts will feature 16 returning starters from last year's team, Hamilton will take the field with a much younger squad. The Continentals lost 19 players to graduation last year, and have an entirely different look than last season's team which finished with a 1-8 record.

Of the few returning starters for Hamilton, the most notable is last year's NESCAC Rookie of the Year Peter Simon. A defensive back, Simon should be a threat to the Jumbos' passing game, which was shaky at times last season.

Although Hamilton's lineup features 19 freshman, Tufts is not taking anything for granted.

"We haven't seen any film on them," Samko said. "In the first game of the season anything can happen. I expect them to come down here and play hard, and I'll be very disappointed if our effort isn't tremendous."

The only competition the Jumbos have seen so far this season came in a scrimmage last weekend against Wesleyan. While the teams did not keep score, the scrimmage was nonetheless valuable for looking at players and getting an idea of how they will perform.

"We didn't play the scrimmage like a game, because it doesn't count," Samko said. "But I thought it went fairly well, and we got a good look at some guys."

The new looks at younger players did not change the Jumbos' game plan, however, as Samko will still start an experienced lineup over some younger talent. According to Samko, no freshmen will start in Saturday's game.

As the team will feature a majority of the starters from last year, the basis of comparison for Saturday's game and the season as a whole, will no doubt be the successful campaign of last year's team. The Jumbos routed Wesleyan in their season opener last year, setting the tone for the rest of the season. Whether or not they can begin this year on the same note against a highly inexperienced team may be a good indicator of things to come.

But, despite the inevitable comparisons between this year's and last year's squad, the teams are in very different situations.

"Last year was very very different," Samko said. "It was a bunch of kids who were coming off of a 2-6 season. I'm not sure if they had a chip on their shoulder, but they had something to prove. And they proved it very well."

While last year's success may be the bar that many people have set for the team, Samko views the group's success in somewhat different terms.

"The outcome of the games is almost, almost secondary," Samko said. "My view is, did they play? Did the play well? Did they answer the challenge? Did they respond when response was needed? If the answers to those things are yes, then sometimes you win _ most of the time you do.