GREENSBURG – Offensive linemen often are overlooked, while quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers get the ink and grab the headlines in newspaper and magazine stories.
Seton Hill University, however, has a quartet of blockers who deserve the recognition usually given to their higher-profile teammates.
The Griffins return 12 starters, and one-third of those are offensive linemen Nate Carman, Jim Funk, Vinny Maglione and T.J. Seftas.
Funk and Seftas are four-year starters. Maglione is a three-year starter. Carman is a two-year starter, but the 6-foot-5, 285-pound sophomore from Wellsville, Ohio, is the Griffins’ most athletic lineman, according to Seton Hill Coach Joel Dolinski.
“It’s a good feeling to have some experience up there, some battle-tested guys,” said Dolinski, who tutors the offensive line in position meetings. “When I get in there, I don’t have to teach anything. It’s more of a review process because they have been here and they know it.”
Carman, Funk, Maglione and Seftas are interchangeable parts who can play multiple positions.
“Everybody can pretty much play every position we have,” said Funk, a 6-2, 280-pound senior from Carrolton, Ohio. “We can change it up, and we do it a lot during practice in case somebody gets hurt.”
Their chemistry is as important as their versatility.
“It’s huge,” said Maglione, a 6-4, 280-pound senior from Iselin, N.J. “The offensive line is one of the only positions on the field where you have to be working totally in sync with four other people for your job to get done.
“We have been doing it for a while now. It’s just easier. We only have to bring in one guy, and we can all help him. We have a lot of plays, but we have done them all so many times with each other against so many different defenses, it’s just second nature. We can go a lot harder with a lot less thinking because of our experience together.”
Funk agreed.
“If you play with someone that long, you just know what they are going to do in certain situations and how they are going to react to certain things,” he said. “Their arm is like your arm, and you can just counter off that. It makes everything go so much smoother. The more you play with someone, the better you are going to be beside them.”
The group also prides itself on its physicality.
“We are just hard-nosed guys who love to get out there and bang around and make plays,” said Seftas, a 6-3, 282-pound senior from Ligonier, Pa. “We are a very, very physical bunch of guys who just like to beat up on people.”
Staying healthy will be key for the experienced unit.
“When we are all healthy, we are a heck of an offensive line,” Seftas said. “If we get banged up, we could be in trouble because we don’t have much depth.”
Also back on offense are tight end Zach Delo and quarterback D.J. Lenehan, a University of Toledo transfer who threw for 1,930 yards last year.
“It’s the same as playing with the offensive line,” Maglione said when asked about having Lenehan back under center. “We are used to him and vice versa. The chemistry is there. We are going to put it all together this year.”
Seton Hill also returns six defensive starters from a unit that allowed 40.2 points per game last season.
“That could be good or bad,” Dolinski joked.
The defensive returnees are end Chris Galadyk, linebacker Robert Jordan, linebacker Nick McGahagan, cornerback Jon Feagin, cornerback Dairrick Alexander and strong safety Ricky Cardwell.
The injury-plagued Griffins finished with a 1-10 overall record and 0-8 conference mark in 2009, a year after they made the Division II playoffs in Dolinski’s debut season.
“It was such a nightmare of a season last year,” said Dolinski, who enters his third season with an 11-13 record. “As far as starting jobs and playing time, nobody is safe this year.
“We hope to get some good competition, so we can get our best players on the field and get back on track. We are going to be young in several spots this year, so it will be interesting to see how well and how fast we develop.”
Seftas said the Griffins needed an attitude adjustment.
“We couldn’t finish games last year,” he said. “We had teams beat at halftime or in the third quarter. We thought they would quit playing and give us the win, but they kept playing and we didn’t. We aren’t going to let that happen this year. We are going to keep playing until the end. We just have to believe in ourselves and not relax.”
Seton Hill suffered some unexpected losses this summer.
“One incoming recruit called and told us he wasn’t coming,” said Dolinski, who also had a couple of other players leave the team for unexplained reasons. “We just found out we had two academic casualties. One would have been a starter, and the other might have been a starter.”
Seton Hill will host Bowie State (Md.) University on Aug. 28 at 3 p.m. at Offutt Field in the teams’ season opener.
It will mark the first meeting between the Griffins and the Bulldogs, who are coming off a 6-5 season.