Seton Hill football aims to improve; IUP, Slippery Rock picked 1st in PSAC West

With nine starters returning on defense and seven on offense, the Seton Hill football team could be looking for a banner season in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in 2022.

Led by preseason All-American defensive back Damonte Pratt, the Griffins will look to build off a season in which they went 5-6 overall and 2-5 in the PSAC West.

The Griffins tied for fifth with Edinboro in the PSAC West preseason coaches’ poll released Thursday.

IUP and Slippery Rock tied for first with three first-place votes apiece. Cal (Pa.), which received two first-place votes, was picked third. Gannon was chosen fourth, Mercyhurst seventh and Clarion eighth.

Shepherd was the pick in the PSAC East, followed by Kutztown, West Chester, Shippensburg, East Stroudsburg, Bloomsburg, Millersville and Lock Haven.

“Slippery Rock, Cal and IUP, obviously, have been the top three for a while now,” IUP coach Paul Tortorella said. “I think Edinboro is starting to make some great strides. Mercyhurst is going to have a new coach, so there will be some added excietment there. Gannon has a lot of players back, and they played very well last year. They were in a lot of close games. Seton Hill has made a lot of improvement.”

The 2021 Griffins ranked third in the PSAC in points allowed per game (17.6) and total points allowed (211). The defense recorded a conference-leading 17 interceptions and gave up just 181.2 yards per game in the air, which was fourth in the league.

Some defensive standouts are linebackers Narrio Walks, Jaylen McDuffie and Jaden Mack, defensive backs Alex Wade and Cartier Gray and defensive linemen Nelson Gedeon, Kevan Bowen and Justice Griffin.

The offense returns four starting linemen, quarterback Jake McCormick and wide receiver Mark Bails.

IUP will rely on wide receiver Duane Brown (Apollo-Ridge), a preseason All-American who caught 55 passes for 802 yards and seven touchdowns last season.

Slippery Rock will be counting on quarterback Noah Grover, who started the final four games, to lead the offense. He threw 15 touchdowns and averaged 384.74 yards per game in the four starts.

Cal (Pa.) will be led by senior Noah Mitchell, who returns for his fourth season as the starting quarterback after being selected the 2021 PSAC West Offensive Athlete of the Year.

He enters the campaign tied for the all-time school record with 69 touchdown passes and is 521 yards shy of breaking the school record for career passing yards, which has stood for three decades.

Wide receiver Tyson Hill (Valley) is his main target returning.

Cal (Pa.) has the toughest schedule in the conference. It will face Kutztown in Week 2 and Shepherd in Week 3.