ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul football team will look to take advantage of Minot State immediately on Thursday night when the teams open the season as the NSIC Thursday Night Football Game of the Week, to be aired on regional cable sports channel MidcoSN (ND, SD, parts of MN).

On CSP's Day of Heroes event, honoring military servicemen and women, veterans and first responders, the Golden Bears will look to its special teams heroes to make an impact on the opening kickoff.

Whether the team wins or loses the coin toss, of which honorary captain and 2015 Disney Spirit Award winning Marine-veteran All-NSIC defensive lineman Hank Goff will help the Bears come out with a favorable outcome, the Golden Bears will be poised to claim the upper hand immediately.

"Special teams is a big part of the game," said sixth year head coach Shannon Currier, who is in his second season in his second stint running the club. "We put in a lot of practice time this fall – more than any other year I've ever coached and perhaps as much time as any team in the country. I expect us to win the special teams against our opponent every week."

One of the trademarks of Currier's first year back with the team last fall was putting the best football players on the field, regardless of age and experience. Special teams is not only no exception to the rule, it's perhaps a signature aspect of Currier's football philosophy.

"More yards are exchanged on special teams plays than in scrimmage situations and it's crucial that we capitalize on those big play opportunities. If we need to rest a guy, we'll let him take a breather on a scrimmage play, we want our top special teams guys out there for those impact plays even if they are key starters on offense or defense. We also have more team depth and speed on the defense overall which will enhance our special teams play. Our aggressive and physical offensive players will be valuable whether it's tight ends for blocking, running backs for kickoff and punt coverage or being blockers in the return game. Our best athletes will be on the field."

Currier specifically highlighted special teams standouts as sophomore running back Darnell Rolle ("Bam-Bam"), sophomore safety Brian Szutkowski, senior captains Andrew Capirchio (DB) and Frantz Polimice (LB), senior safety Breon Hoosier and true freshman running back Ovie Embu.

The return game has been explosive in past seasons and will be led by a combination of senior wide receivers Elias Arlington and Deceon Schumann, redshirt freshman wide receiver Keyon Walters and a pair of transfers in sophomore cornerback Dion Wallisch and junior wide receiver Jake Tanner. Wallisch joined the club in time for the spring semester and spring practice and Tanner spent the previous year as a redshirt NSIC transfer from UMD.

"All of our returners are explosive athletes capable of making big plays to create yardage advantages for us on kicks and punts," said Currier.

But it's the kicking game where Concordia has the clear upper hand over the competition entering the 2017 campaign, returning All-NSIC First Team kicker Jonas Schenderlein and All-NSIC Second Team punter Sam Maedke.

"Jonas and Sam are two of the more productive players on the team, and they have the experience necessary to be big-time college kickers," said Currier.

Schenderlein has a big leg with the ability to stretch the field on his field goals approaching the 60-yard distance but also has the accuracy to warrant confidence in his game as he made all of his kicks inside of 50 yards last season, while his 52 yard field goal was an NSIC long and the fourth-longest in school history. He also was the only NSIC kicker perfect on PAT attempts last year (28-28) and has only missed one in his college career (50-51).

He earned his way onto the Fred Mitchell Award monthly watch list last October and secured a place on the preseason watch list this year entering his junior campaign.

Maedke is already among the program's top all-time punters with a career 38.0 average, ranking second in program history and his 40.0 average in 2016 was the fourth 40-plus yard punting average in a season in program history.

In addition to his steady leg that produces a volume of fair catches and inside the 20 field positions, Maedke is the team's holder for Schenderlein, a crucial role in the battery that sets up the kicker for success.

Sending the ball Maedke's way on field goal and PAT attempts will likely be a sophomore, either Kelly Pierce or Hunter Kauffman. Firing the ball back to Maedke on punts in the long snapping role will be either true freshman Dalton Smerchek or sophomore Jason Barto.

update: Part three of the four part season preview will focus on the offense and be released the morning of Monday, August 28