ST. PAUL, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul football opens the season at home on Thursday, September 5 with a 6 p.m. kickoff against the University of Sioux Falls on St. Paul Day. The game will be an NSIC South Division matchup.
 
In advance of the opener, cspbears.com is rolling out multiple season previews aimed at providing fans of the program a closer look at the team heading into the season, through the eyes of head coach Shannon Currier. Part one was a program overview as well as a look at the special teams units, part two will cover the defense and part three will dive into the offense.
 
FOLLOW ONLINE
All Concordia football games, home and away, will be streamed online as part of the NSIC's league-wide agreement with Presto Sports (formerly Stretch Internet). All CSP football games can be viewed in Concordia's online video portal.
 
Home games will be produced by UltimateX Displays, complete with a 15-foot by 8-foot MAX XL LED screen in the stadium.
 
The broadcast is complete with the play-by-play call from Dan Flanagan, the voice of the Golden Bears since 2008. The St. Paul native is a graduate of Fordham University in New York, where he studied broadcasting including working as the voice of multiple Rams sports teams including basketball and football.
 
Games can also be followed with live stats and by keeping track of the NSIC live scoreboard.
 
COACH CURRIER SHOW ON CSP BEARS PODCAST
The Coaches Show with Shannon Currier hosted by Wally Langfellow of Minnesota Score returns for a second season in 2019. The show airs in the MSP radio market on 1440 AM KYCR following the Minnesota high school football game of the week, typically on Friday of each week. The show is also distributed via the CSP Bears Podcast and is available on most podcast subscription services such as Apple iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music and Stitcher.
 
This week's guests include senior quarterback Maxon Hutton and senior wide receiver Jabril Clewis.
 
Subscribe to the podcast, which will also return for a second year this fall. This year, the podcast will be co-hosted by CSP baseball alumni Andrew Shotwell and Alex LaPorte and will continue to tell the story of CSP athletics in an interesting and engaging way to help people get behind the scenes of various people associated with Concordia – including Comets and Golden Bears!
 
DOWNLOAD THE CSP BEARS FAN APP
Also back for a second year is the CSP Bears fan app, provided by From Now On. The app features a customizable experience, users can select their favorite sports teams and select their affiliation (fan, student, alumni, etc) to receive tailored notifications. The app provides easy to follow live stats along with links to watch games live on their device. Keep up with the latest with the new 'news' feature which combines stories from cspbears.com with the social streams from CSP athletics.
 
MEET THE BEARS: TEAM DEFENSE & COACHING DYNAMICS
The Golden Bears return key playmakers across each level of their position groups on defense, which help alleviate the loss of a pair of starters in the secondary and linebacker positions.
 
They also return an experienced and hard-nosed defensive coordinator in Craig Stern who coaches the secondary along with a majority of their defensive assistants: Jake Munkwitz at linebackers, Kerry Grigsby and Justin Lerfald on the defensive line and Mike Bond in the secondary, while Tim Lydon will assist Munkwitz with the linebackers while also overseeing the scout team offense to gain experience on both sides of the ball.
 
"Coach Stern has a great system, he has coached all levels of the defense so he can bring it all together. He is adept at developing a good plan to attack the best concepts of an offense," said Coach Currier.
 
He added, "All of our coaches have done a great job on defense, it's hard looking at practice and projecting where you'll be come gameday but we've learned that we need to maintain the level of the defense's intensity. When we've played well in practice, it's been the defense that's brought the juice and on gamedays we need to bring that."
 
The continuity on the defensive staff working in Stern's scheme has paid dividends, too. From 2017 to 2018, the program went from 146th to 78th in the country in total defense, 155th to 41st in run defense, 76th to 9th in sacks, 42nd to 24th in red zone defense, 115th to 60th in team pass efficiency defense and fourth down defense went from 105th to 6th.
 
"Coach Stern has done a great job, and it really showed last year on paper. That's one of the biggest reasons we went from 2-9 to 5-6 – we did things better, and we need to continue that in various parts of our program to get to that 8, 9 or 10 win level at the top of this league."
 
And while the defensive coaching staff has experienced continuity, they've also experienced a tremendous loss with passing of longtime assistant coach Russell Gary. A superstar at the University of Nebraska, Gary joined Concordia when former Nebraska quarterback Mark Mauer replaced Currier in the 2004 season after Currier departed for Truman State.
 
He would become a mainstay and an irreplaceable figure in the program, touching the lives of all who entered the program from 2004 until the spring of 2019. In addition to his standout days at Nebraska, Gary was also an NFL All-Pro defensive back but it was ability to relate to the players that made him special.
 
"Coach Gary is impossible to replace and we won't be attempting to fill his void. A number of our players and fellow coaches are hurting and miss his presence. He had credibility with our young men, he got their attention when he spoke. His background as an NFL standout and his personality and life experience gave him a huge impact. He related his own personal struggles and helped show the guys how to persevere and become men. Above all, he showed them he loved and cared for them."
 
MEET THE BEARS: DEFENSIVE LINE
"It starts up front on both lines, and we're fortunate to have a lot of depth and experience on our line of scrimmage," said Coach Currier. "The entire defensive front is back which excites me. In fact, our two-deep is intact plus we are adding some redshirt freshmen like Mark O'Reilly and Keegan Larson to the mix which will make this group even better."
 
He continued, "Everyone up front is bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced and most importantly they play well together and are able to execute the defensive schemes that much better."
 
There's no greater presence than what junior defensive end Chris Garrett brings to the mix. A national sack leader with 1.65 sacks per game last year led to a school record 16.5 sacks in just 10 games. In just 17 college football games, Garrett has amassed 22.5 sacks, 28.0 tackles for loss, forced eight fumbles, batted down four passes and has racked up 97 tackles – an impressive total for a pass rushing defensive end.
 
He's joined on the starting front by three seniors including opposite from sixth year senior Jackson Dobbs.
 
Working his way through injuries earlier in his career, Dobbs put together his first 11 game season in 2018 and produced career-highs in tackles (46), tackles for loss (10.5) and sacks (8.0). Across 28 career games, he's amassed 124 career tackles, 20.0 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks.
 
On the interior, seniors Kelly Pierce and Dylan Wood bring similar experience levels having combined for 60 games the previous three years. In 27 games, Pierce has recorded 96 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks while Wood hasn't missed a game in three years with 33 games played, racking up 101 tackles, 16.5 for loss and 11.5 sacks.
 
"Everyone looks at Chris and he's a great player but Kelly Pierce is an under-recognized guy at 3-technique. Dobbs and Shawn Aarhus are very talented, too and our senior combination at nose tackle with Dylan Wood and TJ Diallo is also under recognized. They have a tough job that doesn't get a lot of press."
 
The group is led by assistant coaches Justin Lerfald and Kerry Grigsby, both in their second year in the program. "Coach Lerfald is a phenomenal defensive line coach and makes a great team with Coach Grigsby. They create a culture of toughness, accountability and discipline."
 
While the front four has amassed strong experience and proven ability to stuff run games and disrupt the passing game, the unit's strength also comes from its depth.
 
"We should be able to pace some of our guys on defense, and that's most true up front where we don't need all of those guys to play every snap."
 
The ends are backed up by senior Cole Marmor and sophomore Richard Ficociello. Marmor played all 11 games a year ago as a first year transfer, registering 12 tackles, one for loss and a sack while Ficociello earned his six games of playing time as a true freshman, proving he was capable of a big role early in his career.
 
The interior of the line features Diallo and sophomore Hunter Quinn who each bring playing experience.
 
Joining the experienced group of returners are redshirt freshmen Mark O'Reilly and Keegan Larson.
 
MEET THE BEARS: LINEBACKERS
The linebacker position features a mix of experience and youth in each of the three returning starters, led by sophomore Jake Portz at the mike linebacker spot, joined by sophomore Gabe Nkumu on the strongside and junior Dalton Smerchek at weakside.
 
"We aren't deep at the linebacker position but if we can stay healthy we can be better. Nkumu is a dynamic playmaker, is around the ball and has a knack for making big plays. Portz is a nice inside linebacker with good strength for the position and Smerchek has taken the WILL and made it better," said Currier.
 
Last year as a first year starter, Portz led the team with 78 tackles and produced 4.0 tackles for loss and a sack. Smerchek found his way into the starting lineup for the second half of the season and finished the year with 36 total tackles highlighted by 12 in a win over Minnesota Crookston in week eight and eight in a win at SMSU in week 10. Nkumu wasn't with the team last year, but saw action in nine games as a true freshman in the program in 2017 and his impact has been noticed in his return to the field.
 
They are led by Jake Munkwitz, a former tight end in the program and now the recruiting coordinator and special teams coordinator in addition to his position duties with the linebackers.
 
"Munk is becoming a strong coach. He holds guys accountable and is able to relate to kids with empathy which is what great coaches do – they understand where the guys are coming from and he's genuine with that skillset as a coach."
 
Joining the three starters to provide depth are sophomore Opi Aghenu who saw action in 10 games last year, senior Corey Taylor has shifted from defensive back to linebacker and has 18 games of experience over the past three years. Redshirts Foster Conzet and Andrew Egnarski also look to make an immediate impact in their first crack at game action at the college level.
 
MEET THE BEARS: SAFETIES
The starters from 2018 at the safety position were redshirt freshmen, Dez Bassett at rover and Rhett Sheehan at free safety. They are joined by another safety who earned consistent playing time as a redshirt freshman last year, Parker Powers at free safety while Zac Cooney-Quinn is coming off his redshirt season and looking to provide depth behind Bassett at rover.
 
Bassett was tied for second on the defense with 64 tackles last year, including 2.5 for loss, seven pass breakups, a fumble recovery and a 77-yard interception return for touchdown in a road win at UMary. He started nine and played in all 11 games, earning his first start in his hometown Mankato against Minnesota State.

Sheehan started all 11 games, making 37 tackles and breaking up a pair of passes, "Rhett is 'the last guy' on defense and is knowledgeable of our schemes and is great at getting us in the right alignments while Dez Bassett has improvement from last year substantially, and Parker Powers is also improved."
 
Powers was a key reserve, playing in all 11 games while making 24 tackles (19 solo) including four pass breakups and an interception in his debut at Sioux Falls.
 
"Zac Cooney-Quinn will have a role, while Bobby Davis and Hunter Thompson will also contribute at the safety position," said Currier.
 
MEET THE BEARS: CORNERBACKS
The Golden Bears' 2018 starting cornerbacks combined for nine interceptions and 23 pass breakups, a tall task to replace statistically but the program features a pair of returners and a pair of transfers ready for the opportunity.
 
"We did lose two very good corners from last year, but we have the people in the program ready to replace that play, two transfers in Preston Piltoff and Jovon Sewell along with returning juniors Lorenzo Kendricks and Desmond Hudnall with playing experience in our program. We believe this group has strong potential. This is the only spot where we don't have returning starters coming back."
 
Kendricks is a third year junior who earned three starts last year and has played all 22 games so far in his career. He's compiled 40 tackles, has four passes defended, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble.
 
Piltoff comes to Concordia from Grossmont College in California and was an All-Conference performer as a freshman at Shasta College in 2017.
 
They'll be backed up by Hudnall, who has played all 22 games the previous two years as a key reserve corner, making 14 tackles (12 solo) with a pair of pass breakups and a fumble recovery.
 
Sewell backs up at the other corner, a junior college transfer from Contra Costa College in California where he made 38 tackles, three for loss with five breakups and an interception last year.
 
The position is coached by Mike Bond, "He relates well with our corners, he's more experienced and has a good group of guys including young guys like Devin Flakes, McKinley Egland-Young, Jehlon Patten and Nate Segura, all solid young corners who he was the lead recruiter to help bring them into the program."