Football | 8/27/2017 7:47:00 PM

By Duane Cochran for FightingFalcons.com

Fairmont State's 2017 football season opens this Thursday with a first-time opponent.
 
East Stroudsburg University from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference will pay a visit to Duvall-Rosier Field for a 7 p.m. nonconference showdown with the Falcons. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools in football.
 
FSU finished 10-2 last fall and made its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II Playoffs since joining the NCAA in the mid-1990s. That game, in which the Falcons hosted Indiana (Pa.) University of the PSAC, turned out to be a pretty lopsided affair as the Crimson Hawks rolled to a 62-13 victory.
 
"Losing that last game and losing it the way we did really put things into perspective for us," FSU senior defensive end Quincy Redmon said. "It showed us that we weren't where we wanted to be as a program and it served all off season as a motivator for us to improve and get better.
 
"This year we open with another PSAC team and we feel it's going to be a great test for us."
 
East Stroudsburg finished 4-7 last fall and returns 14 starters and 36 letter winners from that team. ESU had 11 true freshmen, eight redshirt freshmen and 12 sophomores among its 54 letter winners last season.
 
The Warriors started 2016 4-2, but dropped their last five games. East Stroudsburg averaged 31.4 points and 400 yards of total offense per game last fall, but allowed 39.3 points and 502.7 yards of offense.
 
"They've got a lot of returners back on both sides of the ball," FSU coach Jason Woodman said. "They did lose a very good running back (Harlon Hill Trophy nominee Robert Healy, who ran for nearly 4,000 yards and had close to 2,000 yards of receiving during his stellar career), but we expect them to be an improved football team this year.
 
"With it being the first game of the season it's kind of hard to get any feel for them, but we know the league they play in so we know we're going to see a well-coached team and a well-prepared and fundamentally sound team which is going to be physical."
 
ESU is coached by the dean of PSAC coaches in Denny Douds, who is entering his 44^th season as the Warriors' head coach and his 52^nd season overall at the school as a coach. Douds has a PSAC record 260 career wins and has coached in an NCAA Division II record 451 career games, which is the eighth most in NCAA football at any level.
 
One notable individual that Douds coached during his career at East Stroudsburg is current Penn State University head football coach James Franklin. Franklin was the starting quarterback for the Warriors during the 1993 and 1994 seasons and at the time of his graduation he held 23 school records at ESU.
 
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Fairmont State has won 16 of its last 20 games and one of the big reasons for that has been the squad's much improved play on the defensive side of the football. In 2014 when FSU finished 3-7 the Falcons ranked 146^th out of 167 NCAA Division II teams in total defense (452.0 yards allowed per game). Fairmont was 121^st against the run (184.0), 130^th in sacks (15), 140^th in points allowed (36.1) and 156^th in turnover margin (-1.10).
 
Under first-year defensive coordinator Zach Crissup in 2015, the Falcons, who finished 6-4 and won six of their final eight games, improved to 65^th out of 168 teams in total defense (368.2 yards allowed per game), 49^th against the run (138.3), 115^th in sacks (18), 102^nd in points allowed (30.2) and fifth in turnover margin (+1.30).
 
Last fall during its 10-2 season things got even better for FSU's defense. It was 29^th out of 170 teams in total defense (322.5), 31^st against the run (118.5), 22^nd in sacks (38), 17^th in points allowed (19.0) and 37^th in turnover margin (+0.50).
 
Crissup left this summer to take a job at Missouri Southern State University, but third-year FSU linebackers' coach Ron Rankin has taken over the defensive coordinator's duties and doesn't expect much, if anything at all, to change with a wealth of talent and starters returning on that side of the football for FSU.
 
"You're not going to see much of a change," said FSU senior defensive end Quincy Redmon, the 2016 Mountain East Conference defensive player of the year who had a team-high 15 tackles for losses and 12 sacks. "We're still going to be an attacking, aggressive defense which wants to force turnovers and put a lot of pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
 
"Relentless effort is all coach Rankin preaches. We want to get the ball back for our offense. We've got a lot of experience returning on defense and we all hold each other accountable to give our absolute best efforts every time we step on the field. Anything less is unacceptable in our eyes."
 
FSU junior defensive tackle Josh Ballard, who had 9.5 tackles for losses, seven sacks and was an honorable mention All-MEC selection in 2016, agrees.
 
"Honestly we expect to be even better this fall because of the bar that we set for ourselves," Ballard said. "We definitely did some good things last year, but this is a whole new season and we know we've got to go out and prove ourselves again. We knew after last season we had room to improve and with the amount of talent we have returning on defense and the standards we set for ourselves because of that we expect to play better. We really feel like the sky is the limit for us defensively."
 
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Offensively Fairmont State returns a wealth of talent as well but the team does have some holes to fill on the offensive line and for the first time since Jason Woodman took over the program in 2013 Cooper Hibbs won't be the Falcons' starting quarterback in its season opener.
 
Hibbs, who wrapped up his outstanding career last fall, finished second in school history in both career passing yards (8,883) and touchdown passes (66).
 
Taking over for Hibbs this season will be JuJuan Young-Battle, a senior transfer from Alabama State who has been with FSU since January. Young-Battle, a 6-2, 195-pounder from Orlando, Fla., was a junior college honorable mention All-America selection in 2015 at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa when he completed 234-of-367 passes for 3,118 yards and 26 touchdowns and suffered just 12 interceptions. Last fall at Alabama State he appeared in nine games and completed 43-of-86 passes for 449 yards and two scores. He was picked off twice.
 
"I'm really happy to be here and I think I fit in well here in this offense and with this team," Young-Battle said. "Coach Woody has done a good job of preparing me and molding the offense to my strengths instead of me trying to step in the fill Cooper's shoes.
 
"Since I got here I've stuck my nose in the playbook and have tried to learn as much as I can. I've also watched a lot of film with coach Woody and have learned a lot from that. Another big help to me is that we do have experience at a lot of the skill positions. Those guys know the playbook and know what they're supposed to do and it's helped me settle in and become more comfortable in doing what I need to do to help this team be successful. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to Thursday and having the chance to play with these guys and try to be a leader for them."
 
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Fairmont State senior running back Terrell Charles heads into his senior season with some nice career milestones within reach.
 
In three seasons Charles has rushed for 1,435 yards and 16 touchdowns on 343 carries. He's also caught 19 passes for 179 yards and one score. He needs 671 yards to reach the Top 10 in FSU history in career rushing yards, four more rushing touchdowns to crack the Top 10 in school history in career rushing TDs and eight more touchdowns overall to put his name on the school's Top 10 list in all-time scoring.
 
Last fall Charles enjoyed his most productive season in a Fairmont State uniform when he rushed for 887 yards and 12 touchdowns on 196 carries and caught 13 passes for 114 yards and one TD.
 
Speaking of career marks, FSU senior linebacker Marcus Porter needs just 55 more tackles to reach the Top 10 in school history in total tackles. Porter has led the Falcons in tackles every year since he entered the program in the fall of 2014. He had 69 stops as a true freshman, 72 tackles as a sophomore and 100 tackles last fall.