The University of Sioux Falls football team is the preseason favorite for the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) football crown, as voted by the 12 conference coaches at the 10th annual GPAC media days held in Sioux City, Iowa.
With coaches unable to vote for their teams, USF received 11 of 12 first place votes. The Cougars also received 121 points in the ranking system, edging out Morningside College by 11 points.
USF will begin their season on September 5th with a 6 p.m. kickoff at Bob Young Field at USF Sanford Health Sports Complex. The Cougars will face Nebraska Wesleyan University, ranked fourth in the pre-season GPAC polls, for the NAIA "Game of the Week" produced by the College Fanz Sports Network.
Preseason GPAC Coaches Poll
1. University of Sioux Falls (121 points) (11 first place votes)
2. Morningside (110) (1 first place vote)
3. Dakota Wesleyan (95)
4. Nebraska Wesleyan (86)
5. Hastings College (84)
6. Northwestern (76)
7. Midland Lutheran (64)
8. Doane (51)
9. Dana (32)
10. Concordia (30)
11. Briar Cliff (26)
12. Dordt (17)
Kalen DeBoer Quotes:
On Playing the University of North Dakota in the 2009 Season:
"It is something that is a new challenge. I have been curious to see how our guys will handle having this game on the schedule and I have learned a lot about our team. Of course it has been talked about (on the team), and they are excited about the new challenge, but we will take the season one game at a time. It will be an atmosphere we have never been around (visiting UND), but right now we are focused on Nebraska Wesleyan."
On Lorenzo Brown in his Second Season in the Offensive System:
"We want to be more balanced. With our receiving group that includes Alex Anderson, Jon Ryan and the addition of Brad Theilen, who was a teammate of Lorenzo Brown in junior college, we have five juniors that have been in our program or played at a high level. We need to get the ball in their hands and let them make plays. Lorenzo has been in our offense for more than a year, so we must give him a chance to spread the field out and that will only help him as a runner and in scrambling situations."
