After a dominating campaign in 2009, the sprint football defensive unit is looking forward to another stellar season in 2010, as it hopes to drive the team toward the elusive CSFL crown.

In 2009, the Red finished the year allowing only 206 yards per game, good enough for third in the conference and only 34 yards behind league-leader Army.

Particularly stout was the run defense, which allowed a meager 66.6 yards per game on the ground, 2.1 yards per carry and only three rushing touchdown all season long.

John Parke ’10 led the team last season with 52 tackles and tied for the team league with six tackles for a loss. Returning starters and senior tri-captains Matt Ferrari and Clay Hemminger each finished with 36 tackles. Both received All-CSFL honors.

The third captain, senior defensive back John Mackintosh, led the team with three interceptions.

“We have a lot of returners, which is very good,” Hemminger said. “As a whole, our secondary is top-notch and our linemen are doing really, really well.”

“We’re hoping the returning guys can make the next steps to improve,” Ferrari added.

Despite a large number of returners, the loss of Parke certainly poses a challenge to the unit, as they try to replace one of the league’s best linebackers and one of the team’s most prominent leaders. The team feels, however, that a suitable replacement has already been waiting in the wings.

“Ted Alexander has been on the team for a few years now and he’s really stepped up,” Hemminger said. “He’s going to fill those shoes and be just as good.”

Although he appeared in only two games last season, Alexander really shined, registering one sack, one pass deflection, two interceptions and six tackles.

In addition, as Ferrari added, “Hemminger and Mackintosh have been stepping up and filling that leadership role.”

Although the defense has plenty of talent and experience, the players and coaching staff are looking to add a few wrinkles into their schemes to confuse opposing offenses and make the most of their abilities and aggressive blitz packages.

“We’re playing around with schemes to screw up the offenses,” Hemminger said. “We blitz a lot and sometimes teams catch on to the names of our blitzes, so we’ve totally renamed everything and are going to rename after each week.”

In addition to the new nomenclature, the complexity and thickness of the defensive playbook should also definitely challenge the opposition. According to Hemminger, the team will be prepared to throw as many as 15-20 different blitz packages against offenses.

Once again, expectations for the defense are sky-high at the onset of the season.

“I’d really like to see us shut everyone out,” Hemminger said.

More specifically, Hemminger hopes to, “hold everyone to under 100 rushing yards and seven points per game.”

“We want to put the offense in a position to win every game,” Ferrari said. “I thought last year we were very effective at stopping the run. This year we want to put more pressure on the quarterback.”

On Thursday at 7 p.m., the team will hold its annual Red/White Game to kick off the season at Schoellkopf.