Allegheny football bites from PAC media day
· Yahoo Sports
Braden Layer and Kurt Knobeloch of the Allegheny football team were in attendance for the Presidents’ Athletic Conference’s media day on Tuesday. Below are quotes previewing the upcoming season for the Gators
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Head coach Braden Layer on the end of 2025 building momentum for 2026
“Two wins over the last three weeks (of last season) doesn’t roll over into our record in 2026. I think it helped us kickstart our offseason workouts. It built momentum leading into spring ball, but ultimately, I’m sitting here with a lot of other head coaches that believe there is a lot in front of us. There’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the season. But until we run out there and play Anderson University in the first week in September, it’s on us as a staff and us as players to come together. (Last year) only matters a little bit in the grand scheme of things come August.”
Layer on returning eight defensive starters
“… That level of continuity really matters, at least in my opinion, especially in small college athletics. I think our front seven has a chance to be very formidable. … Drew Evans for the first time in his career got to focus just on football. … Huriel Calice has been a mainstay for us on the defensive line. He’s shifting out primarily just to an edge player. … Obviously, you have Michael (Schanck) on the interior. You have (Matthew) Phillips, you have (Joshua) Guenther – you have a whole lot of guys that have accumulated a ton of snaps. And I think we’re fortunate to bring in some potential impact players that are new to the program as well. … At the second level, Coltin (Colucci) does everything for us defensively. We were able to convince him to come back for a fifth year. He’s kind of been the heartbeat of our team now for a while. … But it’s not just him. You know you have Javi Edwards coming back, you have CJ Gissentaner coming back. I thought one of the best freshmen in the conference last year was Ryan Croston, who was our nickel. One of the best blitzers and pass rushers for us in our blitz package last year returns only a year bigger and better.”
Layer’s goals and expectations for this season
“… We want to be better than we were the year before. I feel fortunate to be around last year’s senior class, and to be a part of their journey. They were the first senior class at Allegheny in eight years that left with more wins than the year before. … Now the challenge for Kurt (Knobeloch) and his class is to continue to raise the bar. We talk always about leaving the program better than you found it. So for these guys it’s trying to get to an above .500 record in conference play. It’s an opportunity to challenge our nonconference games. We were 0-2 in those last year, so we certainly want to hit the win column in one of our first two weeks, if not both.”
Senior WR Kurt Knobeloch on quarterback Carson Colluci
“First, I would just want to applaud his toughness and his commitment last year. He fought through that injury for quite a while, and we’re real proud of him. He’s our glue guy, you know. He’s our rock on offense. He’s our motivator, our leader. Obviously, as a quarterback, it’s very comforting to have a returning quarterback. … Our pass-catching group, we’re super excited to be able to work with Carson.”