Joshua Bright for The New York Times
Published: September 05, 2009
STONY BROOK, N.Y. - The sign outside Gate 2 at LaValle Stadium reads, You're in Seawolves Country. Inside, on the pristine green carpet, the Stony Brook football team was practicing. The ball was at the 15-yard line when Eddie Gowins took a handoff and cruised behind right tackle toward the end zone. Conte Cuttino then ran an option pitch.
It helped that the defense consisted of five coaches in shorts who were not chasing. But Gowins and Cuttino, both running backs, can create quite a storm when 11 men in helmets are after them, too.
"They say it's a lightning-and-thunder thing," Cuttino said before a practice this week. "I'm the lightning. He's the thunder. But we've both got some of each."
As a freshman last season, Gowins ran for Seawolves records of 1,310 yards and 9.4 a carry and was named the College Sporting News national freshman of the year among Football Championship Subdivision programs and the Big South Conference freshman of the year. Cuttino, the program's career rushing leader, compiled 1,195 yards and 6.0 a carry as a junior, making Stony Brook the only F.C.S. team last season to have two 1,000-yard rushers.
And they are determined to pick up where they left off Saturday night at Hofstra, when their season opens against their Long Island rival. The Seawolves will be trying to build on a 4-1 finish to a 5-6 season.
"We expect better, and that's what we will do," Cuttino said. "A thousand yards, that's in the past. Let's shoot for 1,200, 1,300 each, up to 15."
The 5-foot-10, 195-pound Cuttino and the 5-11, 222-pound Gowins are two big dots on the map now, and they are back with a new left side of the line.
"Everyone is going to be keying on us because of the success that we had last year, but I feel we can still get the job done," Gowins said.Coach Chuck Priore started Cuttino last season, although he mostly alternated Cuttino and Gowins in his run-first offense. The new game plan calls for more of a two-headed approach.
"We are going to have scenarios where they're on the field together this year," Priore said. "The one thing they both have right now in their careers is something you can't coach, and that's understanding when to make that cut."
Stony Brook has 15 returning starters from the team that went 3-2 and tied for second place last season in the Big South, its first year in the conference. The university decided in 2005 that it wanted to elevate its football program and move toward giving 63 scholarships, the maximum for F.C.S. programs. At the time, it could give only 30 in the Northeast Conference. So the Seawolves left after the 2006 season.
Jim Fiore, the director of athletics at Stony Brook, said the university had several reasons for wanting the switch, including its 8,136-seat stadium, which opened in 2002, and the expansion of its recruiting base. He also said, "We wanted to have an opportunity to compete for a national championship."
The Big South needed a sixth football program so it could be considered for an automatic bid to the F.C.S. playoffs by 2010. The conference approached Stony Brook, and the deal was announced in March 2007, although the Seawolves played as an independent that year.
Stony Brook is continuing to upgrade its stadium. FieldTurf was installed in June; a $1 million scoreboard will be unveiled Oct. 24; and there are plans to increase capacity to more than 10,000.
Priore, 16-17 since arriving from Division III Trinity in December 2005, also intends to upgrade the results.
"As we move forward, the goal is winning a Big South championship," Priore said. "And if we do that in the year 2010, you get an automatic bid to the N.C.A.A. playoffs."
Priore grew up on Long Island, as did Gowins and Cuttino.
Gowins rushed for 1,996 yards as a senior at Bellport High. He said he did not feel ready for college, so he went to Bridgton Academy in Maine in 2007 and rushed for 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns. Stony Brook became his only offer.
Cuttino ran for 1,482 yards as a senior at Uniondale High. He orally committed to James Madison, but that program backed away after recruiting two other backs. Hofstra showed interest before Joe Gardi retired as coach after the 2005 season, Cuttino said, but the new staff, led by Dave Cohen, did not recruit him.
"They didn't want me," Cuttino said. "I'm just going to have to show them why they made a bad decision on their part come Saturday."
He will have his work cut out for him: Hofstra is 12-0 against the Seawolves.
