In the wake of two losses to teams on college football's top shelf, Stony Brook has no regrets and, better yet, no major injuries. In a way, the Seawolves feel stronger just for having been there, now that they are headed back home to their own field and their own realm.
Stony Brook will take on someone its own size, football division-wise, when they play Brown from the Ivy League in the home opener at 6 p.m. Saturday. Seawolves coach Chuck Priore sees his team as 0-0, despite an overtime defeat to Texas-El Paso and a 35-7 loss to Buffalo. At least those two games did not take the physical toll that a 59-7 loss to South Florida had last year.
"We came out of it no different than if we had won," Priore said on campus Thursday, adding that games against FBS schools help in recruiting and in getting his team to grow. Looking back on the past two weeks, he said, "I think there were some parameters that we can base things on."
Truth is, the game Saturday against a fellow FCS team will be yet another measuring stick. It will be the last of four games between the Seawolves and Brown, which is beginning its 134th season of college football. Brown's lineup includes 2009 all-Ivy quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero, who missed most of last year with an injury, and all-Ivy wide receiver Alex Tounkara-Kone of Staten Island.
"Brown is a good football team year in and year out, they're always near the top of their conference and they always have a lot of seniors starting for them," said Priore, who was an offensive coordinator in the Ivy League, with Penn, for eight seasons.
"But we're a different program than we were when we first played them," he said. "Four years ago, we had 30 scholarships, now we have 63. We have players who line up on the field for us today who are different from the ones who played four years ago. We had good players then, but we're just a little more complete now."
Now, the Seawolves have two solid running backs, Brock Jackolski and Miguel Maysonet; cornerback Donald Porter, who has three interceptions; defensive tackle Jonathan Coats, who has played two good games and two quarterbacks, starter Michael Coulter and backup Kyle Essington, whom Priore uses interchangeably.
The coach said the Seawolves are gaining an identity on campus -- "That's always a struggle at a math-science school," he said -- and getting their footing against better competition.
