Braden Layer and Kurt ******* eloch 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
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."
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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."
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