After not playing in 2020, RPI Football looks to right the ship from 2019
TROY, NY >> RPI Football took a massive hit when the coronavirus pandemic was in full force.
After not playing in 2020, the Engineers can not wait to see what the 2021 season has in store for them.
“It’s amazing. You miss it when the guys aren’t around,” said RPI Head Coach Ralph Isernia. “You miss the camaraderie, you miss the banter, you miss the game that you love.”
RPI finished their 2019 season with a 6-5 record. They lost possession of the Transit Trophy to Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They lost possession of the Dutchmen Shoes to Union. They lost the ECAC James Lynah Bowl game to Grove City College. What used to be a full trophy case in the East Campus Athletic Village Football wing of the facility, now lays quite dormant.
“Our guys are really excited to get out there and play again,” said Isernia. “There’s still a lot of question marks. It’ll be 651 days since we were last on the field. Our last
game was against Grove City in the ECAC game and our guys are really getting excited and really chomping at the bit to get out there and play again.”
“For me it’s all excitement,” said returning quarterback George Marinopolous. “I’m ready to go. In the spring we did what we could with the restrictions that were in place but there is a lot to get done with the guys and we are just trying to stack some good practices and get ready to go for Saturday.”
While some division three teams were able to play a shortened spring season and get weight lifting sessions in while not playing, RPI was unable to do any of that. So unlike local high schools where everyone faced the same restrictions, RPI will be playing behind the eight ball in some instances this season.
“played a shortened spring season. They also practiced and lifted together in the fall season.
Two things we did not do,” said Isernia. “The spring season for all of us coaches was watching on YouTube all these games get live streamed.”
RPI posted 3824 yards in 2019, averaging 347.60 a game. On the other side of the ball, opponents piled up 3808 total yards, averaging out to 346.20 yards a game. Despite the very near difference in yards, RPI outscored opponents, on average, 28.91 to 21.91.
“I think defensively we are in a great position,” said Austin Charles. “We have a lot of guys. We have some young guys who haven’t gotten to play as much but have been thriving in camp. I can’t wait to see those guys play and I can’t wait for everyone to come out here and fly around. I can’t wait to see what these guys do this Saturday.”
The Engineers also had the advantage in rushing first downs, penalties, and total rushing yards, just to name a few.
Offensively, RPI returns top receivers Vinnie McDonald and Peter Lombardi, top rushing leader Dylan Burnett, and key defensive players Austin Charles and Amaechi Kwonko.
“Those are guys that have been with the program for years, they know the expectations and they know what we are looking for,” said Isernia. “We have our entire offensive line back, tight ends, on the defensive side have three of our four starters back on the defensive line.”
“The Liberty League asked us to send a list of starters returning and starters leaving and I asked, is that starters from the 2019 or starters we expected for 2020,” said Isernia. “The guys we were expecting to play with last Fall, a lot of those guys are back. There’s nine of eleven on defense and ten of eleven on offense.”
Oh yea, and starting quarterback Marinopoulos is back.
“It’s unbelievable. He’s like my mom’s marinara sauce, covers up a lot of mistakes,” said Isernia. “He covers up a lot of mistakes. He puts the ball where it is supposed to be and puts us in the right checks. He does all that stuff.”
Marinopoulos, now a grad student, restructured his school schedule so he could come back and play for RPI.
“It was the plan for me,” said Marinopolous. “I was planning to graduate in three years and my fourth year was going to be the one year masters program at RPI. Because we got cancelled I decided to take the fall of last year and extended my internship and worked through the fall semester. I started the masters program in January and this is my last semester right now. I just pushed it back to play some football.”
Marinopolous has a career 5900 passing yards with 520 completions on 866 attempts. He has 51 touchdown passes and just 21 interceptions with a 196.7 yards per game. Marinopoulos is very important to the offense.
“His leadership and his demeanor on the field is tremendous for us,” added Isernia.
“I think as a leader I have developed a ton,” said Marinopolous. “The guys out here do a great job with that too. I think across the board if one thing my class has developed is improving those leadership skills.”
Marinopoulos is not the only returner that could have graduated. 19 players total are listed as either a fifth year or graduate student at RPI, showing the culture and commitment Isernia and his staff have built since 2013.
“We have an outstanding school here. We have one of the best academic schools in the country,” said Isernia. “For guys to be willing to come back for an extra year, to pay that tuition for an extra year, to finish out their career with their teammates, I do think it says a lot about our culture and about what we have built here. Guys want to be around it. Guys want to be around each other. They don’t want to leave a year on the table.”
In terms of newcomers, that term becomes a little gray. With two classes on the roster with zero experience playing at RPI, there will be a lot of fresh faces who may get the chance early.
“What’s different for us compared to a lot of the other teams is that we weren’t able to practice with our team in the fall or spring. We basically had two classes, this years sophomore class and the incoming freshman class, that we really didn’t know too much about,” said Isernia. “During this camp we really wanted to knock the rust off of the upper classmen and make sure the timing was where it needed to be, and with the young guys we needed to figure out who was going to be able to step on the field and play for us.”
RPI opens against Montclair State. The two teams have never faced. The Engineers then host Stevenson University before traveling to take on WPI to get the transit trophy back which they lost 6-3 in 2019.
RPI will go on a stretch of hosting Western New York foes, St. John Fisher, Rochester, and Buffalo State, before they will have to travel again to take on Hobart College. Their game against Ithaca on October 30 will be their last home game before a match with St. Lawrence and a battle for the shoes with Union will be the end of their 2021 season.
Saturday’s kickoff against Montclair State is set for 2 p.m.