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Our Opinion: ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ movie takes native singer’s legacy to whole new scale

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WVC Football Notebook: Opening win more important to some teams

<p>The Mayor&#8217;s Cup sits in Troy Brown&#8217;s office for the first time in his tenure, and the Wilkes football coach proudly looks at it everyday.</p><p>Despite a trying season in 2015, the Colonels grabbed the memento away from crosstown rival King&#8217;s to not only end the tough campaign with a positive, but to carry momentum into 2016.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a nice reminder every time I turn around to leave behind my desk I kinda take a glance at it and serves as a little bit of motivation. I thought we got a little bit of juice from it no doubt.&#8221;</p><p>With 16 starters back from last year&#8217;s club that finished with just two wins, the Colonels are looking to pick up where they left off when they host Muhlenberg Friday night at 7 at Schmidt Stadium to start the 2016 campaign.</p><p>The team&#8217;s second other victory in 2015 came in the home Friday night against Delaware Valley in the second week of the season after a loss to Muhlenberg.</p><p>To pull off the upset in the opener and to improve on last season&#8217;s record, Brown said Wilkes needs to be more consistent on both sides of the ball.</p><p>A year ago, the team lost two games by a touchdown or less, and was within a touchdown in five other games in the second half. In fact, the Colonels were outscored in the fourth quarter last year 110-23.</p><p>&#8220;What&#8217;s important to me is I want to make sure we&#8217;re putting in the work throughout the week that puts us in a situation in the fourth quarter to win the football game. And get to that point and finish,&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;We have not finished. I want to be in position to win in the fourth quarter. If we win them all, we win them all. But I know if we don&#8217;t get to that point we won&#8217;t win any. So we first have to get to that point.&#8221;</p><p><strong>ON OFFENSE</strong></p><p>To get to the point of where Brown would like to be, he&#8217;s got senior quarterback Ryan Dailey back after setting many school single-season records in 2015.</p><p>Dailey set the school mark for passing yards (2,509), attempts (423) and completions (258) in a season last year, but Brown knows his QB still has room for improvement.</p><p>&#8220;With Ryan I think for me it&#8217;s always going to be at that position a level of consistency, and the more consistent you become and the better your decision-making becomes you can excel at that position,&#8221; the coach said. &#8220;When we&#8217;ve had our struggles in various games, it has not been all of Ryan&#8217;s fault. We&#8217;ve had protection issues, dropped passes, inability to run the football. All the things that put more pressure on the QB position.&#8221;</p><p>At running back, the Colonels have been hampered by injuries over the first two years of Brown&#8217;s tenure. That has led to more passing than the coach would like.</p><p>This year, the team breaks camp with more depth. Seeing the bulk of the carries will be a combination of Jake Brook, Devon Fink, Paul Martin, Brandon Latierno, Jake Kadis and Shane Deemer.</p><p>The receiving core returns much experience from last season including Storm Deemer, Ryan Richards, Kyle Gattuso and tight end Garrett Armstrong</p><p><strong>ON DEFENSE</strong></p><p>The defensive unit last year was seventh out of 10 teams in the MAC last season allowing 33.5 points per game, but the Colonels lost games to the two teams below them in that stat.</p><p>A young and inexperienced group was part of the reason for some of those miscues in 2015. This time around, with another year under their belts and eight returning starters, there is much more optimism on this side of the ball.</p><p>Brown turns to senior linebacker Tanner Stengel, a returning All-MAC selection, to lead the group. Stengel totaled a MAC-high 130 tackles last season, 40 more than the second defensive player in the league in that stat. He also racked up with 15 tackles for a loss and 4.5 sacks.</p><p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s very instinctive. He&#8217;s got good weight-room numbers. He&#8217;s a very committed learner. He works hard in the summer, always in the weight room on time,&#8221; Brown said about his defensive leader. &#8220;He does all the things that really good players do. But I think he&#8217;s really instinctive. He&#8217;s around the ball all the time. That&#8217;s a unique quality.&#8221;</p><p><strong>OUTLOOK</strong></p><p>The schedule certainly doesn&#8217;t get any easier for the Colonels in the always tough MAC. They will also rely on 60 percent of the team being a freshman or sophomore.</p><p>That being said, there&#8217;s still playmakers on this team, and a lot of experience coming back from a year ago.</p><p>The core group is returning on offense and defense meaning the team should have no problem exceeding last year&#8217;s output.</p><p>If the familiarity with the playbook improves and the mistakes cut down, a lot of those close losses from a year ago will also turn into victories and get the Colonels close to a .500 record and maybe even be in position for a postseason berth.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL083016Wilkes-FB1-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes will host Muhlenberg Friday night at 7 at Schmidt Stadium to start the 2016 campaign. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL083016Wilkes-FB1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes will host Muhlenberg Friday night at 7 at Schmidt Stadium to start the 2016 campaign. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL083016Wilkes-FB3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes University football players take a quick break during practice. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL083016Wilkes-FB3-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes University football players take a quick break during practice. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL083016Wilkes-FB2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The for Wilkes this season will be finishing strong in the second half. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL083016Wilkes-FB2-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>The for Wilkes this season will be finishing strong in the second half. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Wilkes was outscored 110-23 in 4th quarter last year</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes ready to kick off 2016 season