The bad news for the Fighting Scots is that those players are no longer in uniform, but the good news is that eighth-year head coach Steve Bell and his staff have plenty of players waiting in the wings, including some who may one day hold team records themselves.

"Youth is not an excuse," said Bell, who may have as few as two 2008 graduates in his Opening Day lineup vs. visiting Wartburg on Sept. 1. "Some kids will have to step up. If you’re a good team, you’re always graduating good kids. We consider ourselves a good team, and our expectations are not going to change."

Of Monmouth’s eight fourth-year seniors, just three were regular starters last fall. Another member of the class, Nate Palkovic, is back for his fourth and final season as the Scots’ punter and placekicker.

One of those seniors, Brad Reinhart, will anchor the Scots’ offensive line at the center position. The other returning starter on the line is sophomore Josh Kotecki, who will start again at right guard. Junior transfer Matt Wardell has won the right tackle spot, and the final pieces of the offensive line puzzle, said Bell, will come from a group that includes returners Zach Howerter, Seth Hill and Dan Schwindenhammer and freshman Nick Thoele.

"We’ll be very physical up front," said Bell of the group, which should average around 6-foot-2 and 265 pounds.

In the past two years, Monmouth’s linemen have had to adapt to two different schemes, primarily pass blocking as Mitch Tanney threw for 2,587 yards in 2005 and focusing on the run last fall, which paved the way for Dante Daniels’ 1,557-yard campaign. The early guess for this year’s squad is a more balanced look, with a "two-headed monster" splitting the yardage and carries at tailback, and a relatively inexperienced quarterback throwing to a handful of up-and-coming receivers.

Sharing the tailback duties will be fourth-year junior Jeff Davis and sophomore Clay Bricker. Davis, who rushed for 2,131 yards for his 7A state championship team in high school, got a few carries last year to spell Daniels and rushed for 112 yards and a TD. Bricker "really improved during the spring," according to Bell, and "is getting a hard, hard look" at being the starter.

In Bell’s offensive system, the fullback also helps pave the way for the ground game, and Bell is comfortable with a group that includes former starters Jess Miller and Shane LaDew and converted linebacker Ross Logan.

Miller’s five catches and two touchdowns are actually tops on the team in terms of 2006 returners. At the wide receiver position, that honor belongs to another fourth-year senior, Tomas Alvarez, who has caught two passes in each of the past two seasons. Another top receiver candidate, Bobby Gibbs, is a fourth-year junior. He missed last season but caught 10 passes out of the backfield in 2005 in addition to rushing for 327 yards. Gibbs will strictly be a receiver this fall, and will be joined in the rotation by fourth-year senior Emmanuel Minter and veterans Robert Garcia, Ryan Hardman, Nick Wright and Kyle Wantland. Bell is especially high on Garcia, a converted quarterback, who is "playing exceptional football right now."

Freshmen aren’t often counted on to make an impact for the Scots, but the receiver position might be an exception, as Bell said that Matt Shepherd and Michael Blodgett have brought a "Wow!" factor into preseason practices. "They’ve both been extremely impressive," he added.

Other freshmen who could see the field are Jon Unruh and Jordan Rader.

It may turn out that a freshman is also throwing the ball, but in order for that to happen, highly-touted recruit Alex Tanney will have to beat out junior Steve Zidow (326 yards, three TDs) and sophomore Keegan Jones (103 yards), who both started games last fall. Bell, who said early on that "no one at this point has separated themselves from the others," believes the final decision might come down to Zidow or Tanney.

"Steve is a terrific athlete and is easily the best runner of the group," said Bell. "He is also throwing the ball better than he did last year. Alex is extremely football smart and is extremely accurate. He understands where the ball should go."

After two seasons of all-conference play from Shane Gordon, Bell is looking for a new tight end, and sophomore Alec Harrison is the current leader of a very inexperienced group.

Despite the big names missing from the past, Bell said, "I expect to be pretty good on offense. There are obviously some unknowns, but we’re banking that we’ve recruited well enough in the past couple years and that we have kids who will step into roles. I won’t say we’re outstanding yet offensively, but we’ll be solid."

Defensively, the Scots were certainly solid in 2006, holding teams to single digits in five of the games during Monmouth’s 7-3 campaign.

"We expect our defense to be very good," said Bell. "We expect them to play at a high level."

Whatever success the group experiences this fall could be repeated in the future, as only Aaron Payette will be lost to graduation. Payette is a two-time All-MWC cornerback who picked off five passes last fall and will lead a young but experienced secondary.

"Aaron’s showing no effects from a foot injury he suffered late last year," said Bell. "He can be a very good player. We’ve named him a captain, and we expect big things from him."

Joining him in the backfield are corner Kyle Harmon and safeties Cole Norman and Sean Wells.

Bell also has few doubts about another quartet, his linebackers in Monmouth’s 3-4 scheme. Outside ’backers T.C. Olsen and Luke Sandrock both started games last year, as did inside players Marc Artozqui and Danny Weiden.

"T.C. is our highlight guy," praised Bell, who called the junior the defense’s hardest hitter. "He’s a 195-pound bullet. T.C. plays football the way it should be played."

Bell explained that he favors the 3-4 alignment because "it allows us to come at teams from different angles. We can bring guys off the edge or up the middle and still play zone behind it. A 3-4 can really mess with blocking schemes and make things difficult for the offense. I know it’s given us some problems when we’ve had to play against teams that use it."

While the Scots don’t return a lot of rushing and receiving yardage, they do have a lot of stats back on defense. Weiden was second on the team with 60 tackles, Norman was fourth with 54 and Olsen was in on 49 stops.

Right behind that group was the leader of the defensive line, fourth-year junior Wes Levy, who had five sacks among his 47 tackles, earning first-team All-MWC honors in the process.

"We expect great things out of him," said Bell. "He’s our feature guy right now, and he played like it at the end of last year. He’s a good athlete, and he’s very football smart."

Sophomore nose guard Nick Hoffman returns, and classmate Marc Wozniak could make an impact after returning from an injury.

"Then we get youthful," said Bell, who said that freshmen Peyton Lumzy, Trevor Newton and Matt Dever will also be part of the defensive line rotation.

One area where Monmouth is certainly not youthful is the kicking game. Palkovic, who has three All-MWC honors as a kicker and two as a punter, is back for his final season. He should become the Scots’ all-time leading scorer at some point in September, as his 189 points are just 19 behind Hall of Famer Mark Reed.

Palkovic, who Bell said is "extremely dependable," was good on 30-of-31 PATs last fall and 7-of-9 field goals, and he added an impressive 37.5-yard punting average. He should take over the career lead in punts as well, needing just 25 more.

When the other team kicks, look for Gibbs or Shepherd to be the deep man. Gibbs has previous experience in the role, accumulating 570 career return yards. Hardman and Blodgett are other possible returners.

Two of the Scots’ top tacklers on special teams last year were Alvarez and Bricker.

Overall, said Bell, "We’re trying to be the best we can be, and I think that can be pretty good."

Although the Scots have won 39 of their past 45 regular season games, Bell conceded that defending champion St. Norbert deserves its status as league favorite.

"I think the league is the toughest it’s been," added Bell, whose seven-year record at Monmouth stands at 50-21. "The teams are better at the higher end."

Besides St. Norbert, that list includes Ripon, Illinois College and Lake Forest, who all posted winning records in the MWC, and also Carroll, which figures to improve now that star quarterback Chris Rogers has returned from injury.

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