SAC football: Catawba picked seventh

Catawba College's Head Coach Chip Hester watches the game proceed with Lenior-Rhyne. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Bret Strelow

bstrelow@salisburypost.com

League coaches picked Catawba’s football team to finish seventh in the eight-team South Atlantic Conference.

The SAC released its 2010 preseason poll Thursday, and favored Carson-Newman received five first-place votes.

Wide receiver Brandon Bunn, defensive lineman Brandon Sutton, linebacker Cory Johnson and linebacker Lakeem Perry made the preseason All-SAC first team from Catawba, which totaled 17 points. Sixth-place Lenoir-Rhyne, which received one first-place vote, had 28 points. Eighth-place Brevard, which will play its 2010 home games at Asheville High School, had 15 points.

Carson-Newman returns eight starters from a team that reached the Division II semifinals in 2009. Wingate had two first-place votes and was second in the voting, followed by Mars Hill, Newberry and Tusculum. Newberry’s new mascot is the Wolves.

Catawba is coming off a season in which it went 4-6 overall and finished last in the SAC with a 1-6 mark. Bunn had 12 touchdown catches, and Johnson recorded a team-leading 69 tackles. Perry was next with 65, and Sutton made 18 stops behind the line of scrimmage.

Tight end Grayson Downs, long snapper D.J. Davis and defensive back Jumal Rolle were picked to the preseason All-SAC second team. The Indians also return starting quarterback Patrick Dennis, and they’ve added Illinois transfer Jacob Charest.

Dennis, who is expected to start in 2010, shared time with North Carolina transfer Cam Sexton early last season and ended up throwing for 1,519 yards. He had 14 touchdowns and six interceptions.

The 6-foot-4 Charest, who will have three years of eligibility remaining, is the older brother of incoming Catawba freshman Nate Charest. Both were standouts at Butler High School in Matthews.

Scout.com ranked Jacob Charest as the nation’s 23rd-best quarterback in the class of 2008, and he played in four games last season as a redshirt freshman for the Fighting Illini. He left the team in early June, with homesickness reportedly playing a role.

Charest is one of 43 players on Catawba’s list of newcomers. Livingstone transfer Chris Peoples, a 6-5 tight end from Mooresville, is one of six other July additions.