MARBLEHEAD — Marblehead looks to go again after a successful football season last year. Under the direction of Jim Rudloff, who has been head coach since 2009, the Magicians hope to be a well-balanced team, making noise in the Northeastern Conference along the way.
“I feel the same every year. I’m excited to get into it,” Rudloff said.
The Magicians have a good amount of returners this year, something Rudloff hasn’t always gotten to say.
“The only year it felt like we had every starter coming back was the covid year. We have a good group coming back that got significant playing time,” Rudloff said. “Of course you’d feel a lot better if you had both your best player and your quarterback coming back.”
The two players Rudloff was referring to were Connor Cronin and Miles O’Neill. Cronin was everywhere on the field, and recently committed to play for Brown University while his former teammate, O’Neill, transferred to the Hun School in New Jersey for his senior season before heading off to Texas A&M.
Rudloff admitted it will be hard to replace Cronin.
“To replace Connor is going to be one of the most difficult players we have ever had to replace,” Rudloff said. “He was our quarterback on defense for three years. He was extremely intelligent and ran the defense. Offensively, especially last year, he was the most senior player on that side of the ball, so he had input on offense, too.”
For O’Neill, Rudloff was appreciative of him informing him of his decision to leave early. That way, Rudloff could let other quarterbacks know.
“Every team has their number one quarterback, and then the number two and three. When Miles told me in January he was looking at private schools, it was nice that we can give our backup quarterbacks a heads up that they will have a shot at the starting spot,” Rudloff said. “There’s an opportunity now that, realistically, it wasn’t there before. I can’t coach them in the offseason but I was able to talk to them and tell them to get some extra work in once Miles told me [he] was leaving. I really appreciate Miles being upfront and honest which allowed us to use our other quarterbacks in the 7 on 7s to get some work in.”
The quarterback competition will be between Colt Wales, Drew Goldman, and Finn Galloup.
“Those three guys will be competing for the open spot,” Rudloff said. “Colt was our number two last year and Finn was the freshman quarterback. All three guys had a chance to play in the offseason.”
Despite losing two of the best players in the state, Rudloff believes he has a more-balanced team.
“This year, we have a lot more balance than we did last year,” Rudloff said. “We were reliant on the deep ball last year due to our personnel. But, this year, I think we are more talented across the board at receiver. All of our running backs this year will be juniors and the wide receiver groups are now seniors.”
According to Rudloff, there many returning players primed for big seasons: Christian Pacheco, Jake Scogland, Chris DeWitt, Scotty Campbell, Ryan Commoss, Andy Palmer, and Greg Motorny.
The system he has in place can be adjusted, too.
“We’ll have the same kind of system, but we’ll just lean into a different direction,” Rudloff said. “If you have a great back and a great line, you’ll lean one way. If you don’t have the receivers, you may lean towards play action. There are different ways to manipulate the system. I think we’ll be a lot more balanced this year.”
