The target is squarely on the back of Central College heading into the Iowa Conference football season. After a couple of sub-par seasons the Dutchmen have climbed back to the top of the league standings and enter this season having won 21 of their last 22 regular season games and advanced to the national playoffs the past two years.
Central coach Jeff McMartin says they’ve been fortunate to pull out some close games and now a lot of teams have set their sights on them. McMartin who has a number of key performers back from last year’s team that finished unbeaten in the regular season. He says two years ago they were a very young football team, and now they’ve developed into a very experienced football team. McMartin says it will be fun to watch this team play, but they still have a lot of holes to fill.
The key for Central the past two seasons has been winning the close games. Two reasons for that has been special teams and a lack of turnovers. The Dutch only lost one fumble during the 2006 regular season. He says every offense will have some plays that don’t go the way you want, and the odds are if you don’t give up a big play you are going to get a stop sometime. He says they stress not giving up the ball and momentum.
Central opens the season at home on September first against St. Thomas of Minnesota.