University of Dubuque football coach Stan Zweifel says for the Spartans to take the next step the special teams will need to be “special”. Dubuque won its final two games of 2009 to finish with a record of 5-5 but Zweifel says it could have been better. He says they were the worst in the conference in many areas last year and they believed that held them back and led to lots of lost field position.
Zweifel hired a new coach in the off season who will handle the special teams, an area that he says offers game changing plays and field position. He says they had an average starting position for their opponents in 10 games of their own 44 yard line, while their average starting position was their own 22. He says their opponents were playing arena football while his team was playing regular football and it made a big difference when his team had to go the whole field and the opponents only had to go half the field.
A number of key players are back from an offense that led the Iowa Conference in passing in 2009. One exception is at quarterback where Colton Hansen graduated after passing for more than 27 hundred yards and 24 touchdowns. Sophomore Wyatt Hanus served as the backup in 2009 and will start the first game.
Dubuque opens at home on September second against Rockford.