Towson hits the road Saturday with a new coach, a freshman quarterback, a past strewn with losses and a defense that last year ranked among the worst in college football. And that's the good news.
First up is Northwestern - yes, that Northwestern - a bowl-savvy, lip-smacking Big Ten team whose scrubs might give Towson fits.
Is this how Rob Ambrose pictured his debut as Towson's head coach?
"Sure, why not?" Ambrose said of the mismatch-to-be. "I was never big on putting one toe in the pool. If you want to learn to swim, jump in the deep end."
Most expect Towson to belly-flop. Last year, the Tigers (3-9) played their first major college team ever and were thrashed by Navy, 41-13. And Northwestern? The Wildcats went 9-4 before losing in overtime to Missouri, 30-23, in the Alamo Bowl.
Northwestern has 47 lettermen back from a team that beat Michigan before 107,000 in Ann Arbor.
On the other hand, Towson has new uniforms.
"Nobody expects much out of us," said Towson's Alex Butt, a senior linebacker from Hereford. "The only people that think we're capable of doing good things are the 57 guys who are flying to the game."
Not lost on the Tigers is recent history. Three years ago, New Hampshire, another team from the unheralded Colonial Athletic Association, journeyed to Evanston, Ill., and stunned Northwestern, 34-17.
"We didn't take New Hampshire as seriously as we should have," said Corey Wootton, the Wildcats' star defensive end. "We've learned our lesson. Towson is a team that's going to run the ball a lot, so we need to ... wreak havoc in their backfield."
If the Tigers are scared, they don't show it.
"This is not a David-and-Goliath thing," said Ambrose, the fourth head coach in Towson's 41 years of football. "Our guys are going to find out that, as big and bad as a top 20 team is, if they play their butts off, they can play with anybody.
"Northwestern has guys who can run a 4.4. So do we. They've got 300-pounders who can bench-press 450 pounds. So do we. The only difference is their depth and our mindset."
That, plus the fact that Towson's yet- unnamed quarterback enters the season never having taken a college snap. Three rookies - Peter Athens, Tommy Chroniger and Brian Potts, a redshirt freshman - leapfrogged Blair Peterson, last year's understudy. Who'll start remains unknown.
Towson returns 15 starters, none Matt Castor, the top rusher who quit the team this summer for personal reasons.
"Running back will be done by committee," Ambrose said. "The depth chart is fluid. A couple of guys have grabbed the bull by the horns but haven't been able to hold on completely."
Players to watch include receiver Casey Cegles, offensive tackle Dan Bridges (Francis Scott Key) and defensive end Brady Smith (Loyola), a transfer from Boston College who'll try to shore up a unit that last year ranked 107th in the country in total defense.
"Coaching-wise, we're almost going into the game blind," said Pat Fitzgerald, the Wildcats' head coach. "But it's going to be a fun challenge."
The two coaches are friends, having met in 1998 when Ambrose was an assistant at Towson and Fitzgerald at Maryland.
Ambrose called his colleague this summer and asked for some Northwestern game film.
"Sure," Fitzgerald said. "What can I have in return?"
"I sent him film of our scrimmage last spring," Ambrose said. "It wasn't much to look at."
Mindful of the size of Northwestern's 47,000-seat stadium - four times the capacity of Towson's - the coaches have turned up the sound during practice all week.
"We're pumping crowd noise into [Johnny Unitas Stadium] - music, thunder and screaming - so these guys can learn to focus," Ambrose said. "Is it frustrating for them? Yes. But they'd rather be prepared."
And wouldn't it be something, Butt said, if Towson, which lost its last five games in 2008, ended that hapless streak against a Big Ten team?
"The bottom line is that we've worked our tails off for the past six months and we feel capable of doing some damage," he said. "At the end of last season, we didn't believe we could win. We didn't have the heart that Towson teams had shown many years back, but Coach Ambrose has lit a fire."
For himself and Towson's seven other seniors, Butt said, "this season is not so much an ending to our careers as it is a beginning for a team that really has a chance to do something in the future."
Colleges kick off
College football begins this week, and we've got you covered:
Today: Local schools, capsules PG 3
Friday: Maryland season preview
Saturday: Preview of Maryland's opener at No. 12 California
TOWSON @ NORTHWESTERN
Saturday, noon
Radio: 1570 AM
