Lenoir-Rhyne Predicted to Finish First in SAC Football Preseason Coaches' Poll; Preseason Players to Watch Announced

Rock Hill, S.C. (theSAC.com) – For the second straight year, Lenoir-Rhyne has been voted as the conference favorite by the South Atlantic Conference football head coaches, the league announced today.  The Bears collected six first-place votes and 85 points in the poll.  

For the first time since 2021, the SAC will no longer have a divisional format. With 10 teams, every team will compete against each other over nine weeks to crown a regular season champion. The conference championship game will also be eliminated with the lack of divisions.   

The Bears will be looking for a 12^th championship in program history. LR last won in 2023 and are coming off a successful 2024 campaign. LR went 10-3 overall and 6-2 in the SAC in head coach Doug Socha's first season. The Bears finished just behind Wingate in the Piedmont Division and then became the only SAC team to win an NCAA Playoff game when they went to West Alabama and knocked off the Tigers 37-34.

Wingate won the 2024 SAC Championship game and rode the No. 3 total defense in all of Division II to a 9-2 season and a Piedmont Division best 6-1 record. The Bulldogs finished the regular season on a seven-game winning streak to advance to the Playoffs for the sixth time in program history.

Carson-Newman finished just one point behind Wingate in the coaches' poll and earned a Mountain Division title in 2024 before falling to the Bulldogs in the SAC title game. The Eagles averaged 265.8 rushing yards per game last year, the fourth-best mark in the nation. They used a strong rushing attack to garner a 9-3 overall record and a 7-1 SAC mark. Carson-Newman's 383 points scored last year are the most in the league.

Emory & Henry was picked to finish 10^th in last year's poll and they finished just one game back of Carson-Newman in the Mountain Division with a 6-2 record and 9-2 overall. Riding a defense that led the nation with 27 interceptions and six INT's returned for touchdowns, the Wasps had the biggest turnaround in the league as they double their league win total from 2023 to 2024.

Mars Hill earned 56 points to slot in at fifth in the voting. The Lions went 5-2 in the conference, making it four straight years with at least five SAC victories. Tim Clifton returns to the helm as he has done every year since 1993 and is second in SAC history in coaching victories behind Ken Sparks.

Catawba earned the sixth spot in the coaches' voting but the 1-7 league mark in 2024 doesn't tell the whole story. The Catawba Indians were the most injured team in the league and four of the losses came by a combined 13 points.

Newberry is No. 7 with 45 total points and head coach Todd Knight is just four victories away from number 100 for his career. Newberry won the league in 2021 and 2022 and will look to bounce back from a 3-7 season that saw them go 3-4 in the league.

In the second year of the program, Anderson was tabbed for an eighth place finish. Playing with a roster made of mostly underclassmen, the Trojans had a highly successful inaugural season. They won three games overall and one in the league and took Lenoir-Rhyne to the last play in the final game of the season before falling on a field goal. Anderson returns the majority of its team from a season ago with added depth.

UVA Wise was predicted to finish ninth by the league coaches but had a solid year under first year head coach Gary Bass. Wise won four games overall and went 2-5 in the league which marked the second-best SAC finish in the six years since joining the league.

The poll was rounded out by Tusculum who came in at tenth. The Pioneers went 1-9 overall and 1-7 in conference play but will look to surprise some teams in year two of head coach Billy Taylor's tenure.

Along with the Preseason Poll, each team listed six Players to Watch for the upcoming season. That list is beneath the Coaches' Poll below.

The 2025 SAC football season will kick off on Friday, August 29, with Lenoir-Rhyne taking the field against West Florida, with seven more playing on Saturday, August 30. The rest of the league will kick off the following week. Check out the full schedule of games online at www.thesac.com. 

Be sure to catch all of the SAC football action online with live video streaming via the FloSports Network! Fans can sign-up for FloSports by visiting https://go.flocollege.com/partner/sac. 

2025 SAC Preseason Football Coaches' Poll

Players to Watch

Anderson

Tyler Wesley (QB), Jalon Warthen-Carr (WR), Kam Burris (OL), Jerrod Woods (LB), Carter Wit (DB), Colton Smith (DL)

Carson-Newman

Mekhi Brown (LB), Martavis Mason (DL), Champ Baker (DB), Cruz Temple (LB), Grayson Campbell (P), Jeremiah Carroll (WR), Jayden Sullins (RB)

Catawba

Bo Pryor (WR), Preston Brown (QB), Evan Simons (DB), Dallas Foard (OL), Avery Swinton (OL), Kevin Lalin (RB)

Emory & Henry

Shawn Collins (DB), Cam Peoples (WR), Ean Rhea (DL), Jordan Jackson (RB), Jarrell Harrison (DB), Deshaun Sharp (OL)

Lenoir-Rhyne

James Ussery (DB), Maddox Aprile (DL), Treyvon Cooper (LB), Ryan Whetzel (OL), Songa Yates (WR), Dom Marshall (WR)

Mars Hill

JR Martin (QB), Jon Gullette (RB), Caleb Lominac (TE), Sakarri Morrison (DE), Isaac Weaver (LB), Cherron Holt (DB)

Newberry

Dwayne Wright (RB), Keith Desaussure (WR), DeAndre Coleman (WR), Devron Williams (LB), Jalen Stradford (OLB), Jaydon Eason (NG)

Tusculum

Reginald Hunter (TE), Solomon Maosa (DL), DJ Dailey (DB), Tre Mobley (DB), Gabe McLamb (OL), Ashton Hagans (WR)

Wingate

Carlos Estronza (WR), Ethan Wallace (RB), Porfirio Acosta (OL), Kai Russell (DE), Jaquan Edwards (LB), Brandon Perry (DB)

UVA Wise

Ian Scammell (RB), Seth Fischbach (WR), Jake Corkren (QB), Kenneth Long (DL), Brub Hines (LB), Dacorian Jones-Montgomery (LB)