Englehart Previews 2017 Florida Tech Football Season

Photo credit: James Ragan Photography

With the Spring game just two days away, Sportslowdown.com sat down with Florida Tech Panthers head football coach Steve Englehart, to get his early thoughts on the Panthers 2017 season.

With an 8-3 record, including five wins in the Gulf South Conference, the Panthers are coming off their first ever playoff appearance in 2016, the Panthers are primed to make another run through the Gulf South Conference and get back to the postseason in 2017.

“Expectations are high as always, you wanna get out there and compete each and every week,” said Englehart. “Hopefully at the end of the season you’re sitting there with a chance to win the conference and go to the playoffs. My expectations haven’t changed from that since we started.”

Englehart said from a philosophical standpoint, within the program, not much has changed, but he has added a team seminar to their Friday activities, dealing with character development and leadership development, trying to build more leaders within the program. He is also hoping to get more guys to stay through the summer to work with the strength and conditioning coach. “Ultimately, though, it comes down to how you execute on Saturday,” he said.

Defensively, there will be some big changes, as Rick Minter has been brought in, to replace Mark Smith. Minter spent 10 seasons as the head coach of Cincinnati. He was an assistant at places like Notre Dame, Ball State, South Carolina and Kentucky. He also spent time in the NFL, as the linebackers’ coach for Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles. Most recently, he served as Georgia State’s defensive line coach.

“There’s some things from a scheme standpoint that will be different, so there’s quite a bit of a learning curve with our defensive players,” Englehart said. “It’s been encouraging how much they’ve accepted the changes, I think they’re having fun with it.”

The interesting part of the new scheme is that it allows guys to play in some different positions. Englehart said guys are not stuck in one position. They get a chance to move around and there’s some diversity in the system. “That makes them more flexible and employable, if that makes sense,” said Englehart.

Minter’s experience will not only help the players, but also the other coaches on the staff. “I learned a long time ago to try to hire people that were smarter than me,” said Englehart. “He’s been a head coach before, he’s seen different ways to do things. He’s been with Chip Kelly, he’s been with Lou Holtz, he’s been with Charlie Weis.

“To talk about how those head coaches were different and how they did different things is nice to hear, he continued. “I’m able to bounce things off of him, which has helped me open up to some things that I wasn’t quite sure about.”

The Panthers had 29 seniors graduate in 2016, among them running back Trevor Sand and tight end Kenny Johnston. Englehart is confident he has the guys in place to fill those holes.

Junior running back Sekai Lindsay, who is from Melbourne (Palm Bay H.S) and spent last season with UMass, will take Sand’s spot. “He’s played division one and played in some big games,” said Englehart. The Panthers still have the very capable talents of Antwuan Haynes and Gary Holmes, which should make for a very good running back trio.

Kevin Purlett, who saw his share of game action last season as a redshirt freshman, will now be the guy at tight end. “He’s much better this spring than what he was in the fall,” said Englehart. “He’s a really good blocker, probably one of the best blocking tight ends we’ve had, who can also get down the field really well.”

Mason Wilfong, of Palm City FL, who spent 2016 as a member of the Southern Illinois Salukis, will join the Panthers this year as a tight end. “We recruited him last year, he went to Southern Illinois and it didn’t work out for him. He wanted to come back home. He’s a great blocker and has great speed.”

“The tight end position and running back position, where we’ve lost some guys is just as good as it’s ever been,” Englehart said.

Wide receiver is a position that was tested last season, as the Panthers lost Romell (‘Melo) Guerrier and Terrance Bynum in their season opener against Newberry. “We’ve got all our wide receivers coming back and even a few that weren’t with the program last year,” said Englehart. “I feel good about the offense.”

There are some injuries that will keep some guys out of the spring game, so according to coach, what we see on Friday will not be the offense we see in the Fall.

Mark Cato - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography

One bit of news that had to make him feel even better about the offense, was the news that starting quarterback Mark Cato, will return to the team for his senior season. Cato, who was suspended from the team prior to last year’s playoff loss to North Greenville, was reinstated this week, but will be suspended for the opener.

You can read more on that here, courtesy of Space Coast Daily. The link includes a video of the interview that Alan Zlotorzynski did with Athletic Director Bill Jurgens and Englehart.

“Over the last four months, we’ve been planning for 2017 without him,” Englehart said. “I feel good with our progress at the quarterback position and obviously, he’s got a lot of experience over the last three years. We’ll see how he’s able to come back and get back in the fold.”

The Spring game is scheduled for Friday, April 7, at 7:00 p.m. It will be played at Florida Tech Panther Stadium and is open to the public. You can get more information on the day’s events here.

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