Barton Bulldogs open fall practice

WILSON — Like an anxious parent awaiting his kids’ return from summer camp, Barton College head football coach Chip Hester is experiencing the annual early-season antsiness that accompanies the first day of practice.

Barton players moved into their campus dorms Sunday and hit the ground running Monday morning for the first practice of the 2024 season, which opens Sept. 5.

“You don’t even have a full month, or right at a full month, I guess, to get a football team ready to play a game, because we really cannot do anything officially with them in the summertime,” said Hester, entering his fifth season as Bulldogs head coach since the college resurrected football from a 71-year absence.

Barton is coming off its second winning season in three years after finishing 6-5 in 2023 following a 5-1 start. The Bulldogs went 4-5 in the NCAA Division II South Atlantic Conference, tying defending SAC champion Newberry for fourth place in the league’s rugged Piedmont Division.

The 2024 season will be significantly different for the Bulldogs following the mass departure of starters, many of whom had been in place for all four seasons since Barton started playing football again in the spring of 2021. That list includes All-America running back Jordan Terrell, who signed with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League; wide receiver Kameron Johnson, who signed a free-agent deal with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers; three-time All-South Atlantic Conference linebacker Shane Perry, now playing at East Carolina University and two-time All-SAC center Alex Buschow. While there are still plenty of starters back from last year’s team, there are more spots up for grabs now since the first season. Managing the roster via the transfer portal as well as recruiting high school players is a necessity these days.

“Time will tell if we’ve managed it properly, but I think we’ve been able to bring in some guys and after next week, we’ll be able to kind of have a better feel for where those guys fit in and things like that,” Hester said. “But look, I think when it’s all said and done, I feel pretty good about our talent level. I think we’ll be a bigger football team this year than we were last year. And I thought that we looked pretty good last year, but we’ll be bigger. We’ve got talent. As a matter of fact, I know, you know, we lost some guys that are truly stars for us, but I think we’ve got guys that can step up.

“And we don’t expect anyone to be a Jordan Terrell or Jaquan Lynch or Kameron Johnson or Shane Perry, for that matter, but we want them to be themselves and the best version of themselves. I’m excited about them. I think we’ve got guys that will bring something different to the table and that makes the team dynamic a little different.”

Despite the departure of Buschow, the offensive line will have five players back with starting experience — Jalen Brown, Trent Jones, Trey Pickard, Connor Sauls and Hunter Sauls — while the receiving corps will also have plenty of familiar faces in Jayden Flood-Brown, Jevon Myers, Davon Adams and Isaiah Jacobs.

Tay Long, Dekauri Davis and Ian Bright are the leading candidates to get the ball out of the backfield while H-backs Jack White and Raekwon Batts are back.

The QB position was a battle during the Blue-White game with transfer Trevor Nored vying with returning backup Luke Smith.

The defense is loaded with returning players, including All-Piedmont Division linebacker Matt Smith, along with linebackers Kolbi Anderson, Ja’Correy Bible and Dereck Barringer; linemen Josh Noland and Cash DeVaughan, and defensive backs Darius Williams, Connor Stanley, Mike Webb and Keno Jones.

End Bailey Carraway, a transfer from Division I Coastal Carolina, sparkled in the spring.

“All of our guys did some really good work in the spring,” Hester said. “And they haven’t had a chance to really kind of show what they can do on Saturday or Thursday night, as it would be, but it gives those guys opportunities.”

The Bulldogs open the season Sept. 5 against a team they haven’t played yet, West Virginia State of the Division II Mountain East Conference, before visiting Chowan on Sept. 14.

Other home games at Truist Stadium are against Anderson (Sept. 28), Lenoir-Rhyne (Oct. 19), Catawba (Nov. 2) and UVA Wise (Nov. 16).

This is Barton’s final season in the South Atlantic as the college’s main athletic affiliation, Conference Carolinas will offer football as a sport in 2025. The Bulldogs were picked to finish ninth overall in the 12-team conference.

“I think our football team has got a little bit of a chip on its shoulder,” he said. “I think we’re going to be picked ninth — is what I hear and I don’t blame anybody for picking us ninth — but that gives you some motivation. I don’t think anyone’s expecting much from us, but I think our guys are pretty anxious to show what they can do.”

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