The Eagles football team is coming off a season in which they finished with an 8-2 record.

Ashland University missed the playoffs on the last week of the regular season, but they are ready to fight back and try to make it this year.

Of course, with it being a new season, there are some key members of last year’s team that have graduated. However, head coach Lee Owens believes that there are plenty of players who can step up and fill the gaps left over.

“When you have a good program, you lose good players and you hope you’re in a position where there are other good players in place,” said Owens. “We have guys in our program that can live up to that ‘next man up’ mentality.”

The biggest loss for AU has to be running back Anthony Taylor, who finished his spectacular career at AU last season.

Taylor broke many records during his time with AU. Some of those records include being the all-time leading rusher and all-time leading scorer in school history.

With the task of replacing Taylor will be junior Vance Settlemire. Settlemire had significant playing time last season behind Taylor, ending the year second on the team in rushing with 753 yards to go along with seven total touchdowns.

“There’s no question that Vance is an outstanding player, one of the best in the conference,” Owens said. “We just have to keep him healthy.”

One player who had a big impact for AU last season and will attempt to build on it is quarterback Travis Tarnowski. The redshirted sophomore was impressive a year ago, earning the GLIAC freshman of the year award.

Tarnowski’s favorite target last year, Dan Piko, will not return after completing his senior season. With Piko having 41 more receptions and 304 more yards than any other Eagle, the receiving corps for AU will be an interesting part of the team to keep an eye on.

The defensive side of the ball is going to have transition too, with some key guys gone as well. The two leading tacklers from last season, linebacker Cody Bloom and defensive back Chris Harvey, have graduated.

There will be quite a few changes to the defense, but Owens sees a lot of potential.

Other impact players gone from the defense include the two starting safeties from last season, Kyle Tomko and Eric Schwieterman.

To counteract those losses, Owens has had to make a few adjustments to where some players will be positioned.

“We took Donzale Ashley, who has been a big physical corner in the boundary, and moved him back to safety.”

Owens can move Ashley due to the major depth he sees in that part of the defense.

“At the corner position, (James) Ester and (Dale) Irby both are looking really good, as good of corner position players we’ve had in a long time.”

Even though there is a fair amount of turnover on the team, there are experienced players that will fill in.

“We don’t have to count on any freshman,” said Owens. “We do have a pretty good freshman class coming in, but it is a bonus if any of the young guys can play.”

Many of those who have graduated were big-time leaders for AU and that was something that was focused on in the offseason.

“We would meet as a team and define what we were looking for as leaders on our team.

We spent a lot of time developing leadership in the offseason,” Owens said. “Just like you’re training someone to step up and be the next quarterback, you have to train someone to be the next leader. And it’s good when it can be you’re quarterback.”

Overall, Owens is happy with the situation that his team is in and has high expectations for the season.

“We’ve gotten better as a football team in all aspects and all fundamentals of the game.”

Ashland’s first game of the year is on the road. They will play againts Lake Erie on Sept. 5. The first home game for the Eagles is on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. against the Ohio Dominican Panthers.