With the Eagles first game against Bloomsburg on Sept. 1 vastly approaching, the simple question is: who will put the team on his back?

A huge congratulation goes out to Joe Horn for getting a shot at playing on Sundays with Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, but it’s time to start looking at the 2011 Ashland University Eagles.

All this talk of Ashland possibly having the best defense in the past decade is very exciting and will surely help, but as everyone on campus knows, Ashland has always been a team that needs to put a lot of points on the board to win. The defense’s job is going to be to force turnovers and get the offense on the field.

Will junior quarterback Taylor Housewright be able to drive down the field with two minutes left in the game and score with a virtually brand new receiving corps?

Will senior running back D.J. McCoy be able to slice and dice the opposing defense with a new offensive line? Will he have holes big enough to run through?

Who will be the guy to tell the team late in the fourth quarter, “put the ball in my hands?” Only time will tell.

Sept. 1 in Bloomsburg, when the Eagles step on that field under Coach Owens, a leader will have to emerge on the offensive side of the football. Someone on this Eagles team is going to have to take over Horn’s role as the reliable playmaker that always wants the ball and makes plays.

Someone is going to have to do their best Greg Jennings imitation and “put the team on his back.”