Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series previewing the 2008 Central College football team.

Many of the faces have changed for the Central College football team. Expectations have not.

It’s a tradition-drenched program but in just four seasons, coach Jeff McMartin has firmly affixed his stamp. There was a 6-4 inaugural campaign in 2004, but since then he’s guided the Dutch to a 31-4 three-year record, including a gaudy 29-1 regular-season mark, with back-to-back 10-0 seasons in 2006 and 2007. A share of the 2005 Iowa Conference title and outright crowns the past two years give Central a record 29 conference championships. Three straight NCAA Division III playoff berths bring Central’s record-tying total to 19. Last year’s 12-1 season was just the second 12-win campaign in school history and produced the program’s first trip to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals since 2000.

And Central enters 2008 riding a 27-game regular-season win streak, the school’s second-longest ever. Even with 17 graduated starters’ names wiped off the depth chart, even with eight all-conference performers carrying their diplomas off the commencement stage last May, even with just two returning defensive starters, fans and pollsters are expecting more of the same. In the earliest preseason rankings, Central is 14th according to USA Today Sports Weekly college football season preview magazine and is tabbed 15th by Lindy’s College Football Annual.

McMartin, who already has three league coach of the year awards and was the AFCA’s choice as West Region coach of the year last season, said his expectations haven’t changed, either, but it won’t necessarily require 10 wins to meet them.

“This year is going to be the same as the past,” he said. “We’re going to be very process-oriented. We’re going to focus on each day and try to get better. In many ways, it’s like 2005. We had a lot of new faces that season. But the best thing we did for those guys was to focus on getting better every week and be a really tight-knit team. If we do those things, we’re going to have a great season.”      

A great season doesn’t have to be an undefeated season. That will require a few breaks and probably some last-minute wins as well. McMartin knows that 10-0 is but a few dropped third-down passes and errant kicks away from 5-5, as last year’s squad demonstrated. The 2007 Dutch produced more drama than a Shakespeare festival. They were outgained in seven of the 10 regular-season wins, trailed in six of them and scrambled to get game-winning fourth-quarter scores four times.

“It’s a fine line and it’s going to continue to be a fine line every year,” McMartin said. “There are good coaches and good teams in this league and it’s extremely competitive. But those tight games have been the fun games. Those are the ones you’ll always remember.”

McMartin may enjoy stomach-churning finishes but for now his fun is trying to solve the line-up puzzle before the season kicks off Sept. 6. In a question-filled preseason, there will be none bigger than quarterback, where four years ago Tim Connell arrived as an undersized, unheralded recruit and left campus last spring toting the Iowa Conference MVP Award and a duffel bag full of school passing records.

The candidates for Connell’s job are short on experience but long on potential. Sophomores Zack Bandow (6-foot-4, 200 pounds) and Jarred Lackey (6-1, 200) served as last year’s top backups and had promising junior varsity campaigns. The Dutch will also give sophomore William Lytle a look, as well as sophomore Nate Snead, a highly regarded transfer from Drake.

“Our quarterbacks have done a great job in preparing for this season,” McMartin said. “All of our quarterbacks have different strengths. It will come down to whoever moves the team the best.”

McMartin said there’s no timetable for naming a starter.

“I am confident it will shake itself out,” he said. “I want to at least wait until our first scrimmage. I’d like to see how they play against different people.”

McMartin doesn’t know the starter but likes his options.

“I know that we’ve got some really good quarterbacks ready to compete,” he said. “It will be fun to watch. I’m looking forward to seeing who rises to the top.”