For a guy who once held the NCAA Division III record for career passing yards and still holds the D-III record for pass attempts, Josh Vogelbach might have to fight his gunslinger instincts this season.
The Bishop Verot coach not only gets a healthy Joslyn Mira back in the backfield after a broken collarbone cost him most of last season, he adds D-I running back prospect Terry Lindsey, who is transferring from North Fort Myers to start his junior year.
“It’s going to be great to have them both,” said Vogelbach, who went 4-4 and missed the playoffs in his first year as head coach last season after being Verot’s offensive coordinator for three seasons under Bill Shields.
“Getting an athlete like (Lindsey) helps out the team tremendously. But we do have some great players coming back. They’ll embrace the roles we give them and do what’s best for the team.”
Lindsey – a 6-foot, 180-pounder who just ran a 4.48 40 and has offers from Cincinnati, FIU, Iowa State and others, according to 247sports.com – ran for 432 yards and five touchdowns on 76 carries as a sophomore last season while splitting carries with senior Fa’Najeh Gotay, now at Maryland.
He had 132 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries in North’s 24-21 spring loss at Lely on May 18.
But he contributes to North’s loss of multiple key players with the graduations of Gotay, receiver and cornerback Joe Wilkins Jr. and quarterback Toby Noland as the Red Knights transition to new coach Dwayne Mack following the retirement of Earnest Graham.
“It was mainly I felt like I need a new environment,” said Lindsey, who debuted with the Vikings last week in a 7-on-7 game at Charlotte. “I felt like it would be best for me and my future.”
“He’s definitely fun to watch. He’s everything that everybody talks about,” Vogelbach said. “I like it because now we’re raising the level of play for everybody.”
Mira had 449 yards and five scores on 65 runs as a sophomore, averaging 6.9 yards a carry.
But the 6-2, 225-pounder broke his collarbone on the third play of the first game last season after senior quarterback Korey Besse was lost for the season with a knee injury in a preseason game.
Mira returned late in the season and ran well. But his early injury further hamstrung an offense that Vogelbach said was going to be centered around Joslyn once Besse got hurt.
“We were really struck by the injury bug last year,” Vogelbach said. “We were really going to ride J.J. (Joslyn). Him getting hurt really set us back on offense.”
Mira has the size to be a D-I player, too, Vogelbach said, and has looked great in the spring and summer.
“He’s a great athlete,” he said. “He’s really come into his own.”
With two talented runners, Vogelbach not only has to find ways to get both enough touches, he’ll also have to continue the growth he said he’s made as a play-caller not simply being the pass-happy gunslinger he once was as a player.
The former News-Press Offensive Player of the Year set 19 NCAA D-III records after transferring from East Carolina to Guilford (N.C.) College, including 1,982 career pass attempts and 13,591 career yards, which now ranks second all-time.
“I’d have thrown it 50 times a game,” he said laughing of his early play-calling days. “With those guys you’ve got to be able to run the football. And I think we will. But we’re going to have the ability to throw. They go off each other.”
Helping matters is that Lindsey is eager to split out some as a receiver, which he said Mira also will do. Lindsey said he’s also talked with Verot coaches about playing defensive back.
“I feel like defense is more fun than offense,” Lindsey said. “Playing corner or safety it’s like you’re out there on your own. You’ve got to have your own swag.”
Vogelbach also is excited about the emergence of rising-sophomore quarterback Jacob Azizi, who played at the end of last season after Cole Ames replaced Besse most of the year. Ames is headed to Fort Myers for his senior year, Vogelbach said.
Only 15 years old, the 6-foot-2 Azizi “had a great spring,” Vogelbach said, behind an offensive line that returns three starters and has two players weighing more than 260 pounds.
“He’s nice. He threw some fireballs,” Lindsey said of Azizi in 7-on-7. “He’s legit.”
“We’re very excited about him,” Vogelbach said. “This is where it becomes fun offensively. People are going to have to put guys in the box. It’ll give (Azizi) a chance to make some plays on the outside. It’s going to be fun trying to get everybody the ball.
“My goal was to try to get Verot back to what it was in early 1990s and early 2000s,” Vogelbach said. “To start become a more respected program around the area. I think we are on the right track.”
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