Highly anticipated return of Albany State football begins Thursday at Mississippi College

The highly anticipated Albany State football season is finally here.

Fifth-year head coach Gabe Giardina and the Rams open 2021 with a Thursday night game at 7 against Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss. Their home opener is Sept. 11 against Shorter.

It has been a long break for the team after COVID-19 forced a cancellation of last season. ASU went 7-4 in its last action in 2019, closing the season with a 42-6 win over Fort Valley State in the 30th annual Fountain City Classic before falling 21-6 to Miles in the SIAC title game.

“It feels really good. It feels normal,” Giardina told asugoldenrams.com about the season’s preparation. “We’ve been out here doing spring ball and getting us closer to playing a game so we feel like we’re getting back to normal, doing what we should be doing…doing what we came here to do.“

ASU enters the season with an experienced offensive line, anchored by four returning starters headlined by Miquail Harvey and Katray Pringle. A pack of newcomers will be relied on heavily at the other spots on offense.

The Rams look to be big and experienced on defense.

“It’s big for us to get Antonio Leroy back,” Giardina told asugoldenrams.com. “He missed the whole 2019 season when he tore his ACL in the first game. He hasn’t played in two years, but he’s probably the anchor in the middle being the Mike linebacker. Brindon Manuel at noseguard has completely changed his body. … He’s a different guy. Malik Barnes on the edge pass rushing, disruption is the name of his game. He’s really been unblockable all camp. Those three guys to me are big energy players.

“In the secondary is Coemba Jones, first team all-conference and leading tackler for us. Stephan Pierre and Branderious Rawlings, that’s six really good football players for us. The rest of the guys are really good, too. These six represent the guys with the most experience and have made the most plays so far for us.”

Special teams also should be a strength with Gabriel Ballinas back to handle punting and kicking. He had a team-high 61 points in 2019.

“We really spend a lot of time in special teams,” Giardina told asugoldenrams.com. “We want to be great in every phase, but Gabe Ballinas has been starting for three years. He’s a great kicker and punter. He’s as good as I’ve ever been around. We had 18 punts down inside the 20 last season, which is unheard of, that’s like two a game.”

Joe Whitfield