Friday – Defensive Preview
Saturday – Offensive Preview
Sunday – Special Teams Preview
Monday – Week 1 Preview
6 p.m. Thursday – #7 Eastern Oregon at #25 Southern Oregon – Live Stream | Live Stats | Tickets

ASHLAND – As the 2017 season approaches, little has changed about a Southern Oregon University special teams unit that has quietly been a positive force for several years now.

Bryan Sander, a fourth-year staffer and SOU's cornerbacks coach, is the team's new special teams coordinator. He took over for Nathan Chin, the Raiders' assistant head coach and receivers coach who held the special teams title for the previous six seasons.

Sander won't need to make something out of nothing. Two proven All-Frontier Conference players, place-kicker Marcus Montano and punter Louis DesPrez, give the Raiders peace of mind in those aspects of the game, and big-legged newcomer Jaxon Clark gives them another option. And though the Raiders lost one of the top return men in team history, Matt Retzlaff, they have a bevy of speedy skill-position standouts to choose from.

Since taking over prior to the 2015 season for Aldrick Rosas – who is currently 4-for-4 on preseason field-goal tries while fighting for the New York Giants' kicking job – Montano has been nothing short of dependable. The junior from Manteca, Calif., has connected on 21 of 32 field-goal tries over two years, going 17-for-23 from inside 40 yards with a long of 42. During his freshman season, he at one point hit 42 consecutive point-after attempts; last year, he hit 46 of 47. He also averaged nearly 59 yards on 68 kickoffs, and 19 of those resulted in touchbacks.

Montano started 2016 as SOU's No. 1 punter until DesPrez, now a senior, quickly established himself as one of the best in the NAIA. His average of 42.5 yards ranked fourth nationally, 11 of his 49 went for 50-plus yards, 15 were stuck inside opponents' 20-yard lines, and his best of 64 was the eighth-longest in Raider history. He'll be unavailable for the first week, however, so Clark will get a shot. Clark, a sophomore transfer who played sparingly last year at Weber State, was an all-state punter at Grants Pass High and has caught eyes in camp.

"It's nice to have that type of talent and dependability, so we feel really good about our kicking and punting game," Sander said. "With Jaxon coming in, he's fostered some competition and given us options."

On the returns, SOU has notable options in receiver Matt Boudreaux, cornerback AJ Cooper, safety Keegan Lawrence and running backs Louis Macklin and Rey Vega.

Macklin, regarded as one of the conference's fastest players, returned a team-high 22 kickoffs with an average of 19.7 yards last season, and Vega returned 13 at a clip of 23.6 – including a 93-yard touchdown against Montana State-Northern that was the seventh-longest return in SOU history.

Boudreaux handled a majority of the punts, taking seven for a total of 51 yards, and Cooper took three for 43. Lawrence has not previously served as a return man, but the senior was one of the shiftiest ball-carriers on the team when he played running back during his freshman and sophomore seasons.

"It's going to be just like last year – a hodge-podge of guys who can be dangerous with the ball – and whoever has the hot hand will be out there," Sander said.

Linebacker Tyson Cooper and defensive lineman Sean Rogers are slated to be on long-snapper duties. Mitch Malot, an offensive lineman, and Rogers are penciled in as the short-snappers.