Newberry selected fifth in preseason coaches’ poll

ROCK HILL – Newberry has been picked to finish fifth in the 2019 South Atlantic Conference Football Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

“I think we got picked exactly where we belong,” said head coach Todd Knight. “Going off last year’s record fifth place is pretty accurate. At this point it’s our job to go prove that we’re better than that.”

Newberry finished tied for fifth last season at 3-4 in league play and was one spot higher with an identical record in 2017. The Wolves completed the 16th undefeated campaign in SAC history in 2016 in claiming their third conference title.

Lenoir-Rhyne, which was undefeated in league games last year and advanced to the national quarterfinals, was picked to win its ninth SAC championship. The Bears picked up 68 points and five first-place votes, four points and two first-place votes ahead of last year’s runner-up Wingate.

Carson-Newman was voted third and Tusculum, which captured the final first-place vote, was fourth. Catawba, Mars Hill, Limestone, and UVa-Wise rounded out the poll.

2019 will be just the second season in the league’s 45 years of existence that nine teams have competed in the SAC with the addition of UVa-Wise. The SAC also fielded nine teams in 1999, Gardner-Webb’s final year as a Division II institution and Tusculum’s first as an official member of the league.

The conference’s only other season without eight teams came in 2007, when seven teams competed following Presbyterian’s jump to Division I and during Brevard’s provisional year.

Preseason All-SAC teams will be released tomorrow, with Digital Media Day set for Tuesday, Aug. 6.

2019 SAC Football Preseason Coaches’ Poll