FOOTBALL TABBED FIFTH IN PRESEASON POLL

Senior linebacker Tom Tarsitano led the Mules with 73 tackles in 2006, earning All-CC second-team honors.

The Muhlenberg football team was picked fifth in the 2007 Centennial Conference preseason poll of coaches and sports information directors.

Every previous year, that would have put the Mules in the bottom half of

CC Preseason Poll School 2006 Record Points 1. Ursinus (7) 8-3 112 2. Johns Hopkins (4) 5-5 105 3. Dickinson (3) 8-3 94 4. Moravian (2) 4-6 76 5. MUHLENBERG 5-5 74 6. Gettysburg (1) 5-5 67 7. Franklin & Marshall (1) 3-7 52 8. McDaniel 4-6 44 9. Juniata 2-8 17

the standings. But with the addition of Moravian and Juniata as associate members, the CC now has nine football-playing schools, and fifth place is right in the middle.

Appropriately for a conference in which no team has gone undefeated since 2000, the voting was spread out. Six of the nine teams received first-place votes, but Muhlenberg wasn’t one of them. Ursinus got the most (seven) and topped the preseason poll for the first time since 1997. Eight of the last nine teams to finish first in the preseason poll have gone on to win or share the championship.

The Mules were 5-5 overall last season, a two-game improvement from 2005, and went 2-4 in the CC for the second year in a row. They return all 11 of their starters on defense, including senior Chris Musselman, who leads all active CC defensive players with 14 career sacks.

Muhlenberg reports for preseason camp on Friday, August 10, and is scheduled to play its first game at The College of New Jersey three weeks later.