3 Maine football storylines to follow against Campbell
UMaine running back Nick Laughlin tries to get away from Merrimack’s Rajahn Cooper during a Sept. 12 game in Orono. Maine, which has lost six consecutive games, hosts Campbell at 1 p.m. Saturday. (Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer)
Make it six consecutive losses for the University of Maine football team. The Black Bears had their chances last week against visiting Bryant, but three fumbles were costly in a 17-14 defeat to the Bulldogs that assured Maine of a losing season.
Homecoming week for Maine pits the Black Bears (1-6, 1-3 Coastal Athletic Association) against 16th-ranked Campbell (6-1, 3-0 CAA) at 1 p.m. Saturday (FloSports). Here are three storylines ahead of Maine’s third consecutive home game:
Is Drezek the guy?
Until last week, Maine’s starting quarterback job still belonged to Eddie Buehler. The sophomore had started every game and was atop the depth chart the team released two days before the Bryant game.
But junior Caden Drezek played from start to finish against Bryant, completing 18 of 34 passes for 234 yards — most by a Maine QB this year — with a touchdown and no interceptions. Drezek had already been eating into Buehler’s playing time, so is the job now his?
“We have not decided on that yet,” coach Jordan Stevens said in the CAA press conference on Monday. “We’re going to meet with those guys and really decide how that’s going to play out this weekend.”
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Maine defense has its hands full
It’s hard to pin too much of Maine’s losing streak on the defense. That unit hasn’t been perfect, but it has put the Black Bears in position to win many of those six games. Now comes a much bigger challenge.
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Campbell is first in the CAA and 11th of 124 Football Championship Subdivision teams in yards per game (455). Senior quarterback Kamden Sixkiller is 10th in the FCS in passing yards with 1,899.
“Sixkiller is just doing an excellent job distributing the football,” Stevens said. “Their intensity is seen through the film, and that shows (in) how they block — how they block up front, how they block on the perimeter and how hard their backs run.”
Homecoming heroics?
If you’re looking for a good omen for the Black Bears against Campbell, consider what week it is. Homecoming has yielded great success recently for Maine, which has won nine consecutive homecoming games since losing to Yale in 2015.
Even some years of struggles have yielded homecoming wins for Maine, which won against Monmouth in 2022 and LIU in 2023 — both two-win seasons. Perhaps Saturday could produce similar magic for the Black Bears.
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Tagged: college football, maine black bears, UMaine Black Bears
Mike Mandell came to the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel in April 2022 after spending five and a half years with The Ellsworth American in Hancock County, Maine. He came to Maine out of college after. More by Mike Mandell
