2018 College Football Team Previews: San Diego Toreros
San Diego Toreros
Location: San Diego, CA
Coach: Dale Lindsey (46-13), 6th Season
Stadium: Torero Stadium (Capacity: 6,000)
CSJ Projections:
1st: Pioneer League
10th: California
69th: FCS
198th: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: San Diego won its second consecutive PFL crown in finishing 10-3 overall (8-0 PFL) and also won its second playoff contest (against Northern Arizona) before falling in the second round.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: DE Jonathan Petersen became the first USD football player to earn four different All-America First Team selections. He led the NCAA Division I FCS ranks in both sacks (18) and tackles-for-loss (25.5) and ranked second in forced fumbles (7). With three first half sacks against FCS champion North Dakota State in his last career game in the second round of the playoffs, Petersen became the all-time FCS sack leader with 44. He also leaves USD as the all-time leader in forced fumbles with 17.
Key Player: Senior QB Anthony Lawrence is one of just four starters back and his leadership will be the key to USD again retaining the PFL top spot. In his career, he has started all of his three years (36 games) in southern California and has thrown for 8,521 yards. Last year alone, he had an astounding touchdown to interception ratio in throwing 33 scores while only throwing three picks.
Fearless Prediction: The defense has six starters back so while the inexperienced offense pulls it together this just may be the side of the ball that needs to dominate. All points, however, lead towards the offense to eventually click and again win the PFL.
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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