The Towson University football team has officially started their 2015 season as practice began this past week. The Tigers are in training camp getting ready for their season opener on Sept. 5 when they will travel to Greenville, North Carolina to take on the Pirates of East Carolina University.

Last week, the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) held its annual media day at M&T Bank Stadium. When the preseason poll came out, the Tigers were picked ninth in the 12-team league. I had a chance to sit down and talk with head coach Rob Ambrose about the upcoming season.

Morekas: With your team picked to finish 9^th, is that a motivating tool you can use?
Ambrose: Sure, why not? You don't think I am going to use every aspect, every crumb to motivate my guys? But in the end, I don't know how strong that is going to be for them. What they have done in the last eight months to get ready for this season has shown me that they are out to prove that they are better than wherever they were picked to finish here this year.

Morekas: During spring ball you had talked about the progress your offensive line had made. Obviously, everyone always just wants to talk about the quarterback position, but isn't the success of the quarterback dependant on the offensive line?
Ambrose: On any championship team, its confidence and consistency of the offensive line. It doesn't matter what level of football you are talking about. From the NFL down, and last year we had inexperience and injuries. That's a bad combination to possess. There is no substitution for experience and having those young guys last year get that experience is invaluable. I'll go back to 2009 and 2010 when we also had an offensive line that was young and inexperienced and beat up, it paid dividends down the road. I am convinced that these guys will exhibit a level of growth that will make everyone happy.

Morekas: I know in talking with offensive line coach John Donatelli last year, that this offensive line has a chance to be better than the offensive line that went to the national championship game in 2013.
Ambrose: We talk as a staff every year that the goal is to bring in recruiting classes that are just a little bit better than the class before. These guys are bigger, they are quicker, they are more knowledgeable. When you talk about that 2013 line, we recruited those guys when nobody wanted to come here. We took those guys and we taught them, we grew them, and they grew into a phenomenal group of young men. I couldn't be more proud of those guys. But now you are looking at guys that want to be a part of conference championships, want to make runs to national titles, and that's what they are about all the time. I believe that certainly bodes well for us in the future.

Morekas: At the skill positions, obviously it starts with running back Darius Victor, who was named Preseason All-CAA, but when you look at your other backs and your wide receivers, what do you see?
Ambrose: Marquel Dickerson had one of the best off seasons I have ever seen out of a running back, but then you look at Darius, and he had his best off-season ever. I am blown away by the two of them. You talk about a 1-2 punch and then there are guys behind them who can play. As for wide receiver, besides Andre Dessenberg, we lost whatever experience we had, but I love the guys we have at that position. We plan on throwing the ball more this year, and I think we have the guys to do it. That will help the running game, and the running game will help the passing game.

Next week, coach Ambrose and I will talk about the Tiger defense for 2015. To many, it was a surprise the Tigers were picked as low as ninth. I look at this team much like the 2011 team; No one expected anything from that squad, and they won the CAA championship and put Towson in the FCS playoffs for the first time. That 2011 team, much like this one, had taken its licks the year before, but had gained invaluable game experience. It should be a lot of fun to watch this version of the Tiger football team.