NEWTON, Mass. – "Everything is a process, whether it's football, a job, or growth itself."

That's how eighth year head coach Michael Landers describes his perspective on the Mount Ida College football team, about to begin the program's  17^th season and seventh year in the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC).

Mount Ida's success as a football team, which includes winning records in ECFC play all seven years, is founded upon this idea, in which getting better every day is the biggest point of emphasis.

The process will be magnified in its importance in the 2015 season, as the departure of a strong class of graduating seniors has left the Mustangs young a raw after a 2014 campaign that saw them go 5-2 in conference play and end up ECFC runners-up. The team was picked to finish fourth this coming year in a preseason poll conducted among the ECFC head coaches.

The defense was the backbone of the 2014 team, enabling them to win low-scoring games (7-6 over Maritime, 10-6 at Gallaudet and 14-12 at Anna Maria), but young players will have to step up and learn on the job to replace huge defensive pieces, including All-Conference standouts Jovan Wilkins, Anthony Sanders, Derek Bent and Kalyn Smithson.

The good news for the Mustangs is that returning to the fold are linebacker Sean Chinova (Watertown, Conn.) and defensive lineman Dom Spaulding (W. Hartford, Conn.), both of whom were selected as ECFC First Team All-Conference players and Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) North All-Stars. 

Chinova led the conference with 112 tackles and was named Mount Ida College breakthrough Player of the Year, while Spaulding's dominant season saw him lead the conference with 10.5 sacks and place 22^nd in the country with 1.9 tackles per loss per game. He also led the conference in yards from tackles for a loss and forced fumbles, and was selected New England Football Writer's Association (NEFWA) All-New England, as well as Mount Ida Male Athlete of the Year.

Spaulding and Chinova will anchor the front line and linebackers, while three defensive backs, senior Zach March (Saint Paul, Minn.), and juniors Tyree Singletary (Newark, N.J.) and Jared Lucas (Queens, N.Y.), will be asked to step up and contribute significant snaps this year. Singletary and March each had two interceptions a year ago.

On the offensive side of the ball, there will be a new signal caller under center with the departure of two-year quarterback Jawad Yatim. The             quarterback competition will be a key part of this year's camp, with senior Junior Smith (Windsor, Conn.) vying against three freshmen , Jack Sheehan (St. Petersburg, Fla.), Michael Witsett (Chicopee, Mass.), and Andrew Light (Absecon, N.J.) for the starting spot.

Whoever wins the quarterback position will be handing the ball off to senior Melquan Pinkney (Springfield, Mass.), who returns to the team after an All-Conference performance a year ago, in which he rushed for 605 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 67.2 yards per game. He will be spelled by tailback Travis O'Brien (Portsmouth, R.I.), now in his sophomore season with the club.

Coach Landers stresses balance on offense, and his rushing attack will be offset by a wide receiver corps that includes veterans Matt Greenman (Portsmouth, R.I.), Nick Hewitt (Killingly, Conn.) and Faouzi Talabi (Brewster, Mass.), and a deep freshman class. Greenman caught eight touchdowns and had 560 yards receiving in an All-Conference performance last year, while Hewitt added two receiving scores and caught seven balls in a 26-21 win over Castleton.

The strength of the 2015 team may be the offensive line, made up of a strong corps of sophomores who have done a great job of getting themselves stronger for the upcoming seasons. Those sophomores include Vincent Tucker (Englewood, N.J.), Chris Stafford (West Warwick, R.I.), Jose Marrero (Fitchburg, Mass.) and Oliver Sylvestre (Warwick, R.I.), who will move over from the defensive side of the ball.

Anchoring the offensive front will be juniors James Wolff (Yorktown, N.Y.), a 2015 ECFC Academic All-Conference selection, and Mike Mazza (Oakhurst, N.J.), while talented freshmen Amir Young (Pleasantville, N.Y.) and Qamar Acres (Watauga, Texas) will compete for a spot as well.

Finally, the special teams unit will boast two USA Football preseason All-Americans in sophomore punter Devin Broadley (Hyannis, Mass.) and junior kicker Tyler Rodgers (Bridgewater, Mass.).

"If there's anything we put an emphasis on, it's special teams. That's a place that we can ensure we get an advantage every Saturday. We are aggressive in that phase," says Landers, who can back that statement up by pointing to many fake kicks, including a fake field goal that Rodgers ran in for a touchdown last year in a 7-6 win over Maritime, with the kicker providing all seven points.

The Mustangs kick off their season under the lights for the third straight year, travelling to UMass Dartmouth on September 4^th at 7:00 pm. While the team has struggled out of the blocks in the last two seasons, Coach Landers stresses that the team's mantra of improving every day and every week, leaves them in their strongest position when they come to critical conference games in mid-season and down the stretch.

"We're a team that you don't want to play at the end of the season," says Landers, the 2012 ECFC Coach of the Year. "We take a lot of pride on working to get better every week and we hold ourselves to a high standard."

The team's biggest test will be to find and reclaim their identity - to be a physical presence and a group that wins games by putting in the highest effort and being outstanding at execution.

The "Rock Fight", an idea brought to campus by Landers and gravitated to by the football brotherhood, embodies the idea of continuing to work and continuing to fight. When asked what would make this season successful for Mount Ida football, he turned to that analogy again.

"In a rock fight, there's only two ways to lose. You either get knocked out or you quit. This team will not stop throwing rocks."