QUINCY — Coming off the best season in Great Lakes Valley Conference play in program history, the Quincy University football team is expected to maintain its rising trajectory.
The Hawks were picked fourth in the nine-team GLVC, according to a preseason poll of the league’s coaches that was released Friday during the GLVC Kickoff event.
This is the highest the Hawks have been picked in the preseason poll since the league made football a championship sport in 2012. Quincy was picked to finish fifth in the 2015 preseason poll and never higher than sixth any other year.
Jason Killday is entering his second season as head coach after engineering a 6-4 record last fall in which the Hawks went 5-3 in the GLVC.
The defense will be buoyed by the return of first-team All-GLVC linebacker Brock Inman and honorable mention all-conference linebacker Brock Wiley, while second-team All-GLVC offensive lineman Nathan Smith anchors the front line.
The Hawks also have a talented incoming freshman class that features stout area products in Quincy High School quarterback Bradyn Little, Camp Point Central tight end/linebacker Elijah Genenbacher and Quincy Notre Dame linebacker Taylin Scott.
Quincy begins fall camp Tuesday with the season opener at 6:30 p.m. August 28 at QU Stadium against Concordia-St. Paul.