Dayton football off and running for 2025 season
Mitchell Colter | Contributing Writer
University of Dayton football has started its annual winter conditioning draft, with the goal of continuing its positive team productivity under second-year head coach Trevor Andrews.
“I saw growth out of our team. (last season) Even though we did not have as many wins as we wanted, you could put the film on and you could see that progress had been made from the previous year,” said Andrews.
After a promising 5-1 start to the season, Dayton football concluded the season at 6-5. Even though the program ended its season with undesirable results, it made vast progress from the previous season under Andrews, a Dayton alum, who recorded his first winning record with the program after finishing 4-7 in his debut season.
“This has been going on since Coach Mike Kelly,” strength coach Mark Thobe said of the offseason program that began Jan. 12.
Every winter, the football staff designates established players as captains for the offseason. These captains place their teammates onto their teams for the winter in a NFL-style draft.
“In football, you get locked into your position group a lot. You get locked into offense, defense or specialists. This allows us to work and interact and get to know the rest of the team a little bit better,” said Andrews.
This year, Andrews formatted eight teams and designated two captains for each team. After the draft, these teams will compete in weightlifting, various drills involving agility and community service around the Dayton community. This year, the first overall pick was sophomore offensive lineman Matthew Barnes, who was picked by captains Dominic Vrbancic (wide receiver) and Collin Ansel (defensive lineman).
“It’s hard to go through it, and I think it’s easy to show up groggy eyed, without a good attitude. So I decided we’re going to embrace the grind”said Andrews.
Developed since former head coach Rick Chamberlain, the head coach creates an inspirational slogan for every offseason. The slogan is printed on the players’ workout shirts and is the overall theme of Dayton football’s preparation for the upcoming season.
During the draft, Andrews debuted his winter slogan for the team: “Embrace the Grind.”
“The winter program is a grind. There’s no other way to describe it. You’re up early, it’s dark, it’s cold, there’s snow on the ground,” Andrews said.. “Nobody else is up on campus, and the football team is in there grinding it out.”
Head Coach Andrews with first-round pick, Matthew Barnes.
*Reporter’s Note: Colter, who is graduating this spring, played safety for the Dayton Flyers