The Cougars Begin a New Climb

By Cam’Ron Johnson

The Kean Football team is ready to take on the new challenges heading into this 2024-25 season. Coming off a winless campaign, it was on record as unsuccessful. Though, after talking to head coach Daniel Garrett, he was very excited about the new players and differences his team has made for this new year. Garett highlighted accountability as a priority moving forward in the season.

“First and foremost – me! I am holding people more accountable – there’s more discipline. I didn’t do a great job last year with that! There were some things last year that should’ve been handled differently,” said Garrett.

In addition, Garett renovated the coaching staff, with notable additions such as Coach Evan Durand.

“We have had a lot of changes to our staff… We have a new Offensive Coordinator in Evan Durand, who had a past massive experience coaching senior Jack Lynch, who earned Preseason All-Patriot League honors (2020) at Fordham University, had a hand in two Top 40 recruiting classes (2019 & 2020) and was apart of the #1 Scoring Offense in the Patriot League (2019). We have added new coaches as well, some of which are former players. We have a group of men who care about wanting to do their best, help us win and get it right,” said Garrett

Coach Garret has revamped and reloaded this team from top to bottom. He expressed excitement for both the growth and new talent coming in this season.

“I feel that the new and young players we added to the roster can make an impact. We have a lot of young talent on our roster. Obviously, time and growth always help, but there will be a lot of young players making their way onto the field in some way, shape, or form contributing to this team,” said Garett.

There were thirty-six new freshmen added to this team. Freshman running back Jeremey Del Orbe out of Guttenberg, NJ, is someone who represents Coach Garrett’s theme of accountability correctly.

“[I want] to be the new wave of energy. I am currently on the scout offense, so we go against the starting defense. You know we go hard everyday, just to make sure starting defense gets a clean look at what the other team is doing. So that way when we go into games, we are prepared and ready because we already see what the other tea runs and what they do,” said Del Orbe.

This kind of athletic statement fits with Coach Garret philosophy that the standard is back and the preparation is at an all time high to give our group the best edge possible.

Del Orbe provided some insight on his role as a member of the special teams group: “I make an impact on special teams, special teams are very necessary. You can block a kick, force a turnover and now the momentum has changed in your favor,” said Del Orbe.

Coach Garrett concluded with a clear emphasis on how he wants this team to play, emphasizing the process of success “Compete and play really HARD! It’s about performance over perception, it’s about trusting the PROCESS, taking care of each day the best we can. They should expect to see a group of young men who care for each other. They should expect to see us compete with class & humility – and play disciplined football! Work really hard to get to 1-0 Every week,” said Garrett.

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