Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette stopped by Nichols football pre-season training camp last week to talk with Head Coach William Carven and this year's team captains Brendan Bonn and Matthew Parkinson. Below is Doyle's preview of the 2007 edition of Bison football.

The most asked question at Nichols College football training camp is: “Who will replace Michael Carven as the starting quarterback?”

Carven graduated last spring as the college's record holder in career completions, passing yardage and touchdown passes. After Carven blew out his knee during the first series of the 2005 opener, Nichols stumbled through an 0-9 season. When Carven was granted another year of eligibility last season, he led the Bison to a 5-4 record in the first season on the school's new artificial turf, and he was named New England Football Conference Boyd Division Offensive Player of the Year.

Carven was the third of four brothers to play quarterback in high school, and he followed brother Bill in taking snaps at Nichols. Bill Carven now coaches the Bison, but he couldn't convince his youngest brother, James, to play for him at Nichols. James is a redshirt freshman defensive back at UMass-Amherst.

“I guess UMass gave him a better offer,” Carven said.

James played quarterback at Hanover High. So did Michael. Bill played quarterback at Xaverian High before Nichols, and another brother, Chris, played QB at BC High and defensive back at the University of Rochester.

There is no shortage of candidates to replace Michael Carven at quarterback. The Bison brought seven QBs into training camp, and four are still battling for the starting job. All are young, however, and none has completed a college pass. The oldest is R.J. Gagne, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Seekonk. The others are freshmen: Brian Emery of Oakdale, Conn., Justin Nelson from Oceanside, Calif., and Kevin Oberg from New Milford, Conn.

“If you saw practice today, we just keep rotating them,” Bill Carven said. “Michael was a very good quarterback for us, but that was last year, and we think we'll be OK. We brought in some good quarterbacks.”

Carven has until the Sept. 8 opener at Framingham State to pick a starter.

Whoever starts at quarterback will likely hand off a lot to sophomore Anthony Pillari, the Boyd Division Offensive Rookie of the Year, who led the team in rushing yardage (469) and return yardage (396) last season. Pillari will run behind an experienced offensive line headed by 6-3, 260-pound Brandt Genga, 6-1, 275-pound Bob Bickerstaffe and 5-9, 220-pound Michael Tolman.

Joshua Harris, a junior from Northbridge, is back after leading the team with 28 catches for 495 yards and five scores.

“Our goal is what every team's goal is — to win a championship,” co-captain and defensive end Brendan Bonn said.

Bonn had team highs of 18-1/2 tackles for loss and six sacks despite being an undersized defensive end at 5-10, 205 pounds. Senior middle linebacker Matt Parkinson, the team's other co-captain, ranked second on the team with 66 tackles.

“We're a family,” Parkinson said. “We all play together and work together. Off the field, we're always together. You can catch us in the dining hall sitting together as a group. We joke around like a family, sometimes we get in fights like a family, but we're always together at the end of the day.”

Of the 78 players on Nichols' roster, only six are seniors and 43 are freshmen, but Carven is excited about his recruiting class, which includes six players from Florida.

“It's all about working the phones,” Carven said.