If they’re mulling over a team motto, the Orono Red Riots may want to consider using “What a difference a year makes” for the 2001 football season.

Gone is the feeling of awkwardness and unfamiliarity that permeated Orono’s 2000 preseason camp as coach Wally Covell enters his second season with all the coaches and players on the same page.

“This is nothing against last year’s seniors, but they were kind of at sea because they didn’t know me or what to expect from me. Everything was different,” said Covell. “This year we’re much more familiar with each other and everyone feels like it’s more like their team.

“Camp has run much smoother and they’ve been very enthusiastic from day one. Last year was a transition year and this year the transition has been made.”

Depth troubles will still plague the Riots as only 24 players have come out for the varsity team, but numbers are on a slight upturn and almost 20 players have worked out together regularly in the offseason to improve their conditioning and durability.

“Depth is our biggest problem. We have a decent starting 11, but we don’t have much behind them in terms of proven talent,” said Covell, a former head coach at Maine Central Institute who is entering his 11th season at the head of a high school program. “The biggest thing right now is to come up with credible backups.”

About the only place Orono has depth is in the offensive backfield, where most everyone except sophomore quarterback Lance Cowan, whose father Lester is an assistant coach, is an experienced junior or senior. Orono also has very good size all over its limited depth chart.

The Riots will again go with a wing-T offense and a 4-3 alignment up front on defense, but Covell wants Orono to be more diverse on both sides of the ball.

In terms of maturity and experience, Orono’s in pretty good shape with seven seniors and 12 returning starters.

“No question we’re much further along than we were a year ago,” Covell said. “These kids are also pretty smart, so they can handle a lot of stuff offensively and defensively.”

Orono’s linchpin players are senior co-captains Jason Michaud and Zach Pike. Michaud is a two-way starter at running back and linebacker, while Pike starts at guard and linebacker.

ORONO RED RIOTS

2000 results: 1-8, ninth in LTC Class C North

Head coach: Wally Covell, 2nd year

Key players: Jason Michaud, RB-LB, Sr.; Zach Pike, OG-LB, Sr.; Lance Cowan, QB, soph.; Ben Briggs, RB-FS, Sr.; Brandon Carroll, C-DT, Sr.; Ben Erker, OT-DE, Jr.; Ryan Levesque, TE-MLB, soph.; Nick LeGrande, FB, soph.; Paul Gillette, DT, Sr.

Outlook: What Orono lacks in depth it could make up for in experience and talent with several two- and three-year starters returning. The biggest worries for Riots are injuries and attrition as most players ranked second on the depth chart are inexperienced. The largest numbers for Riots are concentrated at the far ends of the spectrum with seven seniors and eight freshmen.