GVSU's Jayk Slager set for 'big senior year'
ALLENDALE - Jayk Slager joked around with his teammates while waiting to take photos on the annual football media day at Grand Valley State University on Monday afternoon.
But the Zeeland West grad will be all business when the season kicks off Thursday, Sept. 1 when the Lakers host the Colorado School of Mines.
Slager, who enters his sixth season at GVSU, will take on a bigger leadership role and he’ll also be starting as the team’s main tight end.
“I’ll be in a leadership role more now,” the 6-foot-5, 248-pound Slager said. “I will be helping the younger tight ends and the O-line understand our offense.”
Slager has played 31 career games. He redshirted his first year and had the 2020 season wiped out due to Covid. In 2021, injuries limited him to eight games, but he had seven catches for 102 yards and a touchdown. He’s hoping to play a bigger part in the offense.
More:Zeeland West grad Jayk Slager developing into offensive weapon for GVSU
“I’m hoping we change that,” Slager said. “The tight ends had a good spring and in fall camp we’re really proving ourselves as a patch-catching tight ends.”
The Lakers are coming off a 10-2 season and bring back quarterback Cade Peterson, who threw for 2,130 yards and 26 touchdowns. He also ran for 559 yards and another seven TDs.
Would another 10-2 season be good enough?
“No. Definitely not,” Peterson said. “Our goal every year is to win the conference championship and make it down to Texas in December (for the Division II title game). In order to do that, we need to take it game by game and not take anything for granted. It’s a long season and if we look too far ahead then we’re going to slip up.”
GVSU coach Matt Mitchell is excited to have the key pieces of his offense back.
“I’m super excited having a lot of guys back from a 10-2 season,” he said. “What we did last year was good, but I think we can be better.”
Second-year offensive coordinator Matt Vitzhum has a full year under his belt, too.
“Our offensive play caller, Matt Vitzhum, it was his first year doing that in his life,” Mitchell said. “So he had some valuable experiences through 12 games. There will be a lot of learning and growth from Year 1 to Year 2 for him and also for our quarterbacks. We had three quarterbacks that were kind of playing for the first time. It was Cade’s first time as a starter. I mean, he played a little bit in 2019, but it was his first time. So it is nice to have the entire offensive staff and your quarterback returning.”
GVSU has Oct. 15 circled on its calendar. That’s when it travels north to Big Rapids to take on GLIAC rival Ferris State. The Bulldogs are the reigning Division II national champions.
“It’s a huge rivalry game for us,” GVSU junior linebacker Abe Swanson said. “But the only game on my mind right now is Game 1 when we play the Colorado School of Mines.”
Said Peterson: “We’re going to have to focus on what we can control. In games like that, the margin of error is very small. Ferris is a good football team so we’ll have to bring our best because they’ll be doing the same thing.”
When the Lakers run out of the tunnel for Game 1, Slager will be in the starting lineup.
“He will be our primary tight end that we’ll roll out there,” Mitchell said. “I give Jayk a lot of credit. He, along with some of my other seniors, had a redshirt year and a COVID year. So this is his sixth fall. He’s really endured.”
Mitchell likes the physical toughness that Slager brings.
“He’s an All-Conference player and he’s an All-American in the run game and he’ll be leading the way for us in the offense,” Mitchell said. “The first time we take the field, he’ll be out there. He’ll play as many snaps as he can play. He’s extremely tough. He’s got that Zeeland West background with the Wing-T offense so he’s not afraid of some contact. I think he’ll have a really big senior year.”
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: GVSU's Jayk Slager set for 'big senior year'
