MJC football media day notes: Healthy, hungry Pirates prepare for 2023 season
The Modesto Junior College football team, ranked No. 15 in JCGridiron’s Preseason Dirty 30 Rankings, is looking to put a year of turmoil behind it.
Last season, the Pirates were plagued with injury and started four different quarterbacks for the first time in coach Rusty Stivers’ career.
In a tough non-conference schedule, the Pirates lost a heartbreaking home opener to Laney, fell to San Mateo and Butte and lost by one point to American River.
Despite shuffling quarterbacks in what felt like every other game and limping out of the preseason with a 1-4 record, the Pirates turned their season around, winning four of their five conference games and taking the Valley Conference title for the second straight year. The conference championship earned them a spot in the NorCal playoffs.
After not finishing a season below .500 and averaging eight wins a season for the past four years, MJC finished 2022 5-6.
“We had multiple injuries at quarterback and were all over the place.” Stivers said. “That (year) was an aberration from the last four years.
“Against San Mateo, we lost two quarterbacks and a receiver and after that we were figuring out what we were going to do.”
The Pirates enter a new season looking to three-peat as Valley Conference champions and make a deep push into the state playoffs. They bring back Luke Weaver, who started the season at quarterback before being sidelined with an injury, depth and experience at defensive back and bring in a 40-man freshman class made up of some of the area’s best talent.
“The expectation is that we want to win our league and make it to the state playoffs. That’s the goal every year,” Stivers said. “We’re trying to make it to the state championship, which is hard.”
The 2023 season starts Friday in Oakland for a road game against Laney. The Pirates’ home opener is Saturday, Sept. 9, against Santa Rosa.
Home game time changes
The Pirates will play all home games at 1 p.m. this season. In recent years they played home games at 6 or 7 p.m. while playing most of their road games in the afternoon. Nearly all of their Valley Conference road games were at 1 p.m.
MJC Football home schedule
9/9 vs Santa Rosa
9/16 vs San Mateo
9/30 vs American River
10/21 vs Contra Costa
11/11 vs Fresno City
Scrimmage offers first taste of game day
The Pirates traveled to City College of San Francisco for their annual preseason scrimmage Wednesday, Aug. 23. It served multiple purposes, allowing players to play against another team for the first time and to get important game-day preparation.
“We got to practice going on the road,” Stivers said. “We got to rehearse that whole process because there’s a lot of guys on the team who have never played college football.”
Instead of the typical scrimmage format where everything is more controlled with offense getting a set amount of plays before the defense takes the field for its plays, the scrimmage was played like a game.
Each team had four tries to get a first down and if they failed, they punted the ball. Kickoffs and punts were not live.
Meet the team president
Defensive back is the most experienced position group on the team with three returning starters. Jalon Jackson (Buhach Colony) was an All-League honoree last season and both of the team’s safeties Fayzon Allen (Downey) and Trey Moreland (Manteca). Elijah Washington (Lincoln) also saw time on the field last season.
“We have some guys to cover some of the top playmakers in California.” Stivers said.
Moreland isn’t only the leader of his position group, he is one of the leaders of the team. Stivers refers to him as the team’s “president.”
In his freshman season, he finished second among Pirates defensive backs in tackles. He embraces the added responsibility of being a team captain.
“I’m used to having a leadership role … I”m here to get better and help my teammates out,” he said. “We have a great group of guys. We all work hard, we all show up and we want to play. We want to make it a show this year.”
Starting QB Weaver back from injury
Luke Weaver learned a lot last season.
The starting quarterback entering the 2022 season out of East Union, Weaver played in just two full games before dislocating his hip. He sat out the rest of last season but still stayed engaged.
“He came to all the practices and he came to film so even though he wasn’t playing, he was still engaged,” said Stivers. “He did really well last year … so doing that out of high school and then getting to start all over again, he’s going to be farther along.”
Though he was on the team last year, Weaver on paper is entering his freshman season. Because he suffered the season ending injury in the third game of the season, he was able to retain his freshman year of eligibility by medical redshirting. He was hurt in September, rehabbed at physical therapy for a few months and was back playing in time for spring ball.
“The biggest thing (learned) was don’t take any play or game for granted,” Weaver said. “You really realize how fast you can lose it. So (it’s about) just making the most of every play.
“Since I got hurt, I got to really sit back and watch things and it’s really helped me grow as a player and as a leader and learning everything I need to know.”
Position change brings new opportunity
Julian Lopez ran for over 1,300 yards with 18 touchdowns in his senior season as a running back at Central Catholic. In his first season at MJC, he started the season as one of four running backs. He enters his sophomore year as one of the team’s best defensive lineman.
“We had three or four (running backs) and they were getting more carries,” Stivers said. “We thought about him playing defense and we had a need on the defensive line and right when he did, it was like the puzzle piece fit. It was perfect for him.”
Stivers says Lopez is MJC’s No. 1 defensive lineman and is “an absolute terror” and while he isn’t the typical defensive lineman size at 6-foot-1, his combination of speed and natural power make him a handful.
He played in nine games last season, recording 11 tackles, four tackles for loss and recovered a fumble.
“I felt like I had a better opportunity to compete on defense,” Lopez said. “I felt like I could help the defense more (than the offense) so I went over there, worked really hard and ended up getting some playing time and made a difference.”
A second chance for former Downey two-sport athlete
Malachi Butler hasn’t played football since 2019. In fact, this season will be the 21-year-old’s first year of college football.
At 6-foot-8, if you saw Butler and assumed he was a basketball player, you would be right. After graduating from Downey in 2019, he played basketball two seasons at Merced Junior College where he averaged 13.6 points and 8.6 rebounds in his first year and 11.1 points and 7.9 rebounds in his second.
He says he received offers but opted not to take them. After his final year at Merced in 2021-22, he took last season off to figure out his next path, which brought him to MJC to play receiver.
“I think everybody gets a second chance and I think this is my second chance.” he said. “I’m a lot more mature now than I would have been if I came here right out of high school.”
This is Butler’s first year playing receiver. He played football and basketball at Downey, but on the field was used as a defensive end. Stivers says that Butler is “the man” when going up for a jump ball because of his basketball background and he is working on the nuances of becoming a receiver.
