The Eagles will open their 11-game schedule at noon Saturday when they host the Mary Marauders from Bismarck, N.D. That’s the same team CSC has opened with wins three of the past four years.

The Marauders will be breaking in a new quarterback, but feature an all-star tailback and receiver, and are rebuilding their defense around a pair of all-conference players and a three-year starter at safety.

O’Boyle said getting the offense on track is his biggest concern.

“Our offense has been hit and miss in practice,” O’Boyle said. “I know we’re in shape and will play extremely hard. We also have experience at quarterback and in the line, but we’re still a mystery at this point. We need to become more consistent.”

O’Boyle said he knows Mary will be big, physical and well-coached. He appreciates that the Marauders’ head coach, Myron Schulz, agreed to play in Chadron for a second year in a row to help the Eagles offset what otherwise would be a burdensome travel year. CSC will open the 2011 season against Mary in Bismarck.

The Marauders are expected to start at least 20 upperclassmen. One of the exceptions is quarterback Craig Bagnell, a redshirt freshman who won a three-way battle for the first-team nod during preseason. Among those Bagnell beat out is sophomore Joey Bollinger, who completed 22 of 37 passes for 330 yards last season.

The offensive kingpin is tailback Jamal Lomax, a 5-7, 190-pound senior who ran for 1,142 yards last fall and is due to become the school’s all-time leading rusher this season. Another standout is wide receiver Terry Newsome, who caught 49 passes for 693 yards last fall. Both were first-team Northern Sun Conference selections.

Another excellent receiver is Brady Martin, who caught 34 passes for 390 yards last season, when Mary finished with a 5-6 record.

Three two-year starters on the offensive line graduated last year, but because of injuries all of the replacements saw considerable playing time.

The defense is anchored by nose tackle Xavier Cleveland, a 6-1, 300-pound senior who participated in 59 tackles, including 11.5 for losses last fall, and linebacker Caleb Thompson, who made 66 tackles, including 8.5 behind the line. Both were all-conference players a year ago.

Three starters are missing from last year’s secondary, but senior Sean Ziehlke is back at strong safety. He made 45 tackles a year ago.

A redshirt freshman, Zach Reisenauer, will handle both the punting and placekicking duties.

Schulz, who has an 84-35 record after 11 years as Mary’s head coach, said his team has avoided injuries and looked good in practice this fall.

“We’ll see if we can do it under duress,” he stated. “I think we’ve had a really good camp. We worked hard and hope to have a good team.”

CSC beat the Marauders 21-3 in Chadron in 2006, 37-17 in Bismarck in 2008 and 30-14 in Chadron last fall after the score was tied 7-7 at halftime.

The Eagles return five full-time starters on offense and six on defense. O’Boyle said the defense appears to be solid, but will need to stay healthy because it lacks depth in the line and at linebacker.

The offense has some pluses, O’Boyle acknowledged. They include a veteran quarterback in senior Garrett Treffer, who completed 63.5 percent of his passes and threw just 10 interceptions in 277 attempts last fall.

Another is the line that features four players who have been starters and a fifth player who started two games a year ago.

The line is expected to be good. It features seniors Jake Finerty at tackle and Shane Dennehy at guard on the right side. Junior Sean McGowan is back at center, while junior Tim Hiett at guard and sophomore Garrett Gilkey at tackle will handle the left side. O’Boyle said the return of Hiett, a preseason all-conference pick before he injured his knee last season, gives the offense a big boost.

The coach said the rest of the CSC offense has talent, but several of the players lack experience. John Ritzen, the senior from Chadron with 928 yards and six rushing touchdowns during his career, will start at tailback.

He’s the only running back who has carried the ball in a college game and the two primary alternates also had limited experience as ball carriers in high school.

O’Boyle noted that Ritzen has played the best of his career this summer, due in part because he’s finally overcome a severely sprained ankle that he suffered early in the 2007 season.

The leading backups are sophomore Alex Rodriguez, whom O’Boyle describes as a physical runner, and redshirt freshman Glen Clinton, who is explosive. A native of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez had played only limited contact football before coming to the United States in January 2009, while Clinton was a wide receiver at Cody, Wyo., High School and played just four games as a senior before being injured.

Clinton also played wide receiver during spring practice and could see action at both positions this fall.

All of the Eagles’ receivers will be making their first starts. They are expected to be juniors Jeff Alcorn and Jared Hanson on the inside and sophomore Quinell Atkins and either Travis Reeves or Nathan Ross, both redshirt freshmen, on the outside.

Transfers Jeremy Sondrup and Brandon Gunther also are promising receivers, O’Boyle said. However, two more receivers who were expected to see lots of action, Allan Schmaltz and Cody Roes, are likely to miss the opener because of injuries.

The defense features a secondary with four returning starters in cornerbacks Jed Herblan and Talmaus Ewell and safeties Kevin Berg and Kramer Hirz, along with Nick Rogers, who saw considerable action as the fifth back last season.

Three of the four linemen also started most of last year. They are end Cory Beran and tackles Maverick Churchill and Jan Karlos Medina. The other starting end will be junior Justin Trout.

None of the linebackers was a starter last year, but both James Belville and Kevin Lindholm got considerable playing time. They’ll be joined in the starting lineup by Kelen Kahrs, who like, Trout was once a walk-on and is from Franklin, Neb.

Having Berg back as the punter after he earned all-conference and is being given preseason All-American consideration is another plus for the Eagles. Redshirt freshman Mike Ziola takes over the placekicking chores from 2009 All-American Travis Atter.

—Con Marshall