WCU Heads North For Saturday Season Opener Vs. Bentley

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Division II West Chester University Golden Rams will open their 2016 college football season on Saturday afternoon in Massachusetts as they take on Bentley University.

The Golden Rams went 7-4 last season, advancing to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title game after winning the Eastern Division.

This year, the Golden Rams are the preseason pick to once again win the East.

Head coach Bill Zwaan talks about who will trigger the offense here in 2016.

"We have the two quarterbacks," Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "(Juniors) Pat Moriarty and Andrew Derr, who have been battling it out for the position. Both have experience, so that's a positive. We're still kind of up in the air. Pat will start, Andrew's going to play some. So we still haven't made that final decision yet, simply because neither one has separated themselves and they both deserve the opportunity to play."

Listen to the entire interview with West Chester's Bill Zwaan

The Golden Rams rolled up an average of 34 points and 435 yards of total offense a game last season.

Defensively, the Golden Rams have a lot of talent returning but a big hole to fill along the defensive line.

"We lose Andrew Cohen up front, who was an All-American," Zwaan says. "But I feel like we're deeper. We've got eight guys we feel pretty good about. They're going to get some rotation in there. We may not be able to get the number of sacks that Andrew gave us, but between them all, I think we will make up a bunch of those sacks."

In this opening game, West Chester will be visiting a Bentley team that went 5-6 in 2015.

"Very spread offense with quarterbacks who will run the football," Zwaan says. "So you've got to prepare for that. We have an experienced defense, so that's the kind of stuff we've seen before. Our league is (full of) very complicated schemes offensively that we face, week in and week out, so our guys will be ready for that. Defensively, they are a 3-4 team, which is a little bit different than what we normally play. So we spent a little bit extra time in camp working against some of that stuff."

Saturday's game gets underway at noon in Waltham, Massachusetts.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.