Stonehill Skyhawks 2026 Season Preview

Gardner's Rebuild Continues

Eli Gardner's 2025 landed at 4-8 and 3-4 in NEC play, a middling league mark that mirrors a power rating stuck at No. 101. None of that data points to a program that broke through last fall, and 2026 is the year Gardner needs the conference record to trend the other direction rather than hover around even. The raw numbers say Stonehill is still closer to the middle of the NEC pack than the top of it.

Points Won't Come Easy

Stonehill's real identity in 2026 is a defense that held foes to 175 passing yards a game, good for 13th nationally, while the offense sputtered to 15.1 points and a 4.33 yards-per-play average that ranked 122nd. That gap is the whole story: a top-50 unit propping up an attack that could not stay on schedule, converting just 34.0% of third downs. Shawn Brown is projected to take over at quarterback after throwing for just 11 yards in 2025, and how much he can add through the air will decide whether that defensive investment finally turns into wins instead of another low-scoring slog.

Jack O'Connell is gone after throwing for 1838 yards and 14 touchdowns, and Stonehill has no one on the roster who has thrown a meaningful pass in his place. Shawn Brown, who has 11 career passing yards, is the front-runner out of camp, but Myles Bastani, Drew Eason and Noah Mackenzie are all in the mix and nothing is settled. Whoever wins the job inherits an offense that ranked 115th in passing yards per game and 122nd in yards per play, so simply protecting the ball would be an upgrade over 2025.

Joshua Roberson's 237 yards and Aidan Garrett's 153 were complementary pieces last year behind Zavion Woodard, who paced the room with 394 yards before departing. Now Roberson and Garrett inherit the backfield outright, but the numbers around them are the real story: a 95-yard rushing average that ranked 117th nationally and a 35.3% success rate that put Stonehill's offense among the weakest in the country at creating positive plays. Devon Chavis, Shane Eason and George Vomvolakis add bodies without track records, so the ceiling here still runs through whether Eli Gardner's line and scheme can turn Roberson's touches into more than league-average churn.

Torance Washington Jr. (27 catches, 264 yards, 2 TD) and Alijah Turner (21 catches, 166 yards, 1 TD) are the only proven pieces left in a passing game that ranked 115th nationally, after Zachary Kim's 32-catch, 423-yard, 5-TD season and Myles Wilson's 16 catches walked out the door. That leaves Washington and Turner to carry a group where Caleb Brown, Dante Campagna and Shawn Corchado arrive with no catches on record, and Eli Gardner needs one of them to turn into a real second target fast. With a passing attack that managed just 155 yards per game and a 35.3% success rate, Washington's jump from complementary piece to focal point will decide whether this offense finds any explosiveness in 2026.

Derek Varley's 9 catches for 71 yards were modest production, but they're the most experience left at tight end after Cole Clarke (22 catches, 181 yards, 2 TD) and Cody Ruff (7 catches, 80 yards, 2 TD) took their combined production out the door. That leaves Varley and Ashtin Traver as the only tight ends with catches on their resume, while Riley Foran, Paul Hanlon, Luke Krzyzkowski and Kevin Sheridan return without a single logged target. For an offense that ranked 115th in passing yards per game and 122nd in yards per play, the position was never a focal point, and nothing here signals that changes in 2026.

Stonehill's front produced 4.33 yards per play (122nd nationally) and 95 rushing yards per game (117th) last fall, numbers that explain why Eli Gardner's offense stalled at 15.1 points a game. Five departures who anchored that group are gone, and while Noah Crawford, Aiden Dubois, Peter Fiumara, Chase Grant and Tommy Jeleniewski are back in the room, there is no telling which of them actually started versus backed up. Given how much of last year's line is unaccounted for, this reads as a rebuild up front, and Stonehill's ground game will not climb out of the bottom third of FBS until someone among that returning group proves capable of holding a point of attack.

Christopher Gill anchors the edge for a Stonehill front that actually held up against the pass, allowing just 175 yards per game through the air, 13th nationally, even as the run defense lagged at 86th. Zack Athy, Faisal Mass, Elliot Spiller, Sean Stackpole and Jermaine Williams are all gone, but Tyler Amato, Demi Atere, Brian Benson, Brenden Berube and Aidan Horodnik all played their way into the rotation and return to carry a line that finished 47th in yards per play allowed. The passing-down identity is there to build on; whether Eli Gardner's front can tighten up against the run will decide if this defense climbs past 2025's middling overall numbers.

Stonehill's defense held up well enough in 2025, ranking 13th nationally in passing yards allowed and 42nd in total yards allowed, but the rushing defense at 178 yards a game (86th) was the soft spot, and five linebackers who played through that season are now gone, including Tyler Bannon and Matthew DeVirgilio. That leaves the run front to Adjatay Abegesah, Julian Amankwah, Charles Battaglia, Michael Cooley, Spencer Davila and Anthony Greco, none of whom carry prior statistics on file, so the group's actual production is unproven even though the bodies are back. Coach Eli Gardner's defense stayed on schedule against opponents only 50th nationally in that department, and closing that rushing-yardage gap in 2026 falls squarely on this returning core finding out who can actually fill the gaps departed starters left behind.

Stonehill's pass defense was legitimately good in 2025, ranking 13th nationally in passing yards allowed per game, and the group tasked with keeping that intact is fully back. Antone Araujo, Trevon Baxter, Sidoine Djimbou, Jaylon Hebert, Eric Miles and George Nelson all return to the secondary, even as Jordan Irvine, Mo Seide, Gene Townsel, Jahnez Williams and Richard Mosley III are gone from the room. That continuity matters more than the names lost, since the bigger issue for Eli Gardner's defense last season was stopping the run, where Stonehill ranked just 86th in yards allowed per game, and this same secondary group will need to tighten up its overall yards-per-play number (5.53, 47th) to turn a solid pass defense into a complete one.

Domenic Scalese anchors the kicking game after connecting on 10 of 11 attempts and reaching from 48 out, good for 49 points on the year. Logan Chenette handled punting duties and averaged 40 yards a boot across 58 tries, giving Eli Gardner two established legs to build around. Marcus Cassel, Langdon Laws and long snapper Tyler Young round out the returning specialists without prior stats attached to their names, so Scalese and Chenette carry the proven production into 2026.

Shawn Brown at Quarterback

Jack O'Connell's 1,838 yards and 14 touchdowns walk out the door, and Shawn Brown, who threw for just 11 yards last season, is projected to take over an offense with no portal arrivals to soften the transition. Stonehill still has its skill pieces back in Joshua Roberson, Torance Washington Jr. and Aidan Garrett, but none of that production matters if Brown cannot move the ball through the air against NEC defenses that will sell out to stop the run.

Eli Gardner's Road Cover Problem

Stonehill's break down almost entirely by geography under Eli Gardner. At home, bettors cashed at a 60% clip (3-2), but drop this team on the road and it flips to 3-4, including a 3-4 mark as a road underdog specifically. That gap matters more than the flat 6-6 overall number, since conference games went the same losing way against the number (3-4), pointing to a road-market line that still hasn't caught up to how this team actually travels.