Jaylen McDuffie remembers the first time he and his Seton Hill teammates met with football coach Dan Day. The previous staff had been fired. A number of players were ready to move on, many were “pretty good,” McDuffie said. They were planning to either transfer or just quit.

It was December 2018. McDuffie, now a graduate student linebacker for the Griffins, remembers it all quite well. He wanted to stay. It just felt right.

“Coach Day was up-front and honest,” the 6-foot-2, 235-pound McDuffie said. “He knew he wasn’t going to win eight games in the first year. He told us we’re trying to build the foundation. He told us what it means to be a Griffin, how to work hard, to be blue-collar men. We ended up 2-8.”

Day, a Seton Hill alum and three-year starter for the Griffins, helping the team advance to the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs for the first time in school history, was named to succeed Isaac Collins as coach.

Four years later, McDuffie, from Waldorf (Md.) McDonough High School, is coming off a splendid season in which he ranked tied for third in tackles in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference with 103 and earned all-PSAC Western Division first-team honors.

“One of the coolest things I’d ever seen was on his first day, we were in a room with coach Day,” McDuffie said. “He said, ‘We’re going to Square 1. You guys can try out for whatever position you want.’ It was basically like open tryouts.

“We had defensive backs at running back, offensive linemen wanted to be tight ends. … It got to be pretty hilarious. After about the second day of practice, the guys who wanted to be offensive players realized they were here to play defense and the other way around.”

McDuffie said the experience taught him responsibility and set a tone for a group of guys who decided to stay on after Collins, whose staff had recruited them, was let go.

Four years later and following a 5-6 record that represented the most victories for Seton Hill since 2016, the Griffins are set to open their schedule Thursday night at Wheeling with high hopes.

“In the grand scheme of football, we’re still in our infancy of developing a tradition,” Day said. “When we got here, they were 1-21 in the two years prior. We’ve started the transition.”

After records of 0-11 and 1-10, Day came in and coaxed that 2-8 mark in his first season before covid-19 erased the 2020 schedule. Last year’s 5-6 showing provided Seton Hill with some excitement, and Day is hoping the enthusiasm will carry over.

“That 5-6 record is exactly in the range of where I’d hoped we’d be,” he said. “It was my idea of the maturation of our program. We still have the base of the guys who were here when we started. Now, we can actually talk about winning games we thought previously we might not be able to compete.”

Day persists in promoting the idea of continuing to build the program, and his players, he said, have been receptive all along.

“We have to talk to our players a lot about it,” he said. “We tell them that you can’t be negative. You can’t dwell on whether you’ve done enough or not with that 5-6 record. But at the same time, you have to continue to have that hunger level. The way I see it, a 5-6 record this year would be an incredible disappointment.”

McDuffie is a leader of a Seton Hill defense that ranked third in the PSAC in scoring defense (17.6 ppg) and was second in sacks (35).

He and senior defensive back Damonte Pratt have received several preseason All-America mentions by various publications.

The 5-10, 190-pound Pratt, from Fredericksburg (Va.) Riverbend High School, set a Seton Hill record for interceptions last season with seven, which led the PSAC and was tied for second in Division II.

“What’s cool to see about Damonte is that no matter the accolades, he’s very reserved,” Seton Hill defensive coordinator Kevin May said. “He’s not a ‘me-guy’ off the field. That’s rare, especially for that position. You wouldn’t know he was getting noticed because he’s more concerned with making contributions on and off the field. He’s driven to prove that he belongs. He just goes to work every day.”

Understandably, May gives a nod to the team’s defense as a pride point.

“We have a lot of competition in that (film) room every week,” he said.

A total of 33 returning lettermen (13 offense, 20 defense) highlight the roster for Seton Hill, which was 2-5 a year ago in the PSAC Western Division. Two of the losses (to Edinboro and Gannon) were by a total of 14 points.

Among the seven Seton Hill starters back on offense are four linemen, all seniors — Ashawn Berry, Kai Marshall, Daniel Morales and Trevor Mitchell. The others are junior quarterback Jake McCormick — a Neshannock product — junior wide receiver Mark Bails and senior tight end Daniel Kasmier, who attended East Allegheny.

The 6-6, 230-pound McCormick played one season at Neshannock in 2018 after transferring from Brownsville. He entered the Seton Hill lineup at midseason last year and played in parts of seven games, finishing with a team-leading 912 passing yards and seven touchdowns.

The 6-3, 275-pound Kasmier was used mainly as a blocker in all 11 games for the Griffins, finishing with eight receptions for 62 yards (7.7 average).

Joining McDuffie and Pratt as returning starters on defense are linemen Nelson Gedeon, Kevan Bowen Jr. and Justice Griffin; linebackers Nario Walks and Jaden Mack; and defensive backs Alex Wade and Cartier Gray. All nine are seniors.

Seton Hill’s opener serves as a rematch of the Griffins’ 16-14 victory over Wheeling in the 2021 opener at Offutt Field. It was the teams’ first meeting since Wheeling, formerly Wheeling Jesuit, implemented a football program in 2018.

The Cardinals (5-6 in 2021) are members of the Mountain East Conference. Senior running back Sy Alli IV, an Obama Academy product, last season became Wheeling’s first 1,000-yard rusher, finishing with 1,014.

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