Kevin May steps up to lead Seton Hill football team into season opener

From Day to May.

By a single letter, Seton Hill enters another college football season under its fifth coach since the birth of the school’s program in 2005.

Kevin May is in. Dan Day is out.

“I didn’t need to be a figurehead, but when this really came down, I had to make a decision,” said May, who was elevated in June to Seton Hill’s top spot from his former position as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. “Since taking over, it’s really been enjoyable.

“More so than I thought.”

Naturally, May was hoping to carry the same emotion through his first team’s opening test Thursday night against Fairmont State at Greensburg’s Offutt Field.

The Griffins, in last season’s opener, stumbled to a 56-24 loss to the Falcons in Fairmont, W.Va.

It was Seton Hill’s worst outcome on its way to a 3-8 record, a setback from a 6-5 mark in 2023, the Division II program’s first winning season in 16 years.

“No one feels like we weren’t capable of winning more games last season,” Seton Hill linebacker Ritchie McCormack. “If you watched our games, we were a drive away from beating some really good football teams.”

The Griffins were just 2-6 in games decided by seven points or fewer, including a 28-21 loss to Cal (Pa.), which eventually loss to No. 3 Kutztown in the PSAC championship game.

“We were real close last season,” said McCormack, a senior, who led the team in tackles (92) and tackles for losses (10).

May, who served six seasons on Day’s staff, was handed the head coaching job late in the offseason after Day, a former Seton Hill team captain and three-year starter for the Griffins, abruptly resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Since taking the reins late, May has learned another level of decision-making.

“It does give you respect for the things you thought, at times, were knee-jerk decisions, and you didn’t know they were actually well thought-out decisions,” he said.

But, it’s time now, May said, to inject his personality into the program.

“I’ve got to be my own person, as well,” he said.

Despite just two winning seasons in the 20-year history of Seton Hill football, this latest Griffins bunch insists the team’s goal of becoming a contender in the storied PSAC remains steadfast.

Whether it’s May or Day leading the charge.

“We’re not going to live in the past,” McCormack said. “We can go as far as we want to take ourselves.”

Seton Hill was predicted to finish fifth in the seven-team Western Division, where Slippery Rock was chosen as the favorite.

From near the SHU Field House, overlooking the school’s on-campus sports complex, one of Seton Hill’s final preseason practices was running well past schedule.

Little time remained to prepare for the Griffins’ looming opener.

“I love our odds this season,” said McCormack, who transferred to Seton Hill from Division II Chadron State before the start of his sophomore season. “But then, I loved our odds last year, and we took a step back in the record. It is what it is. I really trust in coach May. I feel like he’s got what it takes to take us to the next level.”

McCormack, for a second consecutive year, was awarded the team’s No. 1 jersey, an equivalent of team captain, after his teammates voted him leader of a group of 13 of the team’s most influential players.

The 6-foot-1, 240-pound Arizona native speaks clearly and softly, yet commands respect whether he’s one-on-one on the field or in charge of player meetings.

“He cares and just wants to win,” May said. “Sometimes you’ve got to speak the hard truth.”

The No. 1 jersey has become a sacred element of the Seton Hill locker room, where McCormack wears it without a shrug.

“That jersey gets talked about quite a bit around the team,” he said. “When it was brought up to me, and it hadn’t been a for-sure thing for me, it wasn’t going to change my personality, regardless if I wore 97, 1 or 5. I was 48 my sophomore season. You still have the same type of guy out of me, no mater what number I put on.

“Look, you have a lot of great leaders on this team … (The jersey is) just one thing that I’ve been blessed to have been given for a second time.”

McCormack, who abides by an encouraging Bible verse tattooed on his chest, said he’s counting on his faith to help him lead.

On and off the field.

“I don’t talk about it as much as I should, that’s for sure,” he said of his unwavering faith in a higher power. “But I wanted something to live by. I wanted a tattoo, and I wanted it to be meaningful. I’ve been through some tough times, as has everyone else in life.”

Dave Mackall | TribLive

Seton Hill linebacker Ritchie McCormack draws inspiration from a tattoo he received as a senior in high school.

Glancing at the inked Bible passage from the book of Joshua, he called it “a reminder that when I look in the mirror, it tells me right here that He’s with me on every walk, every battle.”

A striking example, May said, of McCormack’s leadership qualities for a team that hasn’t been to the postseason since making its only Division II playoff appearance two years after leaving the NAIA ranks following the 2007 season.

“Our mindset, how we practice, that’s what matters most,” May said. “Beyond that, the rest of it will take care of itself.”

Day, calling it “an incredibly difficult decision” in a statement following his June resignation, was excited for the future of Seton Hill football.

“I have been around some really great coaches in my career, and I can say … coach May is the best football mind, teacher and leader of men that I have ever been around,” he said. “Kevin is a better coach than me in so many ways.”

Before joining Day’s staff at Seton Hill ahead of the 2019 season, May spent four years as an assistant at Division II Texas A&M-Kingsville.

After graduating from Los Angeles-based, Division III Occidental, May coached one season at his alma mater before moving to Wyoming as a graduate assistant before his time at Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Meanwhile, Day’s 2023 team, with May firmly planted on the coaching staff, produced Seton Hill’s first winning record since the Griffins, with Day playing as an offensive lineman in 2008, went 9-3 and won a Division II playoff game.

“Love coach Day to death. Love coach May, too,” McCormack said. “Coach Day put us in a position in the spring to be successful this season, and coach May is working to improve it.”

After a pause to reflect on the start of the upcoming season, McCormack’s expression softened.

“We had no transfers when coach May took over,” he said. “Not one guy abandoned ship. Everyone has full trust in him, that if we follow the plan he’s laid out for us, we can come out successful.”