WR Mark Bails, DB Zahir Reed want to play leading roles in helping turn around Seton Hill football

Long before he came to Seton Hill, Zahir Reed knew plenty about football in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. His older brother, before deciding to go to Maine, had committed to West Chester.

During his brother’s recruiting process, Reed became well-versed in the high caliber of football played across the Division II conference. So he had no second thoughts when he committed to play for the Griffins.

Certainly Seton Hill knows how tough the PSAC can be. Since joining the conference for the 2013 season, the Griffins haven’t won more than three games. That was 2015. Lots of two-win PSAC campaigns have followed, to say nothing of an 0-fer in 2017.

Even last season, despite the presence of linebacker Jaylen McDuffie, a finalist for the Cliff Harris Award as the best small-college defensive player in the country, Seton Hill stumbled to a 2-9 overall mark, 2-5 in the PSAC.

McDuffie has graduated, so fifth-year coach Dan Day will be looking for new players to step up. Reed will be among the leading candidates on defense. On offense, senior receiver Mark Bails aims to be the go-to.

Both had breakout seasons a year ago.

“I think you’re going to see both of them kind of being faces of the program,” Day said. “Not just from a playmaking standpoint, statistical standpoint but their ability to lead.”

Bails, who hails from Rahway, N.J., originally committed to Seton Hill before deciding to pursue a Division I FCS opportunity at Maine. But when covid interrupted his freshman year, he left after just one semester and did an about-face to Seton Hill.

Last season, he caught 30 passes for 495 yards and five scores, a huge leap after catching only six passes total the season before. At 6-foot-3 and with good speed, he has the ability to stretch the field, evidenced by his 16.5 yards per catch average last season.

He really blossomed in the second half of 2022. All five of his touchdown receptions came in the final seven games, and in the last game of the season, against Millersville, he caught six passes for 108 yards and a touchdown.

“I took the coaching very well,” Bails said. “I dug deeper into the playbook, and I got a better understanding of what was going on. … Reading defenses way better, getting better releases. Corners kind of picked (my release) up, so I had to change that up.”

Said Day: “Mark, to be honest, in my opinion, I think Mark is one of the best receivers in the conference. I just don’t think we were able to feature him and utilize his skill set as best as it could have been.”

Day said he believes Bails — and the offense in general — will benefit from the arrival of new offensive coordinator Blaise Holzer, who comes to Seton Hill after serving as the passing game coordinator at Tiffin. The Dragons led the Division II Great Midwestern Athletic Conference in scoring last season.

Bails noticed the change in the offense even in the early days of camp.

“It looks like we’re going to have a good turnaround season,” he said. “Everybody is doing their part. It’s not just one guy who is in the show. Everybody can ball out, and our quarterbacks are looking phenomenal.”

After beginning his collegiate career as a safety, Reed (5-10, 180 pounds) moved to corner last season. He recorded an interception — he lamented dropping another — and broke up seven passes in addition to making 23 total stops.

Reed acknowledged that his transformation also had a lot to do with what he did off the field.

“The biggest thing really was breaking down everything into the small details,” said the Landsdowne, Pa., native. “Football is a game of inches and seconds, so it was really just slowing down everything in terms of my technique, my diet, my work ethic, my hitting the weights.

“By doing that, I was able to learn so much more about football and see how important the little details are in terms of getting better.”

Added Day: “Zahir played the most he has played last year. Really had kind of a breakout season. His kind of Achilles’ heel had been keeping him healthy. But he’s so versatile, has the ability to play a couple of different positions.”

The trick now will be to get the Griffins out of that seemingly endless cycle of two-win seasons. Day was a member of the Griffins’ first football team in 2005 and wants nothing more than to see his alma mater up with perennial conference big boys IUP, Slippery Rock and Cal (Pa.).

Those three teams, incidentally, were picked to finish one through three in the PSAC West preseason poll. Seton Hill was picked sixth in the eight-team division.

Bails and Reed recognize that if the Griffins are to change their trajectory, each of them needs to be even better than last season. Bails makes no secret that he wants to be an all-conference receiver.

“I don’t think anybody in the PSAC can stop me,” he said.

For as many plays as he made on defense, Reed aims to make even more. He said he wants to have at least 10 pass break-ups, at least four interceptions and more than 30 tackles.

“I think I played pretty well (last season),” Reed said, “but my goal now is no longer to play ‘pretty well.’ I put in a lot of hours in the offseason, and I expect greatness. I expect, no matter who we play, to be one of the best players on the field.”

He will find out soon enough. The Griffins open the 2023 season Aug. 31 at Wheeling before hosting Shippensburg then traveling to East Stroudsburg. Seton Hill played the same three teams to open the 2022 season and lost to all three.

In fact, the Griffins lost their first eight games. Those days, Reed and Bails insist, are over.

“I feel like this is going to be the year,” Bails said. “Especially because people just know the history of Seton Hill and us not being a great program. But I feel like it’s going to be a big turnaround. We’re going to shock the PSAC for sure.”