By Jim Henry

sports@joplinglobe.com

The wait ends today for Pittsburg State center Jay Nunez.

“It’s a thrill to finally be a starter for the Gorillas,” he said. “I’ve been here for four years ... redshirted, then played a little bit for two years. It’s kind of a dream come true, finally playing on game day.”

It’s also a thrill for Nunez, an Oklahoma native, to make his first start in his home state as the Gorillas tackle Central Oklahoma tonight at 6 in Edmond.

“I’m really excited to go down thtere,” he said. “It’s only two hours from my hometown (Alva). I’ll have a bunch of people there, have a little Jay Nunez crowd. I’m pretty excited about that.”

“Jay Nunez is a perfect example of a player who came here, worked his tail off and now he’s a starter,” Gorillas head coach Chuck Broyles said.

Joining Nunez on the offensive line are three three-year starters — guard Kendall Molz and tackles Travis Greer and Shane McGinnis.

“Any time you have three guys who’ve started since they’ve been here, that’s a big help for someone like me who’s finally coming in,” Nunez said. “If I have any questions or concerns, I have someone to go to. They’ve been there, they’ve done that. They can help me out a lot.”

Quarterback Mark Smith and tailback Caleb Farabi, two seniors who where teammates at St. Mary’s-Colgan, were the primary weapons in last year’s offense that averaged 37.4 points and 454.2 yards per game.

The Gorillas expected to return seven starters from last year’s defensive unit, but end Rashad Pittman and backs Bryan McMurtrey and Jeremy Jackson are sidelined with injuries. Chadd Snyder, a junior from Carl Junction who was a reserve quarterback last year, has been moved to defense and will start at free safety.

“The defense has a lot to prove,” senior linebacker Rusty Morgan said. “We have to prove we can play. The last two years we haven’t been up to standards. I don’t really like talking about the past ... it’s a new year but the last two years we haven’t lived up to the tradition of Gorilla defenses. We’ll get it back on track this year.”

Central Oklahoma returns 13 starters (six offense, seven defense) from last year’s 4-6 team. Running back Ben Birmingham earned first team all-Lone Star Conference honors last year after gaining 983 yards, but UCO is expected to throw the ball a lot more under new head coach Tracy Holland.

Holland coached high school ball nine years in Oklahoma, most recently at Oklahoma Christian. He was head coach and general manager of the Frankfurt Knights of the Football League of Europe from 1993-97.

While the Bronchos have a new head coach, they have the same defensive coordinator, and Broyles knows him well. Steve Patterson, the son of former Northeastern Oklahoma A&M head coach Dale Patterson, was a player at Miami High School in the mid-1980s when Broyles was an assistant coach there.