Jon Drach brings competitive spirit to Union practice

SCHENECTADY, NY (NEWS10) -- The Union football team will play their first game under head coach Jon Drach this Friday night at Utica. The Garnet Chargers are looking to follow up a season that took them all the way to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Drach is the third head coach in three years for Union. Every coach brings their own style to practice. The first couple weeks of practice under Drach can be described with a word: competitive. "In between whistles, we're go, go, go," said junior starting quarterback Patch Flanagan. "We're making each other better. I think it's all ones versus ones, best versus best a lot, which is good. When it comes time to play the game, we're going to be up to speed with that. I think it's been really competitive and a good, fun environment."

"It's been great," said Drach. "I think we've had some really good competition across the board at a lot of different positions. Some of our young players have come along a lot in the course of the last three weeks and put themselves in positions to be starters this week. I think that we have the depth that we need. Obviously now going into week one we've kind of been on Utica now for the last seven days or so and I think we're ready for what we're going to see. Now it's just a matter of going out and doing it."

Kickoff between Union and Utica is set for 7:00 PM on Friday.