Week No.1  has arrived. Maine football opens the season Thursday night against Albany.  Game time is 7 p.m. at Alfond Stadium.

Starting today, this blog will supplement our coverage in The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

To start the week off, here's a smattering of answers from Coach Jack Cosgrove from this morning's first CAA teleconference of the season:

Question: Opening thoughts. . .

Cosgrove: "We’ve never had better weather in August in Maine. It got greasy out there for us, sometimes a benefit we don’t get. It was a great contributor to the conditioning (of players) and challenging parts of presesaon. I think that helped us. We’re excited to get going in a game week. Like everyone else, we got tired and nervous about lining up against your own guys. We're excited to be in that game week mentality."

Question via a Maine fan through Twitter: Which game on your schedule do you forsee being the toughest?

Cosgrove:  "Albany. Because that’s our first one. It’s a new team for us. It’s really a whole new enterprise. A new senior class, a new first year group, guys stepping up. I think every coach in every conference in the country (feels that way). The first one is such a defining situation with your football team. They get put on display for the first time.

"That first game is such a definer of who you are. You move from there. You go on to that next game, and for us it’s Monmouth. I don’t see doing business any other way."

Question: State of health of the team?

Cosgrove: "We’re as good as we could’ve hoped for. Learned some hard lessons over the years. . .Looking at our two-deep we had everybody out there. There's nicks, bruises, soreness, but no outs, no limited's. Some guys are managing some ‘as tolerated' things.
I feel good. I’m knocking on wood. Last year at this time, we were without a number of guys going into preseason."

On FB Jared Turcotte: "Turcotte is more than 100 percent. He’s got that 'I missed playing' mentality that jacks him up a little further. It radiates through his teammates."

On QB Warren Smith: "Warren has been healthy as a horse. He was involved in last week of spring practice and has been full go since then, and no problems." (Smith had surgery last November to fuse to bones together in his foot.)

Question: About the quarterback competition between juniors Warren Smith and Chris Treister.

"We named Warren the starting quarterback. The competition we had there was outstanding. I’ve never been around having two as good here at such a high level. It was a tough call. Two exceptional quarterbacks, leaders on our football team. It came down to some little things. Playing a little bit better. We made that decision and we’re moving forward."

Question: Can you talk about the dynamic in the backfield with Turcotte and Derek Session, where you see that going?

"We really feel like we’ve added some healthy bodies. Derek Session in particular has played as damaged goods for two years. We sat him the whole offseason, got him fixed up with shoulder surgery, meniscus (surgery). He’s really been impressive this preseason.

"I know everyone is asking about Jared. I point to Session as being a new guy out there for us. He’s added some diversity.
Can't forget Pushaun Brown. He's a better player now. Julian McCall is another big back, actually bigger than Turc, and (will be) lining up at fullback. He's a (player) we really have high hopes for."

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