Stopped by UAlbany football practice today and the Great Danes seem ready for their home opener (yes, finally they will play a home game).

Again the game is a 1 p.m., not 4 p.m. like originally listed and will also air on Time Warner 3.

Like many of the players, junior quarterback Vinny Esposito is ready for a home game and he's calling on more fans to get to University Field for the game.

“Going down to Delaware and playing in front of 23,000 people, that was a great experience,” Esposito said. “I don’t think any time soon we’re going to get 25,000 people here, but it would be nice to have a real college football atmosphere, which we’ve had in the past and we’d like to continue with.”

Esposito added that it's nice to finally be able to have friends and family catch a home game.

“The most exciting part about it is to be able to get our friends and family up there to watch the game," Esposito said.

While Esposito says the losses, even to more talented teams, have kept this team hungry, he's confident in this bunch.

“I think that we can beat any team if we play the way we can,” Esposito said. “Delaware’s the only team that really kicked out butts. We could be 4-1 heading into this week.”

I asked Vinny about his maturation as the quarterback, this being his second season at the helm of the offense.

“Last year, things were moving real fast,” Esposito said. “We opened up with Colgate, Montana and Hofstra and I was thinking this is quick, but this year, things have slowed down. Not that my stats are eye-popping, but I think that I’m doing a good job of managing the game and I feel comfortable.”

Esposito added that he knows his role, which is to make throws when necessary and the goal is to try and balance out the offense a little more with the running game.

Speaking of the run, talented junior running back David McCarty seems ready to get after Central Connecticut State as well, especially after what he called a subpar performance by their standards last week at Duquesne and a "sloppy" one, according to Coach Bob Ford.

“It almost seems as if we play up to the big games,” McCarty said. “At Duquesne, we didn’t play up to what we're capable of, like we did at UMass and UNH. We had 14 penalties, but I think playing at UNH, UMass, Delaware, Hofstra and Montana really does help in the end.”

McCarty had 230 yards last week, has 710 on the season and last season and rushed for 247 last season against the Blue Devils.

McCarty told me he thinks the key to Saturday's game will be dependant on each team's defense and which one comes to play.

With that being said, it should be a good game. CCSU is 4-1 and their only loss came at the hands of then No. 1 ranked North Dakota State.

Look for more on the game in Saturday's paper and I'll be at University Field Saturday afternoon.