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Months of anticipation come to fruition Friday night when the Creston/Orient-Macksburg Panthers and Boone Toreadors meet up at Panther Field.
For Panthers co-coach Brian Morrison, this week is about one particular concept as much as any other.
Improvement
For a week now, Morrison has been harping that this team is as prepared for the start of the season as it has ever been in years. Coming out of team camp at the start of August, Morrison, co-coach Ryan McKim and staff agreed that the team’s focus was evident each and every day. Morrison has gone as far as to say that the team is operating at a week three or week four level.
Now steps need to be taken to prove as much.
“We have to see improvement Friday. If we don’t see improvement then we lost a week,” Morrison said. “Once you start seeing that multiple weeks in a row, you’re not going to be the football team you can be.”
There will be several ways in which the Panthers can measure that improvement. The two main things Morrison wants to see limited are penalties and turnovers, describing those two factors as of critical importance in the season’s first few games.
“If we limit the penalties, that means the kids’ mindset is there,” Morrison said.
These non-district games are important for that reason and more.
“The teams we’re playing in our district, they’re going to get better in every game,” Morrison said. By the time we get to them, they’ll be full-go. We have to make sure we’re at that stage as well.”
Boone or bust
Before the Panthers is a Toreadors team that went 2-7 last year and just one game the year before. The 2015 wins for Boone were a 27-10 win over Perry and an 35-21 win over Algona.
Back for the Toreadors are senior quarterback Tanner Schminke, who was a dual-threat option. Schminke threw for 1,872 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushed for 464 yards and six scores.
Gone are several of Boone’s top receivers from a year ago, but back is wideout threat Jon Herrick, who caught 33 balls for 579 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Boone will field a roster much smaller than the Panthers, which will be somewhere in the 40’s.
The Boone defense surrendered 36.3 points per game in 2015 and averaged 25 per game.
The Toreadors defense returns three of its four leading tacklers from a year ago, all of which, Schminke, Cody Wadsworth and Kade Morain, are seniors.
“Coaches have broken down Boone’s film and prepared to play Boone as a coaching staff but we haven’t really talked to the kids much about ‘we’re playing Boone,’ Morrison said. “I think if you were an outsider going to our practices I don’t think you would know who we were playing because we don’t say it much to the kids.”
The Panthers are more concerned with playing their own game and measuring the effort and game plan that they have planned.
“We just want to play our base stuff and play fast and same offensively,” Morrison said. “We want to make sure our kids see what they do up front on defense and make sure our kids know how to block it and play our tempo and our type of football.”
Panther lineup
The Panthers have a very experienced lineup prepped to take to the gridiron Friday evening. The home crowd will cheer a great number of upperclassmen in the starting lineup on offense and defense.
Eight seniors, two juniors and a sophomore will start on offense while seven seniors, three juniors and a sophomore will start on defense.
Versatile senior Clarinda transfer Zach Carlson will look to make an immediate impact on both sides of the ball as a wide receiver, sometimes running back, and safety.
Among the lineman, Kadon Hulett is the lone one who will start both ways, but will be frequently rotated in and out throughout the night as part of a rotation that nears 10 defensive lineman in the Panthers 3-4 look. In all, seven starters will start both ways, but the coaching staff feels comfortable with the depth behind the starters.
“I’m just looking for kids that are not considered the starters to compete like they still want to be the starters,” Morrison said. “If we can instill that in the kids that are in the second group to say ‘hey, guess what, I want to be in that first group’ and still compete for a position, whether it be in practice or Friday night, if we can do that, then we’ll definitely get better every week in all phases of the game and we’ll be better prepared to finish a game in the fourth quarter because we’ll be fresh.”
As ready as the Panthers feel, excitement about the first week of the season can prove to be an equalizer. Every school has high goals set that can only start with high intensity play in week one.
“It doesn’t matter what school year you’re at,” Morrison said. “That first Friday football game is big time for everyone in the state of Iowa.”
“You can tell it’s game week. The kids are excited,” Morrison added. The kids are flying around in the wet weather out there (at practice).”
Returners
Creston/O-M returns two all-state players in Chase Shiltz and Trevor Downing. Shiltz rushed for 2,542 yards on 338 carries as the squad’s workhorse back. Downing returns at offensive tackle. Hulett returns as a stalwart on both sides of the ball. On defense, Hulett, a defensive end, made 44.5 tackles registered 11 solo tackles for a loss and tallied four sacks.
More than a handful of players who started games on the offensive line last year return to pave the way for a run game that tallied over 3,000 yards.
Brody Frain will take snaps at quarterback as the starter, but Kylan Smallwood, who will start at wide receiver and cornerback, will take snaps as the signal-caller as well.
Friday night
"We've had great support here since I've been here," Morrison said. "I think the anticipation of this year is pretty good. i know at the school kids are excited. I think it's going to be a great atmosphere."
The freshman game is set for 4:45 and the varsity is set for kickoff at 7:30 p.m at Panther Field Friday night.
Offensive Starters
Position Name Jersey # Grade
QB Brody Frain 9 12
RB Chase Shiltz 24 12
FB Jackson Mikkelsen 38 12
WR Kylan Smallwood 15 10
WR Zach Carlson 1 12
WR Evan Jacobson 10 11
OL Cody Tanner 73 12
OL Trevor Downing 74 11
OL Kadon Hulett 55 12
OL Keaton Eslinger 51 12
OL Tucker Flynn 72 12
Defensive Starters
Position Name Jersey # Grade
DB Evan Jacobson 10 11
DB Kylan Smallwood 15 10
DB Zach Carlson 1 12
DB Brody Frain 9 12
LB Chase Shiltz 24 12
LB Mitchel Swank 21 11
LB Jackson Mikkelsen 38 12
LB Michael Stults 42 12
DL Colton Bolinger 88 12
DL Kadon Hulett 55 12
DL Blake Sevier 54 11