Facing a tough road opponent to open the 2022 football season, the Blue Devils fell behind early and could not mount a comeback at Sandusky in a 40-21 week one loss.
“I thought we got a really slow start,” said Head Coach Jerry Bell, now in his third season manning the Blue Devils sideline.
“I want to say our first three possessions were threeand- out and riddled with some penalties and mistakes. We had communication mistakes up front which poses some problems. When you face a blitzing team like Sandusky, you’ve got to make sure that you’re pointing out the blitz and you’ve got to make sure that you are communicating consistently up front of where the blitzes are coming from. We didn’t weather that real well. Those first three series just weren’t what we were looking for.”
Meanwhile, the host Blue Streaks exploded out of the gate, notching three touchdowns in the first quarter. Bell said there were a few factors at play that resulted in the Springfield defense getting tagged early and often.
“They have some athletes and their quarterback is pretty athletic. They did a good job mixing their runs with their short passing game,” he said.
“When you look at everything, we’ve got a brand new defense that we installed this year so there are still some growing pains with that. The kids are still learning the defense and when you have teams like Sandusky who has some athletes, they came out and ran some things that we didn’t see on tape. It took us a little bit to get the adjustments done defensively because we were so quick on offense with those three-andouts. Our coaches just couldn’t get the adjustments done very quickly.
“Those kind of posed a snowball problem for us.”
In years past, such a start would have spelled certain doom and gloom for the Blue Devils. This year, however, they did manage to place a tourniquet on both sides of the ball to go into halftime trailing 20-7 while also receiving the second half kickoff.
It was during the intermission that Bell said he could see the growth and maturity of his 2022 squad compared to years past.
“When we went into halftime against Sandusky,” he said, “we were down two scores and that energy in the locker room and the confidence was ‘hey, we’re going to come out in the third quarter, we’re going to get after it and we’re going to win this game’ and that’s exactly how I felt based on our kids’ responses.” That confidence initially looked well placed in Springfield’s opening few plays of the half, too.
“We started getting things moving and the first possession coming out of halftime was really key for us,” Bell explained. “We needed to get the ball in the end zone to get a score. We could’ve been within one score at that point if we would have been able to sustain that drive. We got across the 50 and looked really good at the beginning of the drive. But then we just went backwards from there with penalties and mistakes.”
By quarter’s end, Sandusky had extended the lead to 33-14, quashing most realistic hopes of opening the season 1-0 for the first time in Bell’s three seasons.
“This game, to be honest with you, Sandusky’s a good football team, very athletic and very quick,” said Bell. “But it was a game for us of missed opportunities for sure. This game was one where we had opportunities galore, and we missed those opportunities to make plays that needed to be made to win the game. But there’s a lot of positives, and our kids are believing in that.”
Some of those positives were on display, though not consistently enough, on the offensive side of the ball. Despite the graduation of tailback Brandon Langston, the Blue Devils have experience and talent returning there and at the other skill positions including quarterback.
It very well could be the most stable group of skill guys since Bell took over in 2020.
“[Senior tailback] Taylen Miller, he’s coming off a season- ending injury last year, and we’re trying to find a way to get him the ball,” the coach said. “Guys are really stacking the box on us. People are really blitzing us and loading the box. So, we’ve got to be able to throw the football. [Junior quarterback] Will Scott really started to come into his own by like the fourth or fifth series in the first half. He started showing that leadership that we’ve seen throughout the summer.”
The Blue Devils may face loaded boxes for some time this fall much like they did at Sandusky. That’s due to some unwanted shuffling in the trenches, a unit that will again have to grow and grow quickly throughout the season in order for Springfield to execute their offense.
“We had to move some guys on the offensive line which I thought was the strength of our team coming into this year,” Bell said. “But we had to move some guys because of the lack of depth defensively. Then we’ve had two key injuries that have hurt that depth as well, and they’re season-ending injuries. So, with some new guys in those spots that haven’t had that Friday night lights experience, I think that played a factor as well.”
The coach also added that, despite the 40-point gashing and depth concerns, their new defense has the potential to come together just fine. Like most things in football, it will first take a lot of discipline from all 11 players on that side of the ball.
“We have a motto of one man, one assignment,” he explained. “We just need our guys to read their keys and just play football from there. I felt that there were times that our kids were playing on their heels because they were unsure of themselves. But the reality is they need to trust themselves and trust their teammates and then step up and make a play.
“I thought that at times we were a little tentative. We’ll need to continue to work on our tackling and our pursuit. The defensive unit needs to trust that their brother is going to do his assignment and do what’s expected and in turn they need to do what’s expected of them. Some of our guys are trying to do too much and they play out of position. By them playing out of position, it causes the big seams or gaps not to be filled.”
Experience, discipline and belief in oneself are easier said than done, but the coach believes that more of each is all that’s required for this year’s team to bounce back and have a very realistic shot at the expanded postseason play. They already have much more of one of those things, too.
“Our kids are playing with a confidence that I haven’t seen in the first two years, said Bell. “There’s this energy that’s positive that’s happening. They’re leading with positivity and not yelling and screaming and pointing the finger at each other. They’re starting to play together and starting to believe in each other. That process is really coming along.”
