LAKE OZARK, Mo. - The School of the Osage had a roller-coaster season last year.
The Indians battled injuries at quarterback and came into the season with a lot of new players in key positions. Now that some of those new players have some time under their belts, they're ready to go for 2016.
The biggest question this offseason was at quarterback. After Zach Wheeler went down with an injury, then-freshman Dalton Depee stepped in and played well. He even helped orchestrate a win against Springfield Catholic in the first round of district play. With two strong options at quarterback, head coach Devin Johnson had a decision to make.
"Zach is going to be our quarterback," Johnson said. "We're in a good situation where you have some good athletes that can do a lot of things. Zach does a good job throwing the ball and he does a good job running with the football. He reads the defense very well."
Depee won't be relegated to the bench. He'll be used in other areas on both sides of the ball.
"The good thing about (Depee) is that he's a really good athlete," Johnson said. "Right now he's starting at outside linebacker and then he'll play in some spot areas offensively. He gives us a different dynamic at outside linebacker. He's a great athlete, he's able to chase down the ball and he just makes plays that makes your jaw drop sometimes. So it's kind of fun watching him do that and we'll put him in positions where we think he can help us."
This season should be fun for Johnson offensively, as he has many players to mix and match at skill positions that have plenty of experience. Dylan Riley and Dylan Brown make for a great duo in the backfield. Brown spent a good chunk of last season injured, but when he was healthy, he was electric. Combining that with a tough runner in Riley makes for a nice one-two punch.
Wheeler will also have some options in the passing game. Jason Edwards returns to lead the receiving corps and should have some pressure taken off of him by having Drake Gaines on the other side of the field. Gaines saw limited time last season and mostly played cornerback, but he is athletic with solid speed and leaping ability. All of those pieces should combine to make for a dynamic offense for the Indians.
"I think the biggest thing we have is that we have a lot of kids that we can plug in," Johnson said. "So we have kids that don't need to carry the full load. We have kids that we can move in different positions and while we're giving a kid a break we don't lose anything. So we're expecting our skill kids to have big years and be explosive, but if I'm thinking from a defensive standpoint from our opponents, it's got to be hard knowing that we can give the ball to four or five different guys and not drop off at all."
While they do have a number of different players at the offensive skill positions, Edwards should be the standout. He played on both sides of the football and has taken strides during the offseason.
"One of the things is that he's really gotten aggressive at going up and getting the football," Johnson said. "You can see his confidence is a lot higher than it was last year and we still have another weapon on the other side of him in Drake Gaines who's going to cause some people to pay attention to him too, so it's not like you can just stop Jason, which makes it more exciting because he's going to get single coverage against certain teams."
The Indians aren't returning everyone though. Defensively, they've lost some key players such as Russell Williams, a defensive back and captain, and Matt Halsell, who locked things up down the middle at nose guard. Luckily for Johnson, he has upperclassmen to fill in some of those gaps.
"The good thing is that we're replacing them with upperclassmen," Johnson said. "So we're replacing them with people that have been in the program, that have played Friday night and gotten some experience there. We're not just throwing some young guys to the wolves, which we kind of felt like we were last year."
One big plus is they are returning most of their linebackers. Osage had some great linebackers last season, including Austin Magnuson, who had 141 tackles as a sophomore. Linebackers are the heart of the defense and should be a strength again. The Indians will also add more speed to that group in Depee and they should be quicker across the board defensively, which is huge for a team that lacks size.
"Defensively for sure (we'll be focusing even more on speed)," Johnson said. "I don't think we've got a guy that's over 215 (pounds) that's going to play defense and right now looking at our starters on our defensive line we average 180-185. We expect to be able to be aggressive with our speed and you can take away some of that size if you do have the athleticism to make up for it and, fortunately for us, we do."
Osage will open the season against Fulton. Like Osage, Fulton is chock-full of athletic players, so it'll be a battle of athleticism.
"The one thing about them is they always have good athletes and they always seem to have people that can make plays," Johnson said.
The Indians struggled at times early last season, in large part due to their inexperience. This season they have more veterans and expect to get off to a better start and continue to improve week to week.
"Last year we got better each and every week, I really felt that," Johnson said. "This year I expect us to continue to improve. That's how we kind of set our program and that's the kind of mentality that we have, but hopefully we'll be starting in a better spot where we know each other a little bit more, we know the scheme a little bit more, that we're just more comfortable and familiar with it.
"Last year I felt like we competed really well, I just didn't think we made the plays necessary to win. We played a lot of close games that we just couldn't get on top of. Hopefully this year we can use those experiences to turn those close losses into wins."