The Gridiron Geek is about through focusing on 2024’s schedules, moving on to a theme of Week 1’s muggy heat, and the potential stormy weather threat in this August’s lone Friday Night Lights installment. The flaw with focusing on each team’s schedule too much in a preseason is that you can be reduced to counting up everybody’s probable Ws and Ls on your fingers and toes, and fall into a cliche of “which team will show up this year?“-style previews.
Seckman/Fox are exceptions to the rule anyway, 2024’s “rolling Beryl” giving a reporter far bigger fish to fry than regular-season opponents when it comes to our local Suburban League contingent. Even though The Geek seems to have exaggerated the extent of the Jags’ and Warriors’ home field water damage, according to feedback from coaches in our Facebook Group.
We’ll hold out, and feature the schedules of just 3 more brands in 2024’s Small Schools preview. Everybody wants to talk about the St. Pius Lancers’ schedule, either to anxiously ask if the suddenly independent school has a chance, or to gleefully predict that it no longer has one. Herky’s slate in ’24 gives the resurgent Varsity Blackcats a chance to do legitimate damage, and the Jefferson schedule is noteworthy simply because the Blue Jays are one of Jeff County’ only teams to be standing pat on its schedule with few big changes, apart from the JHS-SPX rivalry temporarily going on hold.
Grandview? Aw heck, we can’t give Grandview a standard “fingers and toes” forecast after the media snafu of this summer. In fact, let’s get right to that.
Grandview Eagles: Were They Counting Every Other Tryout, or Something?
We’re trying to go easy on complaints about the Jefferson County Leader this season. For one thing, Russell Korando and Gordon Bess’ wonderful editorial work on the I-55 Conference’s disbandment was an inspiration to Mississippi Magazine to take a stab at it just once. Besides that, TGG has already taken a shot across the bow at the JCL this August, taking apart Korando’s argument that Crystal City shouldn’t play any Large Schools.
It’s hard to overlook the Leader’s reports on the training camp “numbers” (or total tryouts) at Grandview and Crystal City this year, though, because the newspaper’s casual mentions of some VERY BAD statistics flipped a few boosters out who don’t live close-by or peek in on practices all the time.
Don’t worry, it wasn’t real statistics. It was a mistake. The JCL reported that Crystal City had “12” and “15” kids out in practices, by turns (vis-a-vis the article not the practices) in its August preview on Bradley’s Farm. CCHS, in something of a surprise, has 24 players listed on its MSHSAA roster as of Week 1. Then the paper whiffed on Grandview’s roster turnout even worse, reporting in a straightforward way that the Birds of Prey were going to rely (GULP!) on just 14 student-athletes going into the 2024 campaign.
The exact quote from Korando on August 17: “It also would help to have more than 14 in uniform, but that’s Kimminau’s head count as the program battles an old problem of low turnout.”
Grandview took a long time to execute a final Week 1 roster this year, making TGG nervous that he had the Eagles all wrong in ’24. We thought that when healthy, Winchester Avenue had some decent roster-numbers from a popular sport to rely on each autumn. What a sigh of relief when head coach Jason Kimminau released a MSHSAA-dot-com roster with nearly 35 Grandview student-athletes on it, just in the nick of time over last weekend.
Now, not all 35-ish are ready to play, and some might sit out the whole year. GHS’s probable lineup of eligible players is right around 30, but that’s still a long leap from “14 in uniform,” a report we hope no one else took seriously.
We’re not upset that the Leader got a roster size wrong. The Geek has done that plenty of times, even with Tri-City teams! Yet we can’t believe someone didn’t point out what a massive story that “14 in uniform” blurb would have been, if true. In essence, MSHSAA has “reported” that Grandview could produce a lovely 2024 season, while the JCL, inadvertently, called for Grandview to be lousy. No 14-man lineup can compete in Class 2.
30 kids = a great Class 2 turnout, and 14 = a horrible C2 turnout. It is as if someone said a team’s starting QB ran the 40-Yard Dash in “5.4” seconds and can throw 15 yards, when really, he ran the 40 in “4.5” seconds and can toss the pigskin 50 yards. If Grandview High School really had 14 athletes ready for football season, it would be a Defcon-1 scenario like Grandview had when it was forced to close up shop in the 2010s.
As it stands, of course, Grandview still needs to play better football to post a winning record, even if there’s 300 players in training camp. This season’s 3 available “strings,” however, can help to string-along GHS’s chances in bouts that a beaten-up roster was unable to persist in last campaign. Birds of Prey boosters will bite their nails over whether QB Brennan Martin and RB Skyler Melton can remain healthy in their upperclass go-arounds. The Gridiron Geek is equally concerned with Grandview’s offensive line play, which was a huge let-down in 2023 following a summer in which the Thump! of Grandview’s practice O-Line could be heard (and felt) throughout the Big River valley.
There were, no doubt, as many injuries up front as in the backfield during Grandview’s casualty-ward season of ’23. The key for 2024’s season is to prepare 6+ solid Iron Man linemen who can work with cohesiveness in any combination on the OL, so that an injury can’t ground the Varsity Eagles. The Grandview HUDL page shows off the nucleus of a potentially deeper unit, with Tucker Rhinehart’s exciting status as a junior also getting (an accurate) mention from the Jefferson County Leader on 8/17. We can only hope that reserves like Carter Wibbenmeyer are as hefty as his name is long, since Wibbenmeyer is representative of the kids without stats or even a HUDL profile.
As for Grandview’s regular-season schedule (MSHSAA doesn’t release the Class and District brackets for each year until it’s prepping for the website to crash on Friday morning, so we’ll learn about all that stuff on Saturday), The Geek is fond of how Dittmer’s 2024 slate gives the Eagles a 9-week climb from the easiest to the hardest degree-of-difficulty. Week 1’s rival Chaffee regretfully waved goodbye to many seniors who were responsible for its sudden (and potentially brief) revival last season. Grandview’s opponents scheduled for Weeks 2 thru 4, Bayless, Cuba, and Principia respectively, must yet demonstrate they can compete against anyone with a pulse.
Weeks 5 and 6 will present tough road trips to Perryville and Herculaneum, turning things up just a notch. Then, in Weeks 7-9, Grandview High goes up against St. Vincent, Jefferson, and Crystal City, the class of our local small schools. That’s a perfect progression of easy-to-hard that a lot of teams probably envy, especially in a year of severe changes in other towns.
Herculaneum Blackcats: Prepare to “Doe” Run Up 2024’s Rankings
Did some fans assume that Herky’s mad dash to November’s finish line was another “Chaffee” situation, and that Blackcat football would return to its also-ran status right away? The truth is that, somewhat quietly, Dunklin’s District Semifinal campaign was led by a fierce troop of underclassmen who’re 90% returnees in 2024. Last year wasn’t the time for Herky’s revival yet, though maybe this autumn could be. R-5’s exuberant playoff success of 2023 was an unexpected bonus.
Mississippi Magazine sadly complained that the ’23 Blackcats returned almost no players who had touched the ball in Varsity action. But you had to know there was going to be an upside when a High School team was so young – there always is! This time around, Herky is returning the whole wide world from a Week 1 roster point-of-view, at least at the skill positions.
Blane Boss and his staff have a unique “San Francisco 49ers” playbook for Herky’s running downs, of which there are many. The better angle is that Boss will finally have some proven weapons to turn to when calling for Herky’s myriad of tosses, flips, reverses, and “Tipton-Traps” that use the quarterback as a delayed, misdirection rusher. Herky’s QB Keaton “Deets” Reaves has a deceptive (and impressive) stat line of about 400 rush yards and 8 TDs scored carrying the ball last fall. Remember, signal-callers in MSHSAA (and in college) have yards taken-away from their totals when they lose yardage on a sack. Averaging the junior QB’s “3.8 YPC” from 2023 took a lot of strident 5 and 10-yard rushes to make up that deficit.
Herky’s schedule is friendly at a perfect time, with 3 beatable Class 4 foes in Windsor, Perryville, and DeSoto. That’s a chance to take a crack at some serious MSHSAA bonus points, and seed even higher in Class 3 Districts, brackets which are known to be top-heavy. Meanwhile, a small-school slate that includes games against Bayless, Cuba, and Fredericktown will give a growing HHS defense the chance to post more shut-outs, and build confidence around linchpins like LB Clark Struckhoff.
Didn’t the Blackcats have a blood rivalry with Festus R-6 once? Funny, since the 2 old foes could have matching weaknesses in ’24. Struckhoff is the only returning Dunklin defender to have any QB sacks registered in his career thus far, tasking the rest of Herky’s front-7 to show that it can pressure the pocket before the ‘Cats embark to play sharp, dynamic St. Vincent in Week 4. We think HHS will claim a lopsided win over Fredericktown and force the (other) Blackcats to try passing downfield in the early September game that precedes Jefferson and St. Vinny’s, which will offer us a glance at that edge-rush right away.
Jefferson Blue Jays: Rough Patches Inevitable vs Class 3
Jefferson was another “too quiet” story of 2023’s local gridirons, a perfect mascot for how Jefferson County pigskin was so badly underrated to start (and even to finish) the season. The squad that was supposed to have a typewriter’s blocking effort due to its inexperience on the OL rattled off 7 straight wins instead, went to its District title game, and was only defeated (barely) by the raw speed and athleticism of a less-organized Class 2 rival in Lift For Life. The Blue Jays become Hillsboro football’s “Mini-Me” as both schools’ coaching staffs installed fancy new “Advanced Option” playbooks at the same time.
But if we say Jefferson’s sitting pat with its schedule of opponents for 2024-25, that report comes with an asterisk. There aren’t any unfamiliar teams on the R-7 slate for 2024; they’re all schools that the Jefferson Blue Jays have played since 2011. However, the timing and combination of tough tilts versus elite visitors (and hosts) leaves something to be desired.
Jefferson took part in Sullivan’s Jamboree this August. To quote Jeff Jarrett talking about Andy Kaufman’s shoot-wrestling career, “that’s stones alone.” Sullivan was a favorite to win a Class 4 District last year, only upset by a healthier Pacific squad by the skin of a Meramec bass’s tail. Maybe the Blue Jays observed little Hermann causing all kinds of problems for the C4 teams in that area, and decided that if the Bearcats can do it, Blue Jay Way can do it too. There’s also little ambiguity as to why Jefferson scheduled St. Genevieve and Park Hills Central (gulp) on the same 9-week ledger. JHS is anxious to show regional fans that it didn’t split from St. Pius to make its schedule easier. Jefferson’s just as likely to make it even harder.
Park Hills Central? The defending Show-Me Bowl champs? In Week 2??? Sheesh. Jefferson’s tried this matchup before, and it didn’t go very well then, either. Without the graduated QB Kole Williams back on campus, how can Jefferson hope to compare with the Central Rebels, or with the slightly-less-scary but still out-of-their-league St. Genevieve Dragons?
They probably can’t, but the “Hermann”s of the world (or at least Missouri) are out there busting their noses against ranked Large Schools occasionallly, too. Coaches believe that it goes with the territory if you want to compete with Lamar and the other powerhouses of Class 2, who could care less if their weekly victims hail from campuses with 1000+ kids on them.
The Geek’s question is whether JHS has enough depth to withstand the bumps, bruises, and battered psyche that will come from Week 2’s inevitable beatdown, and still have enough gas in the tank to earn a second straight favorable playoff seed. Jefferson had 6 running backs get 20+ touches in 2023, and several quality RBs return to a program that won’t ever stop running the rock. Wide receiver is far more of a concern, since Nate Breeze’s starting WR corps was a “U-19” gang last campaign. We’re thinking that JHS might take another “Howe Crossing” into a new level of quality on defense, though.
Jefferson High’s stat sheet on defense has been far more balanced than some of the Dirty Dozen’s lately, even including the contenders like Festus and Herky who may or may not spark up a decent pass-rush in ’24. Tyler Crader, the tackler who brought down 66 opposing ball-carriers last season, is back as a junior for JHS. The Geek will also keep an eye on the linebacker Landon Weiss, who goes into his senior year following a terrific season of 8 T4L and 4 fumbles recovered.
St. Pius Lancers: So, How Hard is That New Independent Schedule, Really?
No offense to Hill Valley’s players, coaches, and boosters, but we won’t be spending a ton of ink on St. Pius X’s upcoming season (or its schedule) even though TGG has hyped it up at the top-of-scroll already. We’ve already gone over the long Lancer football offseason of 2024, full of shock, sadness, and heartbreak, and we don’t want readers to get too wrung out before the new campaign has a chance to kick off. For those who haven’t seen St. Pius X’s adventurous ’24 slate of opponents yet, here’s a handy link to that bad boy.
It’s time to focus on what’s in front of us, like Friday’s potential storms that could delay (or hurry) Week 1 in the Festus area. Depending on how the map plays out, coach Frank Ray’s team may or may not feel lucky that its awesome August matchup is far away in the Bootheel.
You saw that right – The Geek called Hill Valley’s first matchup “awesome.” St. Pius football fought Week 1 opponent Caruthersville in a fantastic playoff game 5 years ago, and to TGG’s eye, the Lancers aren’t/weren’t substantially more or less talented pre-COVID as they are now. Caruthersville and SPX boast similarly young lineups in 2024, and who knows how either side would respond if there’s lightning in Paducah closer than 50 miles away, and MSHSAA postpones Friday’s planned kickoff in Caruthersville.
Would it be a bad deal for Ray’s youthful squad, after all they’ve had to go through mentally this year already? Maybe so. Since its a weekend, though, the Lancers might respond to a MSHSAA lightning postponement to early Monday by putting the St. Pius kids up in a Cape Girardeau hotel or something. That could be fun, and take some of the pressure off.
(Coach Ray’s staff would wind up raising a Go-Fund-Me to hire-in 5-10 hard nosed lady chaperones for the boys, so that they could get some sleep.)
Meanwhile, the pressure could build on Caruthersville’s rebuilding team, or at least it would be a big bummer to spend the whole ’24 offseason dreaming of Opening Night’s kickoff, only to have it washed out at exactly 6:30 PM. (We alllllllllllll know the feeling.) Weather advantages can always swing 2 ways.
As for the rest of St. Pius’ new-look schedule, don’t worry that the whole thing is filled with unbeatable teams and end-of-the-world road trips. Yes, there are some virtually non-winnable games in 2024, but at least one of them (Valle University) doesn’t qualify as a Southwest Airlines voyage. Ray has picked out some mega-bonus points matchups against Large Schools which the Lancers can beat, like Fort Zumwalt East (2-8 in 2023) and Miller (5-4).
Last but not least, The Geek actually had 2 immense St. Pius Football stories wrong last year, because as well as assuming (“ASS=U=ME”) that the Herky forfeiting occurred in a peaceful way that was brought upon by studious film study, TGG also wrote that Hill Valley would have an all-grown-up team of juniors and seniors in 2024. It was a lazy presumption to make, but it was based on that summer’s many reports that St. Pius “had only 3 seniors,” followed by a glorious turnout of so many kids at a winning Jamboree.
Turns out that there were 5+ seniors in the eventual Senior Night lineup, and that a whole lot of those Jamboree kids were just freshmen. But that’s okay. In fact, it’s promising. You wouldn’t want St. Pius to give 2024’s schedule the old “college try” (not against High Schools named after colleges, like Baylor) with an experienced, but ordinary batch of seniors who would hang around about 12:00 and then fade away on a weekly basis. Celebrating a close loss against Class 5 is only legitimate when the C5 antagonist is Cardinal Ritter, and we don’t want a moral victory to become the high-water mark for a program without the resources to improve and make noise after that.
Youthfulness is good when you’re embarking on a new era. What good would it do for a roster of 90% seniors to play “learning experience” games against the ESPN 100? They would get to tell their wife and kids, “Yep, we lost worse than Bishop Sycamore,” and that would be the totality of it. With a sophomore lineup of Lancers (and that “August Surprise” offensive line) in ’24, the squad can begin righting the wrongs and building a new legacy, one step at a time. There are days, weeks, and years to come for the work to pay its rewards.