[h=1]Massillon opponents preview: Maumee must find new QB to lead its powerful offense[/h] David Harpster
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Updated: Monday, July 9, 2012
Maumee football coach John Boles didn’t have to think long when he mulled over the biggest hole his Panthers will be forced to fill when preseason practice begins later this month.
“That’s huge,” Boles said of the graduation of starting quarterback Jake Schneider from last year’s 7-3 squad. “That’s certainly one of the bigger holes to fill and he’s a tough guy to replace. He was a two-year starter for us.”
All Schneider did was pass for 2,091 yards and 26 touchdowns and rush for another 1,284 yards and 12 scores during the 2011 season.
Massillon managed to hold Schneider under wraps for the most part in its 49-14 victory over Maumee in Week 3 of last season.
This season, the Tigers may have to focus on controlling senior Steven Duby when they make the lengthy road trip to suburban Toledo to meet the Panthers in Week 3.
“He was a starter for us as an outside linebacker and he’s an all-league defensive player,” Boles said of Duby. “He’s a strong kid, he’s a good enough runner to be a threat, and he’s got a good arm. It’s his turn.”
Boles, who has been at Maumee for 14 seasons, isn’t only looking to replace Schneider, as just four starters return from an offense that racked up more than 4,700 yards in 10 games. Duby was 8-of-15 passing for 107 yards last season. His top two targets figure to be seniors Dominique King and Sean McGovern, who both started last season.
Boles tends to look at the positives of promoting seniors into open roster spots.
“Our running back, Brandon Phenix, also was very productive,” Boles said. “He had around 900 yards rushing and about 300 more receiving. We lost two other starting receivers and three of our starting offensive line.
“Defensively, we lost a significant number of kids, too. We lost our all-state Mike linebacker who also was a three-year starter at center in Evan Karchner. But it’s not unusual for us really. We like to think we’re usually senior-dominated.”
While the Panthers may be forced to promote somewhat green seniors into starting spots, they will do so at least with a solid knowledge of the team’s base spread offense. Boles isn’t much for change; he has run the same scheme for the last half of his tenure at the school.
“We’ve been doing it for seven years, and to be honest, I’m not smart enough to change offenses every year according to what all our personnel is,” Boles said. “Hopefully, you have a system in place that’s flexible enough that allows you to emphasize different things.
“You want your kids growing up within the system. Sometimes they may not be as talented as a team before, but if they’re fundamentally sound and can execute and take advantage of some things, then that’s what you want them to do.”
Boles came away significantly impressed in his team’s first exposure to Massillon last season. The Tigers managed to hold the Panthers’ high-powered offense in check for most of the game, while also capitalizing on every chance they were given.
“I was real impressed with Massillon’s football program last year. I felt there were a number of times where physically we competed well, even though the score really didn’t show it,” Boles said. “Massillon did a great
job making us drive a long field. We moved the ball OK, but when you have a long field, your chances of scoring really decrease.
“Defensively, we just broke down at key times and allowed a lot of big plays. The game got out of hand for us. Massillon just played very sound and very well and took advantage of every wrong thing we did.”
Boles and the Panthers will begin sifting through the questions and finding some answers later this month. But it’s not something he hasn’t dealt with during his prior seasons at the school.
“You want to make sure you’re preparing as well as you can and you’re competing as well as you can and developing a great team environment,” Boles said. “That’s all you can do, and then you see the results come from that. We’ve got a lot of questions.
“We’ve got some defensive linemen back, we have a few perimeter kids back on defense, so we’ll see. We like to think we play a lot of seniors each year, so each year, you might have a lot of questions.”
