I didn't realize the freshman class was also weak, for some reason I thought that class was strong ala the Soph class. Hopefully the Soph class can help the program recover. IHSA playoffs, this board and IHSA football in general are better when JCA is good.
I assume he will be there as long as he wants. Rightfully so really. Really need to get some talent in with next year's incoming frosh group, but who knows if that will happen. Impact transfers never hurt either.
Next year's team should be competitive. Whether that means 3-6 or 7-2 with a good chance to win 5A is still anyone's guess though. Really need to reconfigure the schedule. The decent Wisconsin team and Wheaton North should be replaced with two much weaker/smaller programs. With the smaller numbers and dwindling enrollment, the goal needs to be to navigate the ESCC to find 5 wins and just get into the dance. With a 5A field like this season, even a mediocre JC team would have a shot at making a deep run. But a mediocre JC team that finishes 4-5 while trying to schedule Wheaton, Providence, MC, Montini, etc. obviously has no chance. Any JC guys know who is on the schedule for weeks 1 and 2 next season? I think one of those games needs to be a team that is low-level CPS bad. And I wouldn't mind if both of them were that way really.
As for the team, there should be some talent. Really like the backfield. 3 running backs return. Johnson will be a senior. He rushed for 900 yards as a soph and can break one at any time. Needs to put on a little more size. Hailey was a nice surprise this season as a soph in running for 1,000 yards from the fullback position. Butler will be a senior and missed most of this season due to injury. I believe he was playing wingback. On the surface, I would like to see Hailey (180 lbs) moved to a wingback and Butler (215 lbs) play fullback.Or perhaps find a new fullback, let Hailey and Butler play wingback, and move the slippery Johnson (170 lbs) to WR. But I think those three are all likely to be in the backfield. It's just a matter of whether Hailey or Butler plays fullback. Hailey did it really well this season but Butler seems to have the more prototypical build for that spot. And really we need Johnson to play wingback and do it well next year. He is the lightning quick home run threat to complement the more workmanlike bruising style of the other two, but unless he puts on 20 pounds, I don't know if he can carry the ball 15-20 times a game for 9 consecutive weeks. Defensively there is a lot of young talent but it was hard to tell this season exactly how talented they really are.
