Turnaround starts with 'D'
By JON STYF
-
jstyf@daily-chronicle.com
IHSA Class 5A playoffs
(9) Sycamore (6-3, 4-3 WSC) at (8) Kaneland (6-3, 5-2 WSC), 6 p.m. Saturday
SYCAMORE – Joe Ryan and his coaching staff knew they had to make a change.
The Sycamore football team gave up 222 points last season and the Spartans' coaches pinpointed tackling as their biggest issue.
In the past, the Spartans hadn't done much live tackling in practice during the season because of a fear of injury. But this season, they threw that notion out and have been going live every day of every week. They also added a new 15-minute tackling drill once a week that defensive end Harlan Johnson said has helped improve technique immensely.
"Our tackling has gotten significantly better," said Johnson, who leads the Spartans with nine sacks this season.
That improved tackling, along with the implementation of new defensive coordinator Randy Zeitler's scheme, helped Sycamore (6-3, 4-3 Western Sun Conference) become the conference's top defense this fall, allowing just 113 points.
Only one team in the conference improved more defensively over the past year. That team is Kaneland (6-3, 5-2 WSC) – who the Spartans will meet at 6 p.m. today in the opening round of the Class 5A playoffs in Maple Park. The Knights went from allowing 240 points last season to 114 this year.
Those defensive improvements never were more apparent then the Knights' 21-14 win against Sycamore during the regular season, a far cry from the 38-35 shootout at Kaneland last season.
"From Week 4 to Week 10, there is a big change," Ryan said. "You get some injuries and kids playing in different spots. There are just a lot of changes."
The biggest change of all, however, was the way the Spartans responded after a loss. The past two seasons, the Knights have handed Sycamore its first loss.
Last year, the Spartans' season just went downhill as they lost five of their last six games.
This year, they responded by going 3-3 in the heart of their schedule.
A big part of that is the defensive front, led by Johnson on the outside and a combination of Taylor Dillon, Dorian Hryniewicki, Beck Ackmann, Darrell Mayweathers and Justin Longua on the interior of the defensive line. Sophomore Sam Capella likely will see his first varsity playing time at the position this week.
The veteran linebacking corps, led by seniors C.J. Compher, Steve Nayman, Cody Leffelman and Sam McRickard also has shown plenty of improvement while the secondary of Eric Ray, Danny Schroeder, Marckie Hayes and Tommy Nice will get challenged the most tonight against Kaneland's top-notch passing attack.
"We've tackled well this year and that's been huge," Ryan said. "We need to tackle well [tonight] in order to win. We've adjusted things in the coverages. We probably weren't as confident in some of the coverage things we wanted to do then. Hopefully we've corrected that."
Both Ryan and Johnson said that Zeitler's system has simplified things for the defense. And that's helped players such as Johnson get free to rush the quarterback.
"It's simple and it allows us to play aggressive," Johnson said. "We don't have to think about what we're doing as much.
"Any time you do anything for a long amount of time, you get better at it."
Sycamore (6-3, 4-3 WSC) at Kaneland (6-3, 5-2 WSC)
Game time: 6 p.m. Saturday
Location: Kaneland High School's Field
Radio: 1360-AM WLBK, pre-game at 5:30 p.m.
Last meeting: Kaneland 21, Sycamore 14 on Sept. 18, 2009
Keys for the Knights: Kaneland loves to throw the ball, but the Knights will need to open things up early with the run game. In the last meeting, Kaneland broke away with two long touchdown catches from Quinn Buschbacher on what Sycamore coach Joe Ryan called "blown coverages." Then they closed the game out with an acrobatic catch from Ryley Bailey. They'll need to maintain possession and get plenty of key third down plays like Bailey's to win this one. Ryan said that the Knights are also one of the best screen-pass teams around, making them dangerous to blitz against.
Keys for the Spartans: Since the teams last met, Sycamore has gone great lengths to establish more of a running game and seen plenty of success, led by Marckie Hayes' and his 1,395 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground. But it's been the Spartans' defense that has shown the most improvement as they had dominated – holding their opponents to 10 points in three weeks before falling 32-20 to conference co-champion Glenbard South last Friday. QB Trevor Mathey will get his fourth start of the season for Sycamore.
Prediction: Sycamore 20, Kaneland 17
– Jon Styf, jstyf@daily-chronicle.com
Comments
