The I-formation, run-heavy offense is ingrained at Pratt-Skyline. Andrew Nation has served his entire 20-year coaching career with the Thunderbirds, including his third season as head coach. He has helped the T-Birds gain the vast majority of its offensive yards on the ground and enjoy multiple one-season turnarounds.
In 2014, Skyline, led by 1,472-yard rusher Dustin Weber and a big senior class, enjoyed a three-win improvement to 8-2. The T-Birds rushed for 265 yards a game against just 36 passing.
Skyline tallied just nine wins in the next four seasons – and has again made a turnaround with 12 seniors and six returning starters on both sides of the ball. The T-Birds have opened a surprising 4-0 with 618 rushing yards and 13 scores from sophomore Jesus Casas. Senior Aden Temanson has delivered 439 rushing yards, and senior quarterback Braden Tyler has 398 on the ground.
“It’s the same kids pretty much,” Nation said. “We lost a couple seniors last year, but they are more experienced, and we haven’t made the mistakes as much as we did last year. But not much different. The stuff we are doing, we are just doing it better.”
Nation has noticed multiple improvements from ’18, including strength gains. Senior fullback/middle linebacker Eli Temanson broke the Skyline school record with a 295-pound clean on Aug. 1.
Notably Skyline has bettered communication on the offensive line, especially with pre-snap reads and using leverage. Junior Hunter Berens (5-foot-9, 206) and senior Brock Montgomery have anchored the line at right and left guard, respectively. This has allowed the T-Birds to sustain drives more frequently than ’18 and spread the ball around.
Skyline defeated Burrton (72-12), and then flipped three results from last fall with wins versus Kiowa County (24-8), Argonia-Attica (42-20), and Moundridge (60-14). Skyline was 0-5 against A&A.
“Last year, we didn’t communicate very well at first, and kind of led to some problems with penetration,” Nation said. “And this year, with our communication getting better, we haven’t seen as near as much penetration that has kind of killed our play. It’s definitely been something that has been rehearsed in practice, and I think it’s made a huge improvement in our ability to be more consistent.”
On Friday, Skyline (4-0, 1-0) plays host to Little River (3-1, 1-0) in a game that could decide Eight-Man, Division I, District 5.
“Some big physical kids and some fast kids,” Little River coach Kevin Ayers said of Skyline. “And just everything they need to put together a good football team.”
Central Plains dominated the district last year en route to a 13-0 mark and state title, but big graduation losses and key injuries has dropped the Oilers to 1-3. Last week, Little River defeated Central Plains, 48-0, the first win over the Oilers since ’12.
Coach Kevin Ayers is 161-40 in his 20-year head coaching career, including two state titles at Jetmore and one at Wallace County. Ayers’ wife is a Little River graduate, and he is in his first season with the Redskins. Skyline is 0-3 versus Little River since a 20-16 victory on Sept. 22, 2006.
“He’s kind of a legend in the realm of eight-man,” Nation said. “When he was hired over there, that sure threw our antennas up. We knew that we were going to see an opponent that was probably going to be very disciplined, and well-practiced in everything, all the fundamentals of the game, and be tough and physical. We’ve heard he’s pretty good at breaking down film.”
Little River opened with a 70-23 loss at Canton-Galva, ranked first in the classification. However, the Redskins, with its new dual quarterback system, have won 49-0, 51-6, and 48-0 since. Canton-Galva returned every starter, and Little River has continued to shift players up front.
“It was good for us,” Ayers said. “It obviously showed us just how much work we needed to do, and we went to work on it right away. And I think at the end of the season, hopefully we can look back and say that playing Canton-Galva Week 1 was the best thing for us.”
Ayers has one of Kansas’ biggest surprises with junior Jayden Garrison, a cross country runner the last two seasons. Ayers talked to him, and Garrison, an excellent basketball player, came to summer weights, and elected to play football.
“You could see the hunger in him to compete,” Ayers said. “He’s a competitor. I think he just decided that it was something he wanted to try.”
Last year, Graham Stephens had another big season with 753 rushing and 520 passing. He and Garrison have split time at quarterback. Stephens is 5-9, 190, and Garrison is 6-1, 165. Stephens, a junior, is a powerful, strong runner, and Garrison is a little quicker.
Ayers has always believed that “one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing to defend” in eight-man football is a quarterback that can run. Both Stephens and Garrison can run effectively. Ayers said Stephens has handled the change “extremely well.”
“As a coach, you always want to make your team as hard to defend as possible,” Ayers said. “… We just rotate them around. I think that makes us a little bit harder to prepare for as teams start breaking us down film-wise.”
Garrison has completed 14 of 23 passes for 203 yards with four touchdowns versus two interceptions. Stephens is six of eight passing for 180 with four scores versus no interceptions.
“We are all so thankful that he did,” Ayers said of Garrison. “He’s a natural quarterback. It’s one thing to come here not having played football for so long and come play, but to come play quarterback is a whole different ballgame, and he has just stepped into that role. He’s an exceptionally smart kid, which helps, and then to watch – he has so many skills that he brings to the table.”
Both have seven rushing scores. Garrison has 40 carries for 413 yards, and Stephens is at 42 for 300. Each one has caught passes. Garrison has four receptions for a team-high 159 yards and three scores. Stephens has three catches for 33 yards and a touchdown. Both players have 24 stops, though Stephens leads with six tackles for loss. Garrison is a rangy safety on defense.
Senior Brayden Sears has shifted from fullback to tight end, and moved from linebacker to defensive end. He has played well and ranks second with 26 stops. Senior Zane Kratzer changed from tight end to guard. He leads with 29 tackles.
“It just comes down to coaching,” Ayers said. “That’s something I love about the game is just the chess match, and trying to get your kids in the best spot.”
While Little River has made many changes, Skyline has kept with the same formula that Nation learned a nine-year assistant under Jon Novotny, the head coach on the ’14 squad. Nation learned many of Skyline’s values, including work ethic in daily life, the classroom and football field from Novotny.
Three times Novotny led a win improvement of at least three games between ’09-14. Nation has helped Skyline bump from 1-8 to 2-7 to 3-6 to 4-0 in the last four years. The T-Birds have allowed just 13.5 points a game after 30.9 last year. Skyline has not permitted fewer than 30 points a contest since ’11.
Skyline has routinely used 11 players on defense with Montgomery, seniors Ryan Adams, Charlie Shafer and Jesus Marquez. The linebackers feature Eli Temanson, Tyler and sophomore Enoch Knox Walton. The back end has Casas, senior Thomas Sturgeon and senior James White.
Offensively, Skyline’s I formation has averaged more than 400 rushing yards a game in the last two weeks in the wins versus A&A and Moundridge, squads that are 4-2 when not facing Skyline.
“That’s pretty much the base of everything,” Nation said. “Everything we do starts there, and then we branch out from there. But yeah, we’ve got the people that can do it, and they identify with it, and that’s what’s gets us going.”
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