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03-23-2009, 03:06 PM
What do you expect out of DH in '09?
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08-02-2009, 09:27 AM
High school football summer practice: Dixie looks to build on seasoned offensive front
By Jason Williams ⢠Enquirer contributor ⢠July 29, 2009
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The Dixie Heights football team started 0-4 last season, having been blown out in three of those games.
It was too much for an inexperienced team to overcome as the Colonels finished 4-7.
"We struggled all year to find our identity," coach Tom Spritzky said.
Entering this season, however, the Colonels clearly know who they are. Dixie Heights' strength is an all-senior offensive line that has every starter back, including 2008 Enquirer honorable-mention all-stars Joel Lubrano and Wes Smith.
Spritzky also has the luxury of having some depth up front. Plus the hiring of former Covington Catholic head coach Dave Brossart as the position coach has helped to solidify the offensive line as the Colonels' strength.
"With all five starters back, we have higher expectations," said Lubrano, a 6-foot-1, 230-pound center. "We'd like to be the best (line) in Northern Kentucky. That's tough in this area, but that's our goal."
For Lubrano, it was quite evident from the start of summer workouts that the Colonels' offensive line could set such a goal. He has been able to gauge just how much progress the line has made because at this time last year, linemen were constantly jumping offside and missing blocking assignments.
"Last year, we had people struggling with (quarterback) cadences and play calls," Lubrano said. "This year, it's non-existent. We come to work every day and know what we're doing."
Brossart already has helped make a difference.
"He's brought a more ferocious mentality to blocking," Lubrano said. "He demands perfection. I give him a lot of credit because it's a tough mindset to keep up all the time. He never lets you get away with mistakes. He's done a good job of taking what we had last year and making it better."
Coaching the Colonels' experienced and talented offensive line seems to be a nice fit for Brossart, who resigned from CovCath in January after enduring consecutive losing seasons in his two years as head coach.
"I think he's kind of relishing that role right now," Spritzky said. "He just has to worry about one position now instead of overseeing an entire team."
The linemen have adopted Brossart's tough-minded mentality, as the Colonels are looking to improve their run-blocking and help senior running back Corey Klei build on last season's team-high 737 yards rushing. In the spread offense, the Colonels aim to be more run-pass balanced this season.
"We definitely want to be more of a running threat this year," said Smith, a 6-4, 280-pound right tackle.
"We want to be more physical. The spread offense is said to be 'foo-fooey.' We want to be able to line up and power over people
By Jason Williams ⢠Enquirer contributor ⢠July 29, 2009
⢠⢠Print ⢠ShareThis ⢠Type: A A ⢠Click-2-Listen
The Dixie Heights football team started 0-4 last season, having been blown out in three of those games.
It was too much for an inexperienced team to overcome as the Colonels finished 4-7.
"We struggled all year to find our identity," coach Tom Spritzky said.
Entering this season, however, the Colonels clearly know who they are. Dixie Heights' strength is an all-senior offensive line that has every starter back, including 2008 Enquirer honorable-mention all-stars Joel Lubrano and Wes Smith.
Spritzky also has the luxury of having some depth up front. Plus the hiring of former Covington Catholic head coach Dave Brossart as the position coach has helped to solidify the offensive line as the Colonels' strength.
"With all five starters back, we have higher expectations," said Lubrano, a 6-foot-1, 230-pound center. "We'd like to be the best (line) in Northern Kentucky. That's tough in this area, but that's our goal."
For Lubrano, it was quite evident from the start of summer workouts that the Colonels' offensive line could set such a goal. He has been able to gauge just how much progress the line has made because at this time last year, linemen were constantly jumping offside and missing blocking assignments.
"Last year, we had people struggling with (quarterback) cadences and play calls," Lubrano said. "This year, it's non-existent. We come to work every day and know what we're doing."
Brossart already has helped make a difference.
"He's brought a more ferocious mentality to blocking," Lubrano said. "He demands perfection. I give him a lot of credit because it's a tough mindset to keep up all the time. He never lets you get away with mistakes. He's done a good job of taking what we had last year and making it better."
Coaching the Colonels' experienced and talented offensive line seems to be a nice fit for Brossart, who resigned from CovCath in January after enduring consecutive losing seasons in his two years as head coach.
"I think he's kind of relishing that role right now," Spritzky said. "He just has to worry about one position now instead of overseeing an entire team."
The linemen have adopted Brossart's tough-minded mentality, as the Colonels are looking to improve their run-blocking and help senior running back Corey Klei build on last season's team-high 737 yards rushing. In the spread offense, the Colonels aim to be more run-pass balanced this season.
"We definitely want to be more of a running threat this year," said Smith, a 6-4, 280-pound right tackle.
"We want to be more physical. The spread offense is said to be 'foo-fooey.' We want to be able to line up and power over people
08-08-2009, 08:05 AM
After taking some lumps with underclassmen last season, Dixie Heights football coach Tom Spritzky has high hopes that the Colonels' experience will lead to a significant turnaround this season.
Dixie had just seven seniors last year, so Spritzky and his staff were forced to play those underclassmen. That led to the Colonels starting 0-4, although three of those losses were to teams that advanced to their respective state championship games: Beechwood, Simon Kenton and Highlands.
What has Spritzky optimistic this year is the way the younger players responded at the end of last season, when Dixie closed with wins in four of its final six games, losing only to Ryle and Boone County, and then lost a tough 35-24 decision to Ashland Paul Blazer in the first round of the playoffs.
"The inexperience and immaturity and lack of varsity experience really showed in those first four games, and certainly the competition was a factor," Spritzky said. "We had a bye week after that and went to working on fundamentals. And after the bye week, we finally got a win over a quality Conner team and we played pretty well the rest of the year."
Senior linebacker Ben Wolfe, who had some varsity experience heading into last year, said those first four games were an eye-opener for many of his teammates.
"There's a big difference between Friday nights (playing varsity) and Saturday mornings (playing junior varsity)," Wolfe said. "Just to get that experience of playing Friday nights was big."
Spritzky and his staff knew last year basically would be a rebuilding year with an eye toward this year, when the Colonels have 22 seniors and 20 returning starters - 10 on each side of the ball.
"For us as a coaching staff, we were certainly optimistic about the team we'd have this year and thought it would pay off for playing the young kids last year," Spritzky said. "Only having seven seniors, we really didn't have a choice and had to play young kids.
"Now we're going from little to no varsity experience to a lot of varsity experience. We're a year older, a year stronger and hopefully a year wiser, and they should be prepared mentally for what it takes to be a varsity player. We may not have any superstars, but we have a lot of really good players."
Among them is senior quarterback Ryan Wilson, who played admirably in his first season as a starter and came on after the Colonels' bye week. He finished the season 95-for-165 passing for a 58-percent completion rate, 1,224 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions.
"One of those interceptions came on a tipped ball, too," Spritzky said. "Ryan probably did the best job of any quarterback I've ever had at not just putting the ball up for grabs. He struggled real early because he was nervous and unsure, but as he got more comfortable he used his legs a lot more and just showed great composure."
Wilson finished as Dixie Heights' second-leading rushing with 561 yards and 10 touchdowns, and Spritzky said it wouldn't surprise him if the quarterback both passed and ran for more than 1,000 yards this season.
Dixie's offense wound up the season averaging almost 33 points and about 330 yards per game. Aside from scoring just seven points against Boone County, the Colonels averaged 43.7 points in the other six games over their final run.
"Our offense made a lot of progress last year," Spritzky said.
The defense also showed some spotty improvement over the final seven games, shutting out Holmes and holding a potent Campbell County offense to just seven points. But overall it allowed almost 30 points and 330 yards per game.
Spritzky is hoping to fix some of the problems defensively by going back to playing a more fundamentally sound, assignment oriented defense rather than taking chances with blitzing.
"We tried to do some different things the last couple of years and it just led to too many big plays," Spritzky said. "The best defensive teams we've had here were good because we were fundamentally sound. We need to be more diligent about moving the ball down the field instead of taking so many risks. We're going back to being a team that will play sound defense and force teams to drive it on us.
"Our experience should make us more fundamentally sound."
Dixie had just seven seniors last year, so Spritzky and his staff were forced to play those underclassmen. That led to the Colonels starting 0-4, although three of those losses were to teams that advanced to their respective state championship games: Beechwood, Simon Kenton and Highlands.
What has Spritzky optimistic this year is the way the younger players responded at the end of last season, when Dixie closed with wins in four of its final six games, losing only to Ryle and Boone County, and then lost a tough 35-24 decision to Ashland Paul Blazer in the first round of the playoffs.
"The inexperience and immaturity and lack of varsity experience really showed in those first four games, and certainly the competition was a factor," Spritzky said. "We had a bye week after that and went to working on fundamentals. And after the bye week, we finally got a win over a quality Conner team and we played pretty well the rest of the year."
Senior linebacker Ben Wolfe, who had some varsity experience heading into last year, said those first four games were an eye-opener for many of his teammates.
"There's a big difference between Friday nights (playing varsity) and Saturday mornings (playing junior varsity)," Wolfe said. "Just to get that experience of playing Friday nights was big."
Spritzky and his staff knew last year basically would be a rebuilding year with an eye toward this year, when the Colonels have 22 seniors and 20 returning starters - 10 on each side of the ball.
"For us as a coaching staff, we were certainly optimistic about the team we'd have this year and thought it would pay off for playing the young kids last year," Spritzky said. "Only having seven seniors, we really didn't have a choice and had to play young kids.
"Now we're going from little to no varsity experience to a lot of varsity experience. We're a year older, a year stronger and hopefully a year wiser, and they should be prepared mentally for what it takes to be a varsity player. We may not have any superstars, but we have a lot of really good players."
Among them is senior quarterback Ryan Wilson, who played admirably in his first season as a starter and came on after the Colonels' bye week. He finished the season 95-for-165 passing for a 58-percent completion rate, 1,224 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions.
"One of those interceptions came on a tipped ball, too," Spritzky said. "Ryan probably did the best job of any quarterback I've ever had at not just putting the ball up for grabs. He struggled real early because he was nervous and unsure, but as he got more comfortable he used his legs a lot more and just showed great composure."
Wilson finished as Dixie Heights' second-leading rushing with 561 yards and 10 touchdowns, and Spritzky said it wouldn't surprise him if the quarterback both passed and ran for more than 1,000 yards this season.
Dixie's offense wound up the season averaging almost 33 points and about 330 yards per game. Aside from scoring just seven points against Boone County, the Colonels averaged 43.7 points in the other six games over their final run.
"Our offense made a lot of progress last year," Spritzky said.
The defense also showed some spotty improvement over the final seven games, shutting out Holmes and holding a potent Campbell County offense to just seven points. But overall it allowed almost 30 points and 330 yards per game.
Spritzky is hoping to fix some of the problems defensively by going back to playing a more fundamentally sound, assignment oriented defense rather than taking chances with blitzing.
"We tried to do some different things the last couple of years and it just led to too many big plays," Spritzky said. "The best defensive teams we've had here were good because we were fundamentally sound. We need to be more diligent about moving the ball down the field instead of taking so many risks. We're going back to being a team that will play sound defense and force teams to drive it on us.
"Our experience should make us more fundamentally sound."
08-09-2009, 09:54 AM
I think Dixie will wind up second in thier district behind Highlands. Coach Wirth is probably a year off with Cov. Cath.
I saw a few games Dixie played last year and they got destroyed in most of them (I watched the early ones mentioned from the article). They hung tough and did very well to finish out their season. The big thing they have going for them is that they are returning a very experienced offensive line. That can't be overlooked because Dixie runs an offense that reminds me of West Viriginia's. Good luck to Coach Spritzky.
I saw a few games Dixie played last year and they got destroyed in most of them (I watched the early ones mentioned from the article). They hung tough and did very well to finish out their season. The big thing they have going for them is that they are returning a very experienced offensive line. That can't be overlooked because Dixie runs an offense that reminds me of West Viriginia's. Good luck to Coach Spritzky.
08-09-2009, 10:29 AM
Rob Van Winkle Wrote:I think Dixie will wind up second in thier district behind Highlands. Coach Wirth is probably a year off with Cov. Cath.
I saw a few games Dixie played last year and they got destroyed in most of them (I watched the early ones mentioned from the article). They hung tough and did very well to finish out their season. The big thing they have going for them is that they are returning a very experienced offensive line. That can't be overlooked because Dixie runs an offense that reminds me of West Viriginia's. Good luck to Coach Spritzky.
Very accurate post. Dixie should be very good this year.
08-09-2009, 04:41 PM
Dixie should have a very good year. They have a very talented senior class, the only concern I have is their conditioning. Dixie is known for having a lot of two way starters and I always see in games especially at the beginning of the year that they are out of shape and get dominated by schools such as Beechwood or Highlands because they are faster and in better shape than Dixie and the Dixie players have their hands on their hips gasping for air by the 4th quarter. Never quite understood why a 5a school needs to play so many kids on both sides of the ball.
08-10-2009, 11:31 PM
I think this could be Spritzky's last chance. Dixie either plays with the big boys this year, and plays tough, or someone else could be calling the shots in 2010.
08-11-2009, 06:24 AM
Can you dig it? Wrote:I think this could be Spritzky's last chance. Dixie either plays with the big boys this year, and plays tough, or someone else could be calling the shots in 2010.
If it is his last chance as you postulate, he certainly won't be able to complain that he wasn't given a fair chance. Dixie is stacked with talented athletes this year. A returning starting qb, bunch of O linemen, running back, etc. In my opinion Dixie almost has as many talented athletes as Highlands does. Note that I said almost. I think Dixie should beat every team on their schedule other than Highlands. Tom is a great guy; I'm just not sure he's proven he's a great coach or has been able to assemble a great coaching staff.
08-11-2009, 04:52 PM
charlie22 Wrote:If it is his last chance as you postulate, he certainly won't be able to complain that he wasn't given a fair chance. Dixie is stacked with talented athletes this year. A returning starting qb, bunch of O linemen, running back, etc. In my opinion Dixie almost has as many talented athletes as Highlands does. Note that I said almost. I think Dixie should beat every team on their schedule other than Highlands. Tom is a great guy; I'm just not sure he's proven he's a great coach or has been able to assemble a great coaching staff.
Does Dixie have some talent returning by NKy standards? Absolutely...
Close to the cast Highlands has? Not at all.
08-11-2009, 05:55 PM
nkysportsblog Wrote:Does Dixie have some talent returning by NKy standards? Absolutely...
Close to the cast Highlands has? Not at all.
I hope you are right, although I think it's closer than you think it is.
I watched the seniors play against one another as frosh (I have a son in that class) and Dixie gave Highlands every thing they wanted and seem to then be at least as talented as Highlands. So much more so than the Miles Simpson lead Simon Kenton Pioneers were as frosh.
The Dixie sophomores, as frosh, flat out laid the wood to Highlands last year. I honestly don't remember what happened when the juniors played as frosh.
Now I know that freshman football is just that; freshman football. But I'd submit that about the only thing freshmen football indicates is the amount of athleticism present in that class. And back when the seniors were freshmen, the Dixie players were every bit as athletic as Highlands was, in my opinion. If Highlands is much more athletic than Dixie now as you state, then Highlands has been doing something different than Dixie.
08-12-2009, 06:05 AM
charlie22 Wrote:If it is his last chance as you postulate, he certainly won't be able to complain that he wasn't given a fair chance. Dixie is stacked with talented athletes this year. A returning starting qb, bunch of O linemen, running back, etc. In my opinion Dixie almost has as many talented athletes as Highlands does. Note that I said almost. I think Dixie should beat every team on their schedule other than Highlands. Tom is a great guy; I'm just not sure he's proven he's a great coach or has been able to assemble a great coaching staff.
Keep in mind that I have no source or anything, just a feeling. He's done very little with some solid talent over the years and I'm beginning to wonder when someone is going to hold him accountable. Good guy, I agree, but that's not likely to count for much when the time comes.
08-12-2009, 06:21 AM
Can you dig it? Wrote:Keep in mind that I have no source or anything, just a feeling. He's done very little with some solid talent over the years and I'm beginning to wonder when someone is going to hold him accountable. Good guy, I agree, but that's not likely to count for much when the time comes.
Understood. And I'd have a hard time arguing with you on that point.
08-14-2009, 09:29 AM
idk bout you guys
08-19-2009, 04:43 PM
Colonels change mindset
By Adam Kiefaber • [email]akiefaber@nky.com[/email] • August 18, 2009
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Dixie Heights High School began last season by losing four straight en route to a 4-7 season.
Granted those first four losses were to the eventual Class 1A champ Beechwood, Class 6A runner-up Simon Kenton, Covington Catholic and Class 5A champ Highlands, but Dixie Heights was still rebuilding and trying to recover from losing more than 20 seniors to graduation.
Fast forward to 2009 where the Colonels find themselves in a far different position, now they have 26 seniors (graduated only seven) on the team and are thinking about competing for a Class 5A state championship.
"I expect that we play for a state ring in December," senior running back Corey Klei said. "I feel like we definitely have the talent to go that far. It just depends on how well we can come together as a team."
Klei, who at 5-foot-6 195 pounds, is tough to drag down. Last season, Klei rushed for 795 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also catching 23 passes for 261 yards.
Senior quarterback Ryan Wilson also returns to an offense that actually returns 10 starters. Last season, Wilson threw for 1,482 yards and rushed for 522 yards, while totaling 20 touchdowns.
Newly hired assistant coaches Dave Brossart and Derek Bosse, who were both at Covington Catholic last year, will run the offense this season. Brossart was CovCath's head coach for the past two seasons, while Bosse ran CovCath's offensive last season after a coaching stint at Thomas More.
Ironically, Dixie Heights' 49-47 loss to Covington Catholic in Week 3 was one of Northern Kentucky's most exciting games last season. Now, that game serves as a reminder to Dixie Heights head coach Tom Spritzky on how qualified Brossart and Bosse are at running an offense.
"They scored 49 points on our defense last year, so I don't have to worry about them not knowing what they are doing," said Spritzky, who has turned over the offensive coordinator duties to Brossart after he had been handling that role for the past 14 seasons.
This season, Spritzky will shift his focus over to the defense, which also returns 10 starters.
Dixie Heights will have a tough schedule, which features Newport Central Catholic (Aug. 21), Beechwood (Aug. 29), Simon Kenton (Sept. 4), Conner (Sept. 11) and Ryle (Sept. 18) in the first five weeks of the season.
That schedule should only help the team's ability to have a deep playoff run in November.
"I want them to think that," said Spritzky about his team thinking of winning the state championship. "That is ultimate goal for every team...In our classification Highlands is the barometer and if you are not excited to play a team that has had that kind of success, then you shouldn't play them. Hopefully by the time we get to that game, we will be ready."
Dixie Heights will play at Highlands, which is favored to win the Class 5A state championship again this year, Oct. 2.
By Adam Kiefaber • [email]akiefaber@nky.com[/email] • August 18, 2009
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Dixie Heights High School began last season by losing four straight en route to a 4-7 season.
Granted those first four losses were to the eventual Class 1A champ Beechwood, Class 6A runner-up Simon Kenton, Covington Catholic and Class 5A champ Highlands, but Dixie Heights was still rebuilding and trying to recover from losing more than 20 seniors to graduation.
Fast forward to 2009 where the Colonels find themselves in a far different position, now they have 26 seniors (graduated only seven) on the team and are thinking about competing for a Class 5A state championship.
"I expect that we play for a state ring in December," senior running back Corey Klei said. "I feel like we definitely have the talent to go that far. It just depends on how well we can come together as a team."
Klei, who at 5-foot-6 195 pounds, is tough to drag down. Last season, Klei rushed for 795 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also catching 23 passes for 261 yards.
Senior quarterback Ryan Wilson also returns to an offense that actually returns 10 starters. Last season, Wilson threw for 1,482 yards and rushed for 522 yards, while totaling 20 touchdowns.
Newly hired assistant coaches Dave Brossart and Derek Bosse, who were both at Covington Catholic last year, will run the offense this season. Brossart was CovCath's head coach for the past two seasons, while Bosse ran CovCath's offensive last season after a coaching stint at Thomas More.
Ironically, Dixie Heights' 49-47 loss to Covington Catholic in Week 3 was one of Northern Kentucky's most exciting games last season. Now, that game serves as a reminder to Dixie Heights head coach Tom Spritzky on how qualified Brossart and Bosse are at running an offense.
"They scored 49 points on our defense last year, so I don't have to worry about them not knowing what they are doing," said Spritzky, who has turned over the offensive coordinator duties to Brossart after he had been handling that role for the past 14 seasons.
This season, Spritzky will shift his focus over to the defense, which also returns 10 starters.
Dixie Heights will have a tough schedule, which features Newport Central Catholic (Aug. 21), Beechwood (Aug. 29), Simon Kenton (Sept. 4), Conner (Sept. 11) and Ryle (Sept. 18) in the first five weeks of the season.
That schedule should only help the team's ability to have a deep playoff run in November.
"I want them to think that," said Spritzky about his team thinking of winning the state championship. "That is ultimate goal for every team...In our classification Highlands is the barometer and if you are not excited to play a team that has had that kind of success, then you shouldn't play them. Hopefully by the time we get to that game, we will be ready."
Dixie Heights will play at Highlands, which is favored to win the Class 5A state championship again this year, Oct. 2.
08-19-2009, 11:14 PM
sstack Wrote:Alot of talk about this team, but I'm just not sold on them yet. Should get a better picture after Fridays game.
Week 1 can be that way. :wink:
08-21-2009, 02:49 PM
By Ryan Ernst ⢠[email]rernst@enquirer.com[/email] ⢠August 21, 2009
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Three plays into its third game of the 2008 season, Dixie Heights was moving the football with all the efficiency and precision of an Electric Football squad.
The Colonels had scored just one touchdown in each of its first two games. They were averaging just 160 yards of total offense a game. The coaches had benched the starting quarterback. And now, the new starter was hurt, meaning the offense was being handed back over to the guy previously at the helm of the entire mess.
Then, the lights went on.
During the final eight weeks of the season, only two Northern Kentucky teams scored more points than the Colonels. It's a trend coach Tom Spritzky would like to see continue when his team opens its season tonight at home against Newport Central Catholic.
"Honestly, offensively we became better and more efficient and consistent through the year," Spritzky said. "... We haven't really changed anything. But we've probably made it a little more complex because we have a lot of players coming back who know what they're doing."
Senior quarterback Ryan Wilson is one of those players. He was the guy who entered last season as the starter. He also was the guy who got benched.
"They just said I wasn't performing like they thought I should, so they were going to give someone else a chance," Wilson said. "That pushes your buttons and makes you want to work harder. Ultimately it worked out for me."
Dixie Heights coaches, looking for answers after a 29-6 loss to Beechwood and a 28-7 loss to Simon Kenton, pulled Wilson in favor of Corbin DeMatteo for last year's Week 3 game at Covington Catholic. The experiment lasted all of three plays. That's when DeMatteo went down with an injury and Wilson went in.
"I was standing right next to Coach Spritzky on the sideline," Wilson said. "He just said, 'Wilson, you're in.' I just wanted to show I could do it.
He did. The offense tallied 466 yards of total offense in the 49-47 loss. Wilson was 16-of-21 passing for 157 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He also ran for 70 yards and a score.
"That ended up being his coming-out game," Spritzky said. "We put him in out of necessity because Corbin was kind of dazed. Ryan just played great."
It didn't stop there. The following week Dixie scored 28 points on Highlands. (The only team to score more on the Bluebirds last season was national power Colerain.) Wilson threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. In its next game, Dixie outdueled one of the area's other top offensive teams in a 46-28 victory over Conner.
The Colonels won four of their final six regular season games, but their defense still lagged behind.
"Defensively, I'm not sure we got better the whole year," Spritzky said. "We were just giving up too many points and too many big plays. We were always putting our offense in a tough position. We scored 39 and lost; we scored 47 and lost; we scored 24 and lost. Eventually that caught up to us."
The Colonels return 10 starters on defense and 10 on offense, including standout running back Corey Klei and one of the area's top offensive lines. The offense, Wilson said, is ready to carry the burden again, if that's what it takes.
"We don't think it will be like that again," he said. "Last year we were expected to put so many points on the board because the defense was allowing a lot. The weight was on our shoulders to go out and score every possession.
"So there's a lot of chemistry on offense. I know what the receivers are going to do. And we've got an entire offensive line of experienced guys. Obviously the expectations are high."
⢠⢠Print ⢠ShareThis ⢠Type: A A ⢠Click-2-Listen
Three plays into its third game of the 2008 season, Dixie Heights was moving the football with all the efficiency and precision of an Electric Football squad.
The Colonels had scored just one touchdown in each of its first two games. They were averaging just 160 yards of total offense a game. The coaches had benched the starting quarterback. And now, the new starter was hurt, meaning the offense was being handed back over to the guy previously at the helm of the entire mess.
Then, the lights went on.
During the final eight weeks of the season, only two Northern Kentucky teams scored more points than the Colonels. It's a trend coach Tom Spritzky would like to see continue when his team opens its season tonight at home against Newport Central Catholic.
"Honestly, offensively we became better and more efficient and consistent through the year," Spritzky said. "... We haven't really changed anything. But we've probably made it a little more complex because we have a lot of players coming back who know what they're doing."
Senior quarterback Ryan Wilson is one of those players. He was the guy who entered last season as the starter. He also was the guy who got benched.
"They just said I wasn't performing like they thought I should, so they were going to give someone else a chance," Wilson said. "That pushes your buttons and makes you want to work harder. Ultimately it worked out for me."
Dixie Heights coaches, looking for answers after a 29-6 loss to Beechwood and a 28-7 loss to Simon Kenton, pulled Wilson in favor of Corbin DeMatteo for last year's Week 3 game at Covington Catholic. The experiment lasted all of three plays. That's when DeMatteo went down with an injury and Wilson went in.
"I was standing right next to Coach Spritzky on the sideline," Wilson said. "He just said, 'Wilson, you're in.' I just wanted to show I could do it.
He did. The offense tallied 466 yards of total offense in the 49-47 loss. Wilson was 16-of-21 passing for 157 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He also ran for 70 yards and a score.
"That ended up being his coming-out game," Spritzky said. "We put him in out of necessity because Corbin was kind of dazed. Ryan just played great."
It didn't stop there. The following week Dixie scored 28 points on Highlands. (The only team to score more on the Bluebirds last season was national power Colerain.) Wilson threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. In its next game, Dixie outdueled one of the area's other top offensive teams in a 46-28 victory over Conner.
The Colonels won four of their final six regular season games, but their defense still lagged behind.
"Defensively, I'm not sure we got better the whole year," Spritzky said. "We were just giving up too many points and too many big plays. We were always putting our offense in a tough position. We scored 39 and lost; we scored 47 and lost; we scored 24 and lost. Eventually that caught up to us."
The Colonels return 10 starters on defense and 10 on offense, including standout running back Corey Klei and one of the area's top offensive lines. The offense, Wilson said, is ready to carry the burden again, if that's what it takes.
"We don't think it will be like that again," he said. "Last year we were expected to put so many points on the board because the defense was allowing a lot. The weight was on our shoulders to go out and score every possession.
"So there's a lot of chemistry on offense. I know what the receivers are going to do. And we've got an entire offensive line of experienced guys. Obviously the expectations are high."
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