Offensive Line Leads Rossville

Fron the Capital Journal:

Such a household name for anyone who follows Kansas high school football.

The Bulldawg senior quarterback is coming off of back-to-back huge seasons and already is off to a big start in 2015. In fact on Friday night against Rock Creek, Horak enjoyed the greatest statistical game of his career, rushing for a whopping 359 yards and five touchdowns on a mere 13 carries, while also completing 9 of 10 passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

A game like that will make a name for a player. But Horak would just as soon it make a name for some of his teammates who typically toil in anonymity: his offensive line.

“They’re doing an amazing job of making good things happen for us,” Horak said. “When you have an offense as explosive as ours, they don’t get near the credit that they deserve. They sure make things easy for me.”

So who are “They?” Well, here you go.

At left tackle is Kole Davoren. At left guard Gabe Marney. At center Zach Jensen. At right guard Tyler Sage. And at right tackle Jackson Reeves.

Four of the five are seniors with Reeves the lone junior. Four of the five are returning starters, again Reeves the only newcomer to the group.

Rossville has gone 29-1 over the last two-plus years, and these guys are a major reason why.

“I think everything starts with the offensive line,” Rossville coach Derick Hammes said. “I think the playmakers that we’ve had and the kids that are playing with us now all recognize that it doesn’t get done without those guys.”

Not only is the unit senior-heavy, but there’s plenty of experience in those seniors. Sage and Jensen are both three-year starters, while Davoren and Marney are two-year starters. Marney was the only member of the group to earn All-Mid-East League honors last year, getting an honorable mention nod.

That experience has been invaluable, Hammes said, as has been the influence of former Hayden standout Dan Schneider as the team’s line coach.

“I think there’s a chemistry and things offensive linemen have to do in terms of working together that make it very important,” Hammes said. “The fact that we have four of these linemen back from last year is big because they’ve seen and done a lot of things together.

“(Schneider) has done a great job and to me he’s so valuable because he can take those guys and make them adjust to do the things they need to do when they see it. That happens a lot for us as people change their schemes and try to figure out a way to get the ball out of (Horak’s) hands and stop our running game. What we see on film may not be what we see on Friday nights.”

The days of Rossville’s undersized lines also seem to be a thing of the past. Four of the five starters are 220 pounds or bigger, as are key senior reserves Eric Ebert and Chayne Hulbert, whom Hammes said would start for most 3A programs but merely provide great depth for the Bulldawgs.

Through three games, Rossville is averaging 525 yards and 54 points per game.

“More of it than anything is schematically for the past two years, we’ve been getting off the ball and blocking the right people,” Hammes said. “They’re coached really well and they’re smart kids, too. This group, what they’ve done in the weight room, they really had to work to get there. The last couple of years, we’ve seen their strength numbers go up and they’ve just been really good for us.”