Green Canyon Wolves. Photo by Clint Allen.
Region 11 football kicks off Friday, August 12 with all six teams bringing excitement to the 2022 season. There are two new coaches in the region, taking over for two teams that struggled a year ago. The offensive personnel will look drastically different as five of the six teams will replace at least seven starters.
In each of the last two years, Region 11 has produced a team that went 13-0 and won the 4A title. Additionally, each of the last three years the 4A crown has been placed on the head of a Region 11 team. Will one of the Northern Utah teams maintain that run of dominance? The region itself is wide open for the taking, with lots of questions being asked about the potential top teams. Few definitive statements can be made.
Each of the Region 11 head coaches took time to join the Full Court Press on 106.9 FM /1390 AM The FAN to discuss the upcoming season. You can find all of those interviews in their entirety on 1069thefan.com (or through the embedded audio included in this article).
All games of Region 11 teams this season will be broadcast on various Cache Valley Media Group radio stations along with online video streams that will be available for free on cachevalleydaily.com (information on which radio stations correspond to which teams can be found below). Each team will feature its own separate broadcast crew with play-by-play and color commentary.
Bear River
2021 Record: 0-10 (0-5)
Region Finish: 6th
Playoffs: Lost 20-48 at Dixie in First Round
Radio Broadcast: 104.9 The Ranch / Audio Stream
Radio Crew: Clint Payne (play-by-play), JarDee Nessen (color analyst)
A winless season was enough for Bear River to bid farewell to its longtime head coach, Chris Wise. In 20 years on the job, Wise paved his way to becoming the winningest head coach in school history. But since moving up from 3A (or technically, 3AA), the Bears have had just one winning season, going 6-5 in 2017 (their first year as a 4A team). Since that time, Bear River has gone 15-28 overall and 4-16 in region games.
Having a winless season still visible in the rear-view mirror is a heavy weight to carry. But new head coach Trampis Waite is confident in his team’s ability to move on.
“The attitude that we have is not what usually you see with teams that go 0-10,” Waite said. “Our kids have been resilient, ready for a challenge. I think they’re just ready to win. We really don’t have to look backwards. We’ve got a lot of stuff to get accomplished. We’ve got a lot of stuff to learn. And we’re all focused on Morgan and moving forward this year.”
Obviously, Waite’s ultimate goal is to flip the 0-10 record completely around, but he’s not putting all his eggs in the immediately-win-the-region-after-a-winless-season basket (though he’d surely like to pull that off). Rather, Waite is looking for his team to be competitive.
“I do believe that we should be in every single football game that we have on our schedule,” Waite said. “I hope that every single game we’re within a touchdown, or at least competing in the fourth quarter with anybody, even those top teams in our region.”
Key to kickstarting the winning will be returning quarterback Ryker Jeppsen, who will also feature in the defensive backfield. Waite didn’t hold back in his praise, calling Jeppsen “one of the best players in our region.” Having him return make up for some early shortcomings as Waite continues his search for other playmakers on offense.
“We’ve still got to find some playmakers at the receiver position. And we’ve got some guys battling for the running back spot. But it always helps when you’ve got your signal-caller back,” Waite said.
Green Canyon
2021 Record: 7-3 (3-2)
Region Finish: 3rd
Playoffs: Lost 10-31 vs Crimson Cliffs in Quarterfinals
Radio Broadcast: 100.9 Lite FM / Audio Stream
Radio Crew: Craig Hislop (play-by-play), John Russell (color analyst)
Last year the Wolves were in the good-but-not-good-enough camp. They finished third in RPI with their only losses coming against teams that made it at least to the quarterfinals in the playoffs. Heck, the team GC lost to in the playoffs, Crimson Cliffs, was a team the Wolves had previously beaten in the first week of the season.
So Craig Anhder’s job is to get his team to take the next step. Lucky for him, he returns his starting quarterback (Jack Stephens), running back (Gavin Christiansen) and top wide receiver (Caden Stuart). Perhaps more importantly, the Wolves’ defense returns eight starters from a defense that ranked third in 4A in points allowed. And that defense is where Anhder places the pride of the team.
“We believe defense is the cornerstone of our team,” Anhder said. “We’ve really worked hard to develop that both schematically and in the player mentality.”
Among those eight returners are the team’s top two tackles from a year ago, Peyton Johnson and Tate White. Will Wheatley, who as just a sophomore recorded 77 tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss and 7.0 sacks, will make a return to the defensive line.
“It’s exciting to have those guys and to have that defense be the anchor of our team,” Anhder said.
But for all the prolific defense that Anhder expects to have, step one to making the jump to the top of Region 11 will be generating more offense. The Wolves scored just 20.9 points per game last year (exclude the two outliers, 49 and 38-point outputs against Logan and Bear River, and the average is just 15.0 per game).
“I was really pleased with our defense (last year) but our offense needs to be more productive,” Anhder said. “We’ve got to produce more on our offense. We’ve got to be a little more consistent there.”
Having those returning starters on offense like Stephens, Christiansen and Stuart is something that could bolster the offensive output. Anhder said the experience they now have is “huge,” especially at quarterback.
“There’s a big difference from a kid playing his first varsity game than a kid whose already played a year,” Anhder said. “Jack (Stephens) is so much more composed. I think he’s 180 degrees more confident than he was last year. Everything is very clear to him and he’s got a clear understanding of each play and what we’re trying to accomplish. And I believe that that’s going to lead to increased production.”
Logan
2021 Record: 6-5 (2-3)
Region Finish: 4th
Playoffs: Lost 7-50 at Ridgeline in Quarterfinals
Radio Broadcast: 102.1 FM / 610 AM KVNU / Audio Stream
Radio Crew: Jason Walker (play-by-play), Josh Anderson (color analyst)
A year ago the Grizzlies were firmly on the outside of the top echelon of Region 11 by virtue of losing to Green Canyon, Sky View and Ridgeline (the top three finishers in the region) by a combined 116 points during the regular season. Head coach Bart Bowen, entering his fourth season with Logan, is saddled with the unforgiving responsibility of bridging that gap while also replacing almost all of his offensive personnel.
Logan’s starting quarterback, top two leading rushers and top four receivers all graduated this past spring. Replacing an entire offense at the same time provides a tough challenge for Bowen and his staff.
“You’ve got to coach the little details,” Bowen said. “When you have a bunch of returning starters they already understand a lot of the nuances. You have to get very basic and very specific with everything. You have to coach every rep.”
Bowen believes his young and, as of yet, inexperienced team will be ready for the challenge. After seeing his squad through offseason workouts and conditioning, he said the team is “more physically prepared than we’ve ever been for a football season.”
“They’re tough,” Bowen said. “We went to camp and they wanted to be the most physical team there. It’s a little different than what we’ve had in the past where we have fast guys that can get down the field and make people miss. This year it’s, we wanna run over people, we want to hit people.”
That developing toughness is something Bowen plans to harness by adjusting his offensive to fit his team’s mentality.
“We’ve shifted our offense a little bit. We’re doing a lot of the same stuff we did last year, but less spread stuff,” Bowen said. “We’re gonna put more people in the box. Our goal is to get three yards per run play. Slow it down. Basically take a lot of time off the clock.”
Leading this offense will be junior quarterback Keaton Pond with Tytan Mason and Ethan Bracken at running back.
While the offense will be a work in progress, the defense, which returns nearly all of its starters in the front seven, has a chance to develop and be much improved from a unit that ranked among the worst in 4A in points allowed per game.
“Our front six, front seven should be the strength of (the defense),” Bowen said. “We’re pretty stout in the run game. Our replacements in the secondary are young, but they’re tough kids. They’re smart. They are coachable. I think defensively we’re going to be pretty tough this year.”
Mountain Crest
2021 Record: 2-9 (1-4)
Region Finish: 5th
Playoffs: Lost 0-27 at Crimson Cliffs in First Round
Radio Broadcast: 107.7 KLZX / Audio Stream
Radio Crew: Jake Ellis (play-by-play), John Olsen (color analyst)
A once mighty Cache Valley football program now sits in the doldrums of Region 11, it’s last great season now five years in the past. That is where new head coach Ryan Visser must start his tenure with the Mustangs. Visser will be the third head coach in just as many years. Seniors on this team will be asked to buy into a third different coaching philosophy and learn yet another offensive and defensive system.
“That was a big question coming in. That’s a lot of mental strain on a group of kids, three coaching staffs and three groups. We really came in expecting to have to sell our culture,” Visser said. “Honestly, they jumped right in. We could have unveiled any kind of offensive/defensive philosophy and they would have bought in. They are just a really good group of kids. They want some stability, they want some direction. They want some unity. They want that family feel.”
The offensive philosophy Visser and his staff ultimately decided to implement was one he admits is not what Mountain Crest faithful are used to seeing in Hyrum. It will incorporate more spread concepts with increased tempo — something of a departure from the smash-mouth, low-scoring defensive specialist teams the Mustangs have fielded in the past. Visser is insistent, though, that this shift isn’t toward being soft.
“There’s always that misconception of spread and tempo means more finesse and speed and not physical,” Visser said. “I think we can still be very physical. We want to be physical. It’s just now instead of letting the defense breathe we’re just going to keep running it at them. We’re still going to keep that brand of Mountain Crest blue-collar football.”
This change could be just what the doctor ordered for an offense that ranked dead-last among 4A teams in offense at just 10.3 points per game. The offense returns eight starters from the struggling 2021 unit. Most notable among newcomers will be Casey Crofts, a junior who will take over as quarterback.
Flipping a 2-9 season — one of the worst in recent history for the Mustangs — into a run for the region title isn’t something most expect. But that’s not what Visser believes and wants his team to share that view.
“I’ve told them. This is not some impossible task,” Visser said “Lots of teams are like this where they don’t have a super-deep senior class. A lot of juniors are playing. They take some lumps and now they’re ready to roll the next year.”
Ridgeline
2021 Record: 13-0
Region Finish: 1st
Playoffs: Defeated Dixie 45-20 in 4A Championship Game
Radio Broadcast: 104.5 The Ranch / Audio Stream
Radio Crew: Dave Simmons (play-by-play), Nick Zollinger (color analyst)
Last year the Riverhawks did what every team dreams of each season: win the state title. Now a new quest begins: do it again. Head Coach Travis Cox is going into his third season with Ridgeline, and he’s only lost twice in two years so far — both at the hands of the 2020 Sky View team that went 13-0.
This year does present a challenge Cox hasn’t yet faced: replacing a star quarterback and leading rusher. Quarterback Kaden Cox and running back Noah White — who were mainstays and stars on both the 2020 and 2021 teams — graduated this past spring. Also gone are Strat Simmons who led the team in receptions and the second-leading rusher on the team, Landen Kimball. That’s not to say everyone is gone. A few offensive linemen return — Jake Alles, Easton Dahlke and Levi Painter — and Cox plans to lean on those guys.
“I’ve always been a believer that you don’t win games without a good O-line,” Cox said. “And we have three returners back over there and I think that’s where we’re going to hunker down and try to win games with those guys up front.”
Perhaps a hidden benefit of losing so much talent from a championship team, is that the remaining players will be just as hungry for success, having not been major players in the previous title run. It’s a thought Cox put forward.
“Last year we could have been complacent because a lot of those guys had been playing. This year I haven’t had to worry about ‘oh we’ve been there done that’ because we have a lot of new kids,” Cox said. “They have the pressure on them to try to carry on what we’ve been doing the last couple of years. So they’ve been ultra focused and want to work hard because it’s their turn.”
The top returning skill player for Ridgeline will be Jackson Olsen. He led the team in receiving yards (1,125) in 2021, but won’t reprise his role as star receiver. Instead, he’ll move to quarterback to replace Kaden. And though Olsen will be a very athletic QB, Cox doesn’t plan on running everything — including the rushing attack — through him.
“You’ve always got to be careful with running quarterbacks,” Cox said. “I’m not a big believer in running a quarterback a lot because they have to do so much for the team.”
This tracks with Cox’s previous use of athletic quarterbacks. Despite Kaden being a decent athlete himself, he only ran the ball 40 times last year (pretty much all of those not being designed, but rather scrambles on pass plays) which comes out to just over three rushes per game.
Sky View
2021 Record: 7-5 (4-1)
Region Finish: 2nd
Playoffs: Lost 35-36 at Dixie in Quarterfinals
Radio Broadcast: 106.9 FM / 1390 AM The FAN / Audio Stream
Radio Crew: John Newbold (play-by-play), Rex Davis (color analyst)
This year’s Bobcats team under fourth-year head coach Christopher Howell will have almost an entirely new set of faces. Only four starters from 2021 are returning for 2022: one on offense, three on defense. Those returning numbers don’t bother Howell, though. He feels there’s plenty of experience on the team, even if it isn’t “starter experience.”
“We don’t return a whole lot of guys with so-called ‘starting experience’ from last year. We do have a lot of guys who took varsity reps,” Howell said, adding that these non-starter rotation guys “played a lot of football last year but just weren’t kind of the main guys. So the learning curve is less. They understand the scheme. They know what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s just the every-down concept that we don’t have. We have plenty of guys with varsity experience just not the consistent, long-term experience.”
One of the 10 starting spots on offense that needs filling is quarterback, but while most other teams in Region 11 are set at QB with named starters, the Bobcats are still in the process of naming one. When asked, Howell declined to name a starter. He did praise the work of the two players involved, Carson Thatcher and Jace Favero, but said he’ll hold off until Friday before letting the world know who will start under center.
The pressure will be on all of these newcomers to carry on a recent run of excellence from the Bobcats. In the last six seasons, Sky View has won the region title four times and won two state championships in 2019 and 2020. Howell said he and his staff have worked hard with these kids to ensure they maintain a championship mentality and stay ahead of competition.
“You have to continue to evolve and improve as a program and stay hungry,” Howell said. “It’s one thing to get to the top of the mountain, it’s a lot more difficult challenge to stay there.”
Sky View’s non-region schedule will test its mettle early with games against Salem Hills, Wasatch, Rigby and Mountain Ridge. Last year the Bobcats went 2-2 in their first four non-region games, played largely against 5A and 6A squads.
“We want to play teams that are going to make us better and challenge us,” Howell said. “To me, by playing three 5A teams and a 6A team we’re certainly going to get that. We’re going to play schools that are much larger than us, they’ll have more depth than we do. And so we have to learn to win or be successful in different ways.”