The Jackson Liberty High School football team will return to the basics.
As other teams switch to spread offenses and hybrid defenses, the Lions will settle on the opposite approach.
Jackson Liberty coach Jim Sharples is switching his units to a ground and pound offense and a 4-3 defense.
The straightforward schemes are just better-suited to the Lions’ 2018 talent base.
Jackson Liberty opens on Sept. 7 at Barnegat High School.
Expectations are high after the Lions won two of their last three games in 2017, even though Jackson Liberty ended with a 3-7 record and did not qualify for the state sectional playoffs.
“We’ll be a very good team. I think we can make the playoffs. Our defense last year was very good. We held a lot of teams down,” said Jackson Liberty linebacker Shane Simonson. “Our offense we just have to work on.”
After struggling for much of 2017, the Lions scored 62 points in those two late-season victories.
Sharples discovered that he had a quality running back in Jimmy Celentano.
“He played fullback for us early on. Then he started getting more touches at tailback and got better,” Sharples said. “In the offseason he put on a few pounds.”
Celentano added 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason. His increased bulk should make him an ideal power runner.
“We moved our offense around to showcase him a little bit,” Sharples said. “We want to give him a lot of touches.”
“Our line is much stronger than we were last year,” said Jackson Liberty left tackle Yaron More. “In the offseason we’ve been lifting in the weight room.”
Celentano said he wants to carry the ball “20 plus times per game.” More thinks the offensive line “is ready for that.”
The running back is, in one way, at least, an offensive lineman’s dream. His straight ahead running style allows the linemen to just maul defenders one-on-one.
“I’m not very good at cutting,” Celentano said, laughing. “We have to just ground and pound and then hit them with playaction.”
Jackson Liberty has experience all over the field. Fourteen of 22 starting spots will be filled by the players who started in those positions last year, seven on offense, seven on defense.
Quarterback Evan Catron took his lumps as a sophomore and first-year starter last year. He has better command of his skill set and the offense this summer, so far.
“He learned a lot in the fire. Now the game has slowed down for him. He looks a lot more comfortable,” Sharples said. “We’ll sometimes take the fullback out and run three or four receivers.”
Catron was also an impetus for Jackson’s switch to a pro style offense.
“He’s not a zone read quarterback,” Sharples said. “He’s more comfortable in the pocket. He’s a smart kid who makes good reads.”
Jackson Liberty’s defense is not new. Defensive coordinator Jeff Schmidt installed the 4-3 before last season, his first with the Lions.
“It’s good for them,” Sharples said. “It’s like they are just playing another game.”
More, a 6-foot-2, 300 pound third-year starter, will anchor the defensive line, too.
“Wide body, big kid, hard to block,” Sharples said.
Simonson, a third-year starter at middle linebacker, is also a defensive anchor.
Jackson Liberty’s experience should help eliminate the mistakes that costed the Lions some close games last year. They lost three games by single-digit margins in 2017.
The Lions’ traditional approaches on both sides of the ball could, ironically, throw opponents off. Jackson Liberty’s rivals are used to the spread offenses and hybrid defenses at this point.
“There are a lot of gimmicky offenses out there,” Sharples said. “When a more traditional one comes back along, who knows, maybe.”
Who knows, maybe Jackson Liberty will make the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
