With opening night for high school football just over two weeks away, here are four storylines to watch:
1. Can anyone beat Loyola?
Dynasties are rare in Class 8A, where the state’s largest schools compete. The last team to win three consecutive championships was Maine South in 2008-10.
Loyola, though, enters the season as the favorite to earn its own title trifecta. The Ramblers are 47-2 since the beginning of the spring 2021 pandemic season, losing only to eventual champ Lockport in the fall 2021 semifinals and to Mount Carmel in Week 9 of the 2022 regular season.
When John Holecek stepped down after leading Loyola to seven title games and three titles in 2011-22, Beau Desherow took over, and the Ramblers didn’t skip a beat en route to last year’s 14-0 title run. After taking a year off, Holecek is back on staff as an assistant, and many of the stars of last year’s team also return.
Among them: quarterback Ryan Fitzgerald, who will be a preferred walk-on at Iowa; running back Drew MacPherson (committed to Iowa as a safety); 6-7 tight end Brendan Loftus, a Miami (Ohio) commit; and safety Donovan Robinson (Washington).
Loyola’s most likely challengers figure to be Mount Carmel, coming off two straight Class 7A titles of its own; and Lincoln-Way East, the state’s premier public-school program and the 8A runner-up the last two years.
2. Who are the early Player of the Year front-runners?
Like the Heisman Trophy, the Player of the Year award usually goes to an offensive skill player on an elite team. This year, there is no shortage of candidates.
Fitzgerald, who is 6-3, 205 pounds, was brilliant in his first season as a varsity starter, completing 64% of his passes for 2,141 yards and 20 touchdowns with only one interception.
Mount Carmel’s Jack Elliott is another senior coming off a spectacular rookie season. The 6-foot, 205-pound Vanderbilt commit accounted for 4,088 total yards and 41 touchdowns last season.
Two other seniors are top-70 national prospects who could play their way into the Player of the Year conversation: Fenwick defensive lineman Nate Marshall (Michigan) and Geneva wide receiver Talyn Taylor (Georgia). And don’t overlook the state’s No. 1 junior, Lincoln-Way East quarterback and Oregon commit Jonas Williams.
3. More conference churn
The Upstate Eight has expanded to 14 schools and two divisions, with West Aurora returning from the Southwest Prairie, Riverside-Brookfield joining after one year as an independent and Elmwood Park and Ridgewood coming in after spending a year in the Chicagoland Prairie.
West Aurora’s spot in the Southwest Prairie was taken by Bolingbrook, which moved over from the Southwest Suburban.
The biggest change, though, is the merger of the Southwest Suburban and DuPage Valley, two leagues whose memberships have been in flux for a while. The new Southwest Valley has three five-team divisions. The best looks to be the Blue, all of whose teams are returning IHSA playoff qualifiers: Lincoln-Way East, Lockport, Homewood-Flossmoor, Neuqua Valley and Naperville North.
All three divisions are a mix of former SWSC and DVC teams, which unfortunately has meant the end — at least temporarily — of some of the area’s best rivalries.
None of the three Lincoln-Ways — East, Central and West — play each other this season. And district rivals Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley aren’t scheduled to meet, either.
4. Welcome to Week 0
For the first time, teams are allowed to scrimmage other teams the weekend before the regular season starts. It’s part of a trend that has opened the way for more game-caliber reps before the games start to count. Another recent change was allowing teams to have 11-on-11 scrimmages during summer contact days after formerly being limited to seven-on-seven competitions.