Harrisburg’s winning culture is back
When Matt Griffith was hired four years ago the Harrisburg Bulldogs football team had been in the wilderness over the previous seven seasons missing the playoffs six times after being a regular face in the postseason having made 27 playoff appearances in 35 seasons since 1978 winning the state title in 2000 and finishing second in 1980 and 1997.
Griffith, who came from a winning culture as a player for Kerry Martin at Marion, made it his first priority to reestablish the Harrisburg winning culture of the past and in 2021 he immediately did that finishing the regular with a winning record (5-4) for the first time since 2015 and made the playoffs to snap a four-year absence.
This year Harrisburg again finished the regular season with a 5-4 record for the third time in the last four years to earn its fourth straight playoff appearance. The Bulldogs lost to Breese Central in the first round of the 4A playoffs, 42-7, last week to end the season at 5-5 also for the third time.
“I was proud of our young men,” Griffith said. “Anytime you can have a winning season, make playoffs and give yourself a chance to make a run is good. Sitting back and taking a look at what our staff and players have been able to accomplish this past four years of creating a culture and a winning environment, but we weren’t satisfied and are frustrated at going 5-4 again, but here are a lot of programs that are driving to get to 5-4. For the future of the program our staff and I believe we’re heading in the right direction.”
Last year, the Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 6-3 record and advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time and finished with their best record since 2012 at 8-4.
“Next year we’re changing our schedule and picking up some other teams in order to get better,” Griffith said. “We’re still opening with Anna-Jonesboro and Du Quoin then we’ll have Breese Matre Dei and Jerseyville instead of Marquette and Pinckneyville.”
Griffith will have a big task next year after having 19 seniors, including seven starters on offense and 10 starters and one key reserve on defense graduating.
The graduating starters on offense are quarterback Owen Rann, running back Brendan Hicks, running back Reed Rider, wide receiver Aiden Unthank, left tackle Brady Davis, center Henry Quinn and right guard Colt Prather.
On defense, the 11 senior starters were Unthank and Rider at safety, Quinn and Hicks at outsider linebacker, Prather at middle linebacker, Dathan Case and Colten Wheeler at defensive end, Kane Lands and Gavin Wayman at defensive tackle, Chandler Questelle at cornerback and Briar Butler, who replaced Unthank at safety when he was injured.
“Prather, Rider, and Rann have been starters since they were sophomores,” Griffith said. “The rest of the seniors were two-year starters.”
After starting the season with a dominating, 47-0, win over a rebuilding Anna-Jonesboro team playing for the first time without Brett Detering at the helm since 1997. The next week the 0-1 Du Quoin Indians humbled the Bulldogs, 28-14, Van Metre Field.
That loss started a three-game winning streak starting with two road wins over Pinckneyville, 38-15, and Marquette Catholic, 54-0, followed by a 62-7 win over Massac County in the home and conference opener.
Carterville came to Taylor Field and beat the Bulldogs, 28-7, and the next week Murphysboro, which was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by Breese Central.
The roller coaster season continued with a home win over Herrin, 44-35, and a home loss to Benton, 34-7, in the regular season finale.
The season ended with the Bulldogs going 2-2 at home and 3-3 on the road. The offense finished with a 29.3 scoring average and the defense gave up an average of 23.6 points.
Rann, who was the starting quarterback for the third year, finished with 11 touchdown passes and four interceptions while completing 81-of-156 passes for 1,089 yards. In addition, he rushed for 75 yards on 29 carries, including a touchdown run against Breese Central. Sophomore Ian Crabb was his backup.
“There was a lot of good quarterback talent that was on display this year and Owen was part of that,” Griffith said. “For the longest time we were a Straight-T offense with only two or three passes a game, so talking to Al Way and Greg Langley our AD, Owen is definitely the all-time passing leader in yards and touchdown passes even though we don’t have an official school record board.”
After becoming starting quarterback in the fourth game his sophomore year, Rann finished his career completing 206-of-400 passes for 3,144 yards with 31 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions.
Senior wide receiver Unthank led the team in receiving with 29 catches and touchdown catches with six and was second in yards with 371, despite missing the last two games of the regular season with a concussion.
“You look at him and we joke about Aiden being 5-foot nothing (5-8) and 100 nothing (150) and he smiles, because that’s not necessarily what he is,” Griffith said. “He seems to be undersized for a receiver, but size never played into a factor for him. With him being a hard-nosed kid, we knew if we could get the ball to his hands he’d make a big play for us. He’s going to be a task to replace.”
The top two running backs were also seniors with Hicks leading the team with 773 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns. Rider was second with 626 yards and 10 touchdowns scored and first in receiving yards with 347 and second in touchdown catches with four and second in catches with 26. Hicks finished with seven catches for 48 yards.
“Last year we had Karmelo Downey as our lead runner, but this year we had Hicks and Rider, who were our 1-2 punch on the outside and up the middle,” Griffith said. “Being able to have that is huge at any level of competition you play at and having those two really helped the offense grow.”
The third leading rusher was sophomore Aidan Hankins, who finished with 385 yards rushing and three touchdowns and 12 catches for 100 yards.
“Hankins is built more like a fullback, but he has good speed and the hands of a receiver,” Griffith said. “He played in the slot for Aiden when he was out and he did a good job making the offense work. As a runner, he was able to get out into space and gain yards. If you need to put him somewhere he can play it.”
Another young player on offense that Griffith will need to build around contributed this season. Sophomore Braylen Johnson rushed for 68 yards on three carries, including a 33-yard touchdown run against Marquette Catholic. He also had a 27-yard run against Massac County.
Three juniors also got into action with Luke Baugher gaining 41 yards on three carries, Brody Nyberg 40 yards on eight carries and Isaia Robinson 34 yards on three carries. Sophomore Kenny Novy played against Marquette gaining 18 yards on five carries.
Sophomore Nash Vallette caught three passes for 54 yards and a touchdown and junior tight end Braxton Welge caught three passes for 46 yards.
The returning starters on the offense line will be junior left guard Shaun Dooley, junior right tackle Matt Brown and junior Isaac Miller, who replaced Davis at left tackle in the playoffs after he was injured.
“Miller had done mostly center reps and some guard reps, but hadn’t played tackle before,” Griffith said. “He had only a couple days of practice and he played well.”
Defensively, Griffith has an even more Herculean task on defense having graduated his starting defensive line, linebackers and most of his secondary. Vallette was a starter at one cornerback, but he missed some games with an injury, so Robinson moved in the starting lineup.
“Prather at middle linebacker, Rider at safety and Lands at defensive tackle were definitely are top three guys on defense with Wayman and Hicks also playing well,” Griffith said. “Nyberg was in a rotation with Quinn at outside linebacker and Hankins also took meaningful reps at corner.”
On special teams, Hankins returns as the punter as does sophomore Burke Wilson as the place kicker. Wayman was the long snapper.
“There’s a big turnover next year because this was one of our bigger senior classes, so we have a lot of work to do this winter and next summer,” Griffith said.