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Physical exam for Bison at Aurora
It's early-season test time for the McCook High School football team.
The Bison have studied all week in preparation for a difficult examination Friday, Sept. 3, at Aurora. McCook will face the current valedictorian of Nebraska Class B high school football.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday as two of the state's top prep football programs meet again.
Aurora is the two-time defending Class B state champions. The Huskies are ranked first in the latest Lincoln Journal-Star's Class B rankings, while McCook is fourth after a 14-7 season-opening win over Scottsbluff last Friday. Aurora opened the season last week with a 48-13 victory at Seward.
Aurora is riding a 24-game win streak, including several regular-season and playoff wins over the Bison. The last time the Huskies suffered a loss was Sept. 12, 2008 -- a 42-7 setback at the hands of McCook on Aurora's home turf in the third week of the regular season. Aurora surprised McCook, 37-33, in the 2008 state playoff semifinal rematch.
The Huskies ended McCook's 71-game regular-season win streak last fall with a 48-10 triumph Sept. 11 at Weiland Field. The Bison fell again in the state playoff quarterfinals in the rematch at Weiland, with Aurora rallying from a three-point halftime deficit to top the Bison, 35-10.
Class B domination
McCook dominated Class B with a great run, going undefeated in the regular season from 2002 through last year's week-three loss to the Huskies. The Bison won back-to-back state titles in 2002-03, and lost their only game of the season in the state title game three more times (2003, 2005 and 2007). McCook also lost in the state playoff semifinals in 2006 and the 2008 decision to Aurora -- also the only losses of those respective seasons for the Bison.
McCook topped Aurora, 45-3, in the 2002 playoff semifinals en route to the first of McCook's two consecutive state titles. The Bison also beat Aurora three straight years (2006-08) in the regular season before the Huskies snapped that string in the '08 playoff semifinals. Aurora has won the last three meetings between the two storied programs.
McCook slipped a rung or two from its perch after finishing last season with a 7-4 record, including two losses to the eventual state champs. Last season marked the first time in many years that McCook ended the year with more than one loss.
The Bison have just a handful of players returning this fall with any varsity experience. With a wealth of young, talented players in the program mixed in with a strong senior class, head coach Jeff Gross and the Bison faithful are entertaining thoughts of using 2010 as the start of a climb back to the top of the state's Class B football ladder.
Measuring stick
Gross said Friday's contest is not do-or-die for his inexperienced squad. Rather, the game will provide a yardstick to see where McCook is compared to the state's current top Class B program.
"This isn't a win-all, make our season by beating Aurora game," Coach Gross said. "This is a good measuring tool of where we are at. Make no mistake, we're planning on going there and playing well and giving ourselves a chance to win the ball game. To me it's a statement game to see where we're at and how much we need to improve.
"We're not probably going to see a better football team throughout the course of the year, talent-wise. That doesn't mean our other opponents aren't good -- that means Aurora has talent at a ton of positions. We want to see how we match up with that."
The McCook coach is downplaying the early-season state ratings, although fans of both teams are probably fired up over the prospect of two two-ranked teams doing battle in the second week of the regular season.
"I look at them to see where we're at," Gross said. "Back in my younger days of coaching I thought that was pretty cool. It's still always an honor that somebody out there thinks highly of you, so we've done something right along the way. But I would also back up and say if we're the fourth-best team in Class B right now, then I think Class B's down a little bit. That's not a knock on my team, but we still have a long way to go to prove that we're the fourth-best team in Class B.
"Rankings are somebody's opinion, and that's all they are. If we're ranked fourth at the end of the season I'll be one happy camper because that means we were pretty successful."
"It is a one versus four match-up and people want to look at that," Gross said. That means that it's two quality programs. To me, what this match-up is about is, historically in the state of Nebraska, Aurora and McCook are two of the best Class B football programs out there. And so we want to go uphold our end of the bargain and make this a game."
Aurora's top talent
If the Bison are going to step up and pull off an upset Friday, they will have to deal with two of the state's top athletes -- Aurora senior quarterback Tyson Broekemeier and 220-pound senior linebacker Kyle McCarthy.
"We will unquestionably see two of the best football players in the state in Class B on the offensive and defensive side," Coach Gross said. "Tyson Broekemeier is probably the most dynamic offensive weapon in the state, maybe in the state any class. I can't speak for Class A, but he is that good a quarterback. He can run, he can throw, he can hurt you in so many different ways.
"The McCarthy kid on defense is probably, if not the best, one of the best linebackers in all classes that we'll see as well. He's going to bring the hammer every play."
Gross said Broekemeier and the high-scoring Aurora offense gets a lot of publicity, but he said the Huskies are equally as strong on defense, especially up the middle with McCarthy and fellow senior linebacker Austin Smith, plus a pair of senior safeties in Josh Danhauer and Matthew Grosshans.
Keys to success
The McCook coach said the keys to his team's success Friday against the tough Huskies is very simple.
"We've got to block and tackle. There's no secret," Gross said. "If we want to stop Aurora's offense, we've got to tackle them. We can't give them yards after the (initial) contact, whether it's Smith or Broekemeier, or whoever they throw the ball to. They're going to make some completions and catch it, and we've got to tackle them down to the ground, we can't give yards after contact. We have to tackle well.
"Offensively it's all about blocking them. They are going to be in a 3-4 front, which is deceiving -- they're really going to have nine guys committed to stopping our run, because those safeties are going to creep in there. We've got to be able to block them. If it's too much to block, then we've got to be able to pass protect long enough and give ourselves a chance to hit an open receiver.
"Blocking and tackling and basic technique will be the difference in this ball game."