Football Preview: Milledgeville undeterred by low numbers

Small-school football teams have to make do with the cards dealt to them, and the Milledgeville Missiles were dealt very few this summer.

For ninth-year coach Jason Wroble, however, it’s a situation he’s been through before in certain years. After 1 week of practices, there’s not too much of a lag for the Missiles, who have just 28 players in the entire program, which includes only two seniors.

“We don’t have a ton of numbers, but I’m really happy with our work ethic,” Wroble said. “Our focus is picking up. I feel like at this point of the season, we’re farther ahead of where we were last year. Part of that is having more reps, but at this part of the season we’re in good shape, and just got to now do it physically on the field.”

Injuries are the big fear on teams with small numbers, and the Missiles are trying to do whatever they can to keep players from taking on too many duties.

Lineman Kyle Kendall is one of the two seniors, along with tight end and defensive lineman Dylan Janssen. As co-dean of the team, keeping an eye on the younger players becomes much more of a responsibility. During practice Monday morning, one of the Missiles found himself being hounded by Kendall for “being a little slow.”

“Constructive criticism is what I like to call it,” Kendall said. “You just get on them, but let them know that it’s for the benefit of the team. You’re not picking on them, but you’re trying to make everybody better. If everybody’s going 100 percent at practice, it makes everybody better.

“You just got to encourage them.”

The Missiles ran out of the Wing-T on more than 80 percent of their offensive plays last season, with graduated running back Kyle Forbes (150 carries, 850 yards, 8 TDs) toting much of the load. Fellow graduates Buddy Bibler and quarterback Brexton Flynn both had more than 70 carries last year. Most of the carries will now fall on juniors Nate Rahn (54-368, 2 TDs) and Carson Boyer (79-374, 4 TDs).

“Our football intelligence is going to be pretty strong as a team,” Wroble said. “Even though we’re not deep as a team, we have some nice depth in the backfield and have some guys that can make some plays.”

“We got to stay healthy,” Rahn said. “We don’t have a lot of numbers, so we need to stay healthy and get through all 9 weeks, and hopefully advance in the playoffs.”

Last year’s 5-5 campaign (5-3 NUIC Upstate) broke a 7-year playoff drought. The season had its ups – a 4-1 start with just six touchdowns allowed in the first 5 weeks – and downs – three straight shutouts in the weeks that followed the strong start. Week 9’s four-point win over Warren made the Missiles playoff-eligible, and they held high-scoring Ottawa Marquette to just nine points in their 1A playoff opener – unfortunately for Milledgeville, it only scored six points that game.

“That was a tough game,” Kendall said. “We’re just looking to do good on D and hope the offense will follow.”

Improvements on offense start with the offensive line, where there are many holes that need filled. Four of the Missiles’ 12 linemen are upperclassmen. Speed may make up for that.

“I think we’ve stepped it up a lot more on offense,” Rahn said. “We’ve got a lot more speed. Our defense is up to par from last year, and our defense was solid last year. I think we can build off that.”

The Missiles kick off the season at The Harbor against the Amboy Clippers on Friday, Aug. 25. The NUIC crossover game will be the first time the two local programs have faced each other.

Four home games follow the season opener, with Polo, Stockton, River Valley and Orangeville coming to Floyd Daub Field.

“I think it’s cool to start with Amboy in Week 1. We’ve never played them before,” Rahn said. “That should be a good test of how tough we are.”

“We’re ready for them,” Boyer said. “We’ve been preparing for a while, and I’m excited.”

Did You Know?

• Milledgeville allowed 154 points in 10 games last season. The only other teams in either division of the NUIC to allow fewer after 10 games were Stockton (102), Lena-Winslow (65), and 1A state champion Forreston (40).