Lincoln-Way Central’s Michael Kuehl embraces new-look Knights offense

When Lincoln-Way Central made a coaching change after the season, incumbent Knights quarterback Michael Kuehl learned that a new offense was coming with the switch.

The thought didn’t exactly thrill the senior, who had attained a certain level of comfort playing in the previous system. With this possibly being his last year playing football, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go through all that was required to learn the new offense.

“Obviously with the new offense, there was a big learning curve. I was struggling with it at first, to be honest, but I’m starting to get the groove of it.”

—  Michael Kuehl, Lincoln-Way Central quarterback

“Obviously with the new offense, there was a big learning curve,” Kuehl said. “I was struggling with it at first, to be honest, but I’m starting to get the groove of it.”

Kuehl had spent most of his time in previous incarnations of the Lincoln-Way Central offense, but now under first-year head coach David Woodburn, Kuehl is finding himself under center a lot more than he’s used to. At first, the adjustment proved difficult. But with time and repetition, Kuehl has begun to see the value of the different look.

“I didn’t work any under center last year, and it’s a lot of under center, so I’m not really used to that, but I’m getting better, for sure,” Kuehl said. “It’s been a lot of practice, and the coaches have been helping me a lot with reading space instead of reading just defenders. They’ve helped me with my processing a lot.”

The move to a more traditional look gives Kuehl a few more release valves offensively, with one particular option intriguing him quite a bit.

“We have tight ends this year, too,” Kuehl said. “That’s just an example of us using our personnel to our advantage. We’ve moved some guys over from defense to offense, offense to defense, just trying to find the right spot for everybody.”

Woodburn feels that the offensive progression has gone well and will have positive benefits for not only his offense, but his defense, as well.

“I’m extremely impressed. I feel like we got a little bit of everything. So they’ve adapted really well. The O-line has responded. It’s helped us on defense, because we’ve kind of had to adjust, and we’ve seen every kind of formation that you can think of. It’s been impressive. I like what we’re doing with the personnel that we have,” Woodburn said.

“We were just trying to get a little bit a little bit more creative with what we were doing. We are not huge, size-wise. So we were trying to get angles and things like that on guys and move a little bit. We’re trying to get people to look at the wrong things.”

Woodburn and Kuehl openly recognize that Lincoln-Way Central’s quest to get back into the postseason mix isn’t going to come easily, and Kuehl knows strides still have to be made.

“I think everybody just has to buy in. I think we’re getting there. But we’re not there yet,” Kuehl said. “And it’s gonna take time, right? But we’re starting to jell. We’re starting to get that chemistry. The players are starting to trust the coaches. The coaches are starting to trust the players, and we finally feel like a team, I think.”

Kuehl recognizes that this could be his last go of it on the gridiron, and he wants it to be a positive experience.

“Right now, I’m just trying to have fun and enjoy being out here with my teammates” Kuehl said. “We’ll see where it goes with college. That’ll take care of itself, as far as I’m concerned. But for right now, I’m just trying to enjoy myself.”