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Beloit Memorial football team braces for season opener against La Follette
BELOIT — Beloit Memorial’s football program has moved on from the Big Eight Conference, but its potential success this fall could hinge on a pair of season-opening games against old rivals.
The Purple Knights travel to Lussier Stadium on Thursday to open 2025 play against non-conference foe Madison La Follette and then host another Big Eight team, Madison East, on Aug. 27 at Jacobson Field.
While Beloit head coach Brad Dement will never sell short any foe, he said the back-to-back non-conference games give his team the opportunity to get off to a solid start.
“They’re D-1 opponents when we’re playing in a mainly D-2, D-3 conference,” Dement said. “We need those extra points you get (for playoff considerations). La Follette is always going to be a bigger, tougher team and a bit more disciplined than East. But they both have talent and if they come together they can give us a challenge and beat us. We need to be at our best.
“We should be using these games to take care of business and get ourselves ready for week 1 of the Southern Lakes season.”
Beloit finished 4-5 overall a year ago, heading into the final week with a chance to end a long playoff drought, but falling to Waterford in overtime, 29-28.
The Knights scrimmaged in Waukesha on Friday against Kenosha Bradford, Milwaukee Tech and Catholic Memorial. That was sort of a smorgasbord with Bradford a solid program, Tech a struggling one and Catholic Memorial is a perennial power.
“We were kind of hit or miss,” Dement said. “We went into it with scripted plays because we wanted to see how certain kids would do in them. So it’s not like you’re scripting plays for a particular opponent. It’s mainly to see if the kids know how to run the plays we want to run.
“We had a few rookies in there. There was a learning curve, I’d say. For the most part the kids played tough and did a decent job. It was good to see how we stacked up against a team like Catholic Memorial and Bradford also had a real nice defensive front.”
The Knights’ offense will again rely on explosive senior running back James Ford III. He had a terrific junior season. Despite missing nearly two full games ran for 991 yards on 168 carries (5.9) and 10 touchdowns. The All-SLC repeater suffered a shoulder injury after just five carries against Burlington and then missed a game before returning for the finale with Waterford and rushing for 107 yards. He had 1,189 yards and 10 TDs as a sophomore.
There were a few tense moments Friday.
“James got his shoulder dinged up a little (in the scrimmage), but I think he’ll be OK,” Dement said. “On a bubble screen he was running up the field and somebody took his legs out and he landed right on his shoulder. The trainer checked it out and thought he would be fine.”
While Ford is the obvious No. 1, Dement said there are a number of other capable backs, including seniors Vinson Reed, Brannon Hatchett and Eric Hanson and sophomore Enoch PInson.
“They all looked good in the scrimmage,” Dement said.
The offensive line is where the Knights’ depth is questionable. They lost two outstanding blockers who graduated, tackle Jaedyn Coleman and tight end Tucker Sherrod. Coleman, who was All-Southern Lakes Conference First Team as both an offensive and defensive lineman, will play for Iowa Western Community College this fall while Sherrod will play for Carroll University. Also playing college football off last year’s Knights are slot receiver Ky’Jyrion Johnson (Concordia University-Chicago), linebackerDillon Larson (Cornell College) and defensive back Dontavious Olson (UW-Stevens point). Defensive back Owen West is wrestling at Cornell.
Beloit’s offensive line will be anchored by senior center Jacob Popp, and include Trenton Dobbs, Avis Foster, Xavier McBride, Bradley Harding with Mike Nora sliding in to take Tucker’s spot at tight end.
At quarterback, the Knights will look to junior Braylen Huebbe.
“Being his first varsity action at quarterback, he’s liable to be a little nervous, but I think he’ll be fine,” Dement said. “He looked good throwing on the run in the scrimmage and we’ll work on his footwork and staying in the pocket when he can. We’re not really practicing pass-pro much because we’re not a drop-back team. But he can throw and he’ll get better at reads. He made some plays (in the scrimmage).”
On defense, Dement was pleased with the scrimmage.
“Mike Nora had a great scrimmage at linebacker,” the coach said. “Up front Hatchett is playing defensive end and he looked great pass rushing. We saw some real positive things on defense.”
Dement said while he would like to limit the two-way players starting, he’s just not sure how many that will be in the first week.
“We may have four or five starting, but several more in rotations,” he said. “Or we could have as few as three and that would be huge. We have depth on the D-line. It’s on the O-line where we are thinner. I’m not sure how many of the D-line guys could plug in on offense because they’re more gap-fillers and we’re looking for quicker guys to down block and reach. With the big guys if you can keep them on one side of the ball they’re going to be better because they’re not going to be as tired.”
Dement said the varsity roster is “between 45 and 50.”
“Early in the season, there are always some guys still figuring it out,” he said. “But they have to be in practice. From now on, it’s game week. If you miss a practice you sit half a game. If you miss two (practices), you don’t play at all. Figure it out. Either be here on the team or not.”
Dement expects the SLC to be grueling again.
“There is no easy game there,” he said. “It’s not as top heavy and dominant as the Big Eight in the past, but it is consistently through and through where every game will be tough.”
2025 KNIGHTS SCHEDULE:
Aug. 22 — at Madison La Follette, 6 p.m.; 29 — MADISON EAST.
Sept. 5 — at Waterford; 12 — at Badger; 19 — BURLINGTON; 26 — at Wilmot.
Oct. 3 — WESTOSHA CENTRAL; 10 — UNION GROVE; 17 — at Elkhorn.
Source: Beloit Daily News
