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Nevada tackles Bolivar
The Bolivar High School Liberators nearly scaled the steepest part of the mountaintop last season, winning their first nine games before falling to Mt. Vernon in a Class 3 district championship game.
Nevada, meanwhile, struggled through a 2-8 season.
"I don't think that you will get an argument that we have as tough as a schedule as anybody, playing in the Southwest Conference and Bolivar from the COC," NHS head coach Shannon Jolley said.
Yet the gap has definitely closed since last year's debacle in Nevada, a 48-14 win for Bolivar over the Tigers, who went on to win two straight before closing the season with seven straight losses.
Enter Jolley, who is the Tigers' first-year head coach after serving as an assistant for Jefferson City High School last season. And, Jolley has plenty of weapons on offense to put up against the Liberators.
"There's more than one way to skin a cat," Jolley said after Wednesday's practice. "We just like to create a balanced type of setting.
"We've got some great running backs here and we've got great receivers and a great quarterback, and you put that with our offensive line and it would be foolish not to spread the wealth a little bit."
Nevada's pass-on-nearly-every down offensive philosophy left with the departure of John Skeans, who resigned after three seasons.
Ronnie Herda, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior and one of the area's top returning quarterbacks, threw for a Southwest Conference-best 2,237 yards and 19 touchdowns last season. He also has the conference's leading receiver back in Colby Shepherd (5-7, 145, junior), who accumulated 1,054 receiving yards
The Tigers' ace in the hole just might be their running game, featuring the Jakes -- fullback Jake Anderson, (5-10, 190, senior), and tailback Jake Cherry (5-11, 201, senior). They also have backups in fullback Devin Chapman (5-8, 180, senior) and tailback Trevor Foreman (6-2, 174, senior), who will alternate with the others in the backfield.
"You want to make sure that you have your playmakers on the field," Jolley said.
Indeed, Anderson and Cherry made plays last season. Anderson had 79 carries for 383 yards and two touchdowns, while Cherry had 83 carries for 335 yards and five touchdowns.
Holdover standouts on defense for the Tigers include linebacker Ryan Herda (5-10, 212, senior), who registered a team-high 79 tackles, including 44 unassisted, and Shepherd, who had three interceptions from his cornerback position.
On the flip side, Bolivar lost several skill-position players from last season, just the opposite of the Tigers.
"Bolivar is a seasoned team and shoot, they went into Week 10 at 9-0, so that's a quality program that plays in a good league (COC). We're just excited to open up with them to give us an idea of where we are right now."