Funny part about last season for Mechanicsburg was head coach Chris Hakel, a former quarterback and disciple of the late Rich Lichtel, truly believed his football team had to run the ball to be successful.
So the Wildcats ran the rock consistently. But as the season wore on and sophomore quarterback Tyler Schubert slowly became more comfortable as part of a two-quarterback system, the training wheels came off.
Now its time for Hakel to go back to his roots and open up the playbook and spread the ball around. Schubert is fully ready to lead this team and the Wildcats have plenty of weapons and options on offense.
What I saw: Skill players. Lots of them. When the Wildcats broke into groups, the linemen were few and far between. The majority of the squad falls under the category of skill players. And a few of those players are talented veterans. Schubert, RB Shyheim Brown and WR Swahneek Brown all play significant roles for Mechanicsburg in 2012. They are the bright stars in 2013.
Mechanicsburg has six or seven linemen that will play and rotate in. But beyond that, the pool gets fairly shallow. If that first group holds up in the deep Keystone Division, another playoff berth could be in the cards. Injuries up front, for this club, would be devastating.
I was surprised by: The amount of one-on-one coaching I saw. It’s that time of year, but the Wildcats staff was circled around the live offense vs. defense drill looking for any reason to jump in and teach. Hakel spent most of his time with several linemen schooling them on some basics and techniques.
Takeaways: This will not be a grind-it-out running team. I can see this particular Mechanicsburg team going to a more wide-open approach to get the ball into the hands of their deep pool of skill players as much as possible.
I think Schubert will be one of the top five quarterbacks in the Mid-Penn Conference. He looks poised, comfortable and confident not only in his own abilities, but in the offense Mechanicsburg is going to run in 2013.
Some things never change, though. Mechanicsburg’s defense will be a work in progress.
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