Second-year Harrisburg head coach Brennan Claas will hit the gridiron running this year with a robust offensive core returning behind big, strong offensive and defensive lines. The Bulldogs also bring back two of last year’s top three tacklers on defense.

Harrisburg is also entering a new athletic conference, the Central State 8, in which it will be one of the smallest schools. Fayette, Tipton, Russellville, Eugene, New Bloomfield, and South Callaway round out the powerful new conference.

Claas led a squad of just 19 players last year to a 3-7 overall record in his first season ever as a head coach. A large class of 14 freshmen has bolstered the Bulldogs’ numbers to 25 this season, allowing the team to be able to fully scrimmage, 11 on 11, in practices.

“We can line up 11 on 11 and get some work in finally,” Claas said about his expanded roster this year.

The Bulldogs return key members of last year’s team, including four seniors and eight juniors, nearly all with starting varsity experience. Leading the way will be three-year starting quarterback Trace Combs. The southpaw threw for almost 2,000 yards last season with 24 touchdowns and only five interceptions.

“We have a nice little balance of returners at every level,” Claas said.

Downfield, Combs will be aiming for wide receivers senior Bryce Ott and junior Rylee Robinson, who hauled in 281 and 349 receiving yards, respectively, last season with four touchdowns each.

Another solid set of hands belongs to running back junior Caleb Sager. As a sophomore last year, he caught two touchdown passes and had 344 receiving yards. But it was on the ground where he shined, racking up 1,156 yards with 12 rushing touchdowns.

“He’s a big returner,” Claas said about his starting running back.

This year, Sager will have some backup as sophomore Jayson Eskew will have some touches during the Bulldog’s ground attack. 

Claas expects his returning offensive starters to benefit from a strong and deep offensive line made up of four seniors and three juniors.

“We’re huge,” he said. “They’re explosive. And three of them have varsity experience on the starting line. And our first player off the bench is also a junior, which is why I think we’ll be a little more balanced.”

Senior Angel Guzman-Rodriguez will anchor the powerful offensive and defensive lines alongside juniors Bender Wardrip, Aden Stone, and Victor Shouse. Sophomore Jonathan Darwent will also see time up front.

That same line will push its way into opponents’ territories on defense.

Harrisburg also returns two of its top three leading tacklers to the defensive side of the ball. Victor Shouse led the team in takedowns a year ago as an All-Conference and All-District linebacker. Robinson was the team’s third-leading tackler last season.

“They both played very well on the defensive side of the ball last year,” Claas said.

Ott also earned All-Conference and All-District honors as a defensive back. He and Combs will be defending the backfield against the passing attack.

“We have about two starters [returning] at each level of the defense,” Claas said. “It’s pretty good for a Class 1 team to have that many guys that have that much playing time. It’s the benefit of playing so many sophomores last year.”

Harrisburg opens the season against South Shelby at home on Friday. The Cardinals are coming off of back-to-back winning seasons and finished 10-1 a year ago with a perfect regular season before losing in the second round of Class 2 district action.

“That is going to be our hardest game by far,” Claas said about his Week 1 matchup. “They’re probably one of the best Class 2 teams in the state.”

Things don’t get much more manageable in Week 2 when the Bulldogs host Clark County, Claas’s former team. The Bulldogs lost last year’s game 35-6 but hope for a better outcome this year.

“I like to play bigger and better programs. And those are two of the programs that are some of the best small school programs in the state when you go to their history, and we’re trying to build something,” Class said.

The Bulldogs then take on two former conference opponents at Scotland County and at home against Salisbury before entering CS8 competition in the second half of the season. Harrisburg narrowly fell at Salisbury a year ago and came away with a convincing victory over Scotland Co. in the regular season closer last season.

The game at Salisbury will be against a familiar coach. Former Harrisburg offensive line coach Zech Bowman is the newest head coach for the Panthers.

“That will be fun,” Claas said.

Claas said he doesn’t know much about his new conference opponents yet. The Bulldogs’ first two bouts will be against Tipton and South Callaway. The Cardinals are coming off back-to-back winning seasons, finishing 8-3 last year. Class 2 South Callaway has finished with winning seasons 13 out of the previous 14 years.

Harrisburg could have the chance to win out in the final three games of the regular season. First up will be a home game against Russellville, which finished 3-8 a year ago. The Bulldogs then travel to familiar rival Fayette, also a founding member of the CS8 after a long stint in the Lewis & Clark Conference. The Falcons finished 2-8 a year and lost a lopsided game to Harrisburg in Week 8.

The Bulldogs wrap up the regular season at home against an unknown Linn team, playing its first season of varsity football. The Wildcats went from a winless junior varsity season in 2022 to an 8-2 JV finish a year ago.

“I’m hoping we can get a quicker start than last year,” Class said about his team’s schedule. “Those first two games are going to be pretty darn tough. But we want to get better each day, and the chips will fall where they will. Hopefully, that’s the district title.”

The Bulldogs had their final preseason tuneup at the jamboree at Central Methodist University on Friday against Fayette, Salisbury, and North Callaway.

Coach Claas said that overall he thought his team did some good things against live competition. “It’s always nice to be able to go against another team at this point of the season. As always there’s plenty of things that we need to improve on and we expect that at this point of the season and even in the coming weeks.”

Claas said his team must have a great week of practice before hosting a talented South Shelby squad coming to Harrisburg for Friday’s season opener. “They return lots of key pieces from last year, they use their speed on both sides of the ball and have great play in the trenches,” he said.

Friday’s opener kicks off at 7 p.m.