The Fayette Falcons are betting that a veteran coach can help turn around a struggling football program that hasn’t had a winning season since scrapping by at 6-5 in 2022. Fayette tapped former California High School coach Kenny Grubb for the task of rebuilding a team that has gone just 14-28 over the last four years and finished with fewer than 20 players when the 2025 season ended with a 4-7 overall mark.

This will be Grubb’s third stint as a head coach. He previously led Highland and California and assistant coached at various high schools and small colleges, including Odessa, Mexico; Moberly; and William Jewell.

Grubb comes to Fayette after three years at California. His time there began well, culminating with a 9-3 season record and a 3-2 mark in the Class 3 postseason on the shoulders of a strong senior class. The Pintos then went 3-7 in 2024 and 1-9 last season in what Grubb chalked up to rebuilding.

That’s precisely the situation he enters at Fayette. The Falcons won eight games with 25 losses over three seasons under the previous head coach, Kole Hinton, in his first stint as a head coach. The first two seasons posted identical records, 2-8. But the Falcons rallied behind senior Carter Vroman and junior quarterback Colten Cross last season to improve to 4-7 overall with their first district win since 2022.

The Falcons return to the field under an entirely (almost) new coaching staff, although there are a couple of familiar faces. Alongside Grubb calling the 3-4 defense will be former FHS coach and alumnus Andy Bentley. The two have known one another since Coach Grubb was a graduate assistant and Bentley a player at William Jewell in the mid-1990s.

Coach Grubb’s son, Jonathon, will also join the Falcon sideline this season as the offensive coordinator.

“He can be our OC because he was a flex-bone quarterback, and what we do, he ran in high school,” Coach Grubb explained. The two are also nearly in lockstep philosophically, allowing Jonathon to call the plays while his father manages the game as a whole.

Another Fayette alum, Garren Vroman, also joins the staff this season. The Falcon faithful will no doubt recall Vroman’s heroics on the field, helping lead Fayette to district championships in 2018 and 2021 before playing college football at Central Methodist University. Vroman still holds rushing records at his alma mater.

“He’s coaching our running backs and our middle linebackers,” Coach Grubb said.

“By having Jonathon be the offensive coordinator and Andy as the defensive coordinator—two people I truly trust with everything we are doing—it allows me to bounce back and forth,” Grubb said. “I could not be happier with the staff we have.”

Fayette lost six seniors from a year ago, all of whom were starters: Carter Vroman (RB/LB), Caleb Craig (FB/LB), Ben Dale (OL/DL), Isaac Day (WR/DL), Karson Dodson (C), and Austin Kunze (OL/DL). But the Falcons return key starters at skill positions, including quarterback Colton Cross; fullback and linebacker Brodi Tucker; and receivers Ky Cunningham, Ledgyr Conrow, and Paxtyn Llewellyn, as well as linemen Kace Kelsey and Justin Kunze.

Five seniors and one junior will lead the Falcons onto the field for the season opener at Carrollton this Friday night. The two teams are even at 2-2 over the last four seasons. The Falcons lost the last two season openers against the Trojans, each by three touchdowns.

But both teams will be led by new head coaches this season, adding interest to the season opener.

Fayette will debut this season with a flexbone offense that will likely rush better than 70 percent of the time, relying heavily on the option for about half of those run plays.

“We want to run the football,” Grubb stated.

Now as a senior in his second year starting at quarterback, Cross will headline the offense, keeping the tempo slow and steady. “He is adjusting to what we’re doing really well,” Grubb said.

Cross will hand off the ball to stout senior Brodi Tucker, who returns to the offensive backfield after punishing opponents on defense as an all-district linebacker a year ago.

“He is the prototypical ideal fullback for our offense. He is the prototypical ideal middle linebacker for our defense,” Grubb said about Tucker. “He’s going to do what we want.”

Grubb said the heir apparent to Tucker is sophomore Paxtyn Llewellyn, who has shown considerable growth, physically, since his freshman season. And while the offense won’t often call for two fullbacks on the field at once, Llewellyn will probably line up at tight end when Tucker is in the backfield.

Fellow sophomore Kielin Pulliam will also have the opportunity to run the ball.

When not handing off or running the option, Cross will set his sights on key returning receivers. The first will likely be senior Ky Cunningham at tight end, followed by classmate Ledgyr Conrow in his return to the team.

Cunningham will likely be a Swiss Army knife for the Falcons on both sides of the ball. Given his experience, he could be seen at running back, tight end, or wide receiver. Defensively, he could line up at safety or linebacker on any given down.

Grubb’s offensive scheme aims to keep a methodical pace, wearing down defenses as it eats up clock. “It gives us an opportunity to slow games down,” Grubb explained. “We want to take as much time with the ball in our hands as we possibly can. One of our goals is that we need a 10-play drive in the first half and a 10-play drive in the second half.”

While player assignments were not necessarily set in stone as of this writing, Grubb said many of his players could play multiple positions in the offense as things progress. And being a small program with fewer than two dozen on the roster, most starters will play both sides of the ball.

“With a small number of kids, they’re all going to be doing a lot of different things,” Grubb said. “Most of them are going to be playing multiple positions on both sides of the ball. We have to find the best 11 for the situation and put them on the field. The guys are multifaceted.”

Cross will take snaps from sophomore center Christian Craig, who will anchor the offensive front this season. Alongside him on the line will be sophomores Justin Kunze and Kace Kelsey. Grubb also expects freshman Syferd Reed to earn time on the offensive front.

Defensively, the Falcons will come out in a 3-4 with the goal of stopping eight drives a game. Coach Grubb distilled years of defensive stats down to that goal and noticed that when his team stopped eight drives or more in a game, they won 95% of the time. “It’s not just a defensive philosophy. It’s part of the overall philosophy,” Grubb said.

The offensive line will also front the defense. Grubb said he expects Craig, Kunze, and Kelsey to form the front three with Tucker, Syferd, Chase Vandelicht, and new sophomore Ejilika Kingston working at middle linebacker. Llewellyn and Cunningham will likely earn starts at outside linebacker with Cross, Conrow, and Pulliam in the defensive backfield.

“We’re pretty excited about Paxtyn and Ky,” Grubb said about his outside linebacker corps.

While positions are still up for grabs, especially just a few practices into the season, Grubb said there is one thing that absolutely must change. “The other piece of that is just a new way of thinking about the game of football,” he said.

That new mindset had its first test with the annual preseason jamboree hosted by Central Methodist University Friday night. It was an intensely fun sideline led by an enthusiastic coaching staff. That elan was infectious and was shared with parents and fans in the stands.

“It was energetic. It was contagious. And those kids are having a blast,” Coach Grubb said moments after the team walked off Davis Field. “I told them what I was looking for tonight were two things: Are we communicating and are we giving great effort? I’ve been challenging them all week to be the best-effort team in the state. Did we give great effort, and did we communicate? Yes, we did. Now they will believe me when I tell them that when you give great effort, good things will happen.”

The jamboree acts as a final tuneup before the real season begins. But it also gives coaches an honest look at how teams stack up against real opponents.

“I said let’s go find out who the 2026 Fayette Falcons are. And I think we found it out tonight,” Grubb said. “I think we’re going to play our tails off. I think we’re going to get better every week because we’re going to work for it. We’re going to take care of each other, and we’re going to play our tails off every week.”

The Falcons scored against each of the three teams they faced: Harrisburg, Salisbury, and North Callaway.

“We moved the ball against every team. It felt like there were times when we should’ve had a defensive stop. But we missed a tackle or let a quarterback scramble out of the pocket. Those are things that we can fix,” Grubb said after the jamboree.

“I could not be more proud of this bunch right now. We have a long way to go and a lot to work on, but we’re going to get better.”

Grubb and the Falcons debut on Friday night at Carrollton. The two teams have faced off in the season opener dating back to 2016, with Fayette owning a 7-5 record over that span.

Fayette steps onto Thomas S. Davis Memorial Field for its home opener against Trenton on Week 2. This will mark the first matchup between the two teams. The Bulldogs finished 3-7 a year ago and 2-8 in 2024, with its last winning season coming in 2023 with a 9-2 overall mark.

“I think that’s a great game for us. It’s a good matchup,” Grubb said, noting that Trenton was a Class 2 team a year ago. A win would help the Falcons when deciding postseason seedings should the Bulldogs remain in Class 2 again this year. Class and district assignments had not been announced as of this writing.

“It’s a winnable game. And I think it’s a great competition for us, and that’s really what we’re looking at right now,” Grubb said.

From there, Fayette’s schedule increases in difficulty, with four teams that played for a district title, two that won district championships, and one that won it all. The Falcons’ Week 3 opponent will be Salisbury, which defeated Harrisburg for the district championship a year ago. Two weeks later, Fayette travels to Russellville, a team that lost to Tipton in the district championship last season.

On October 9, the Falcons will host the Class 1 defending state champs, Tipton.

The final game of the regular season will be against Harrisburg, which rallied late in the season to advance to the district championship against Salisbury.

In between those games are bouts against Westran (9/18), which the Falcons defeated twice last year, and Linn (10/2), another game Fayette won a year ago, and Class 2 South Callaway (10/16).

Grubb said he expects to see significant growth between Friday’s jamboree and the season opener at Carrollton on Friday. And more growth between Weeks 1 and 2 as the team learns the new system. Kickoff on Friday is at 7 p.m. in Carrollton.