SPRINGDALE — There’s no question Springdale’s off ense will look a little diff erent next year.
Gone will be electric running back Deandre Murray, who ran for almost 3,000 yards the last two seasons. He played his fi nal game in the regular season finale against Springdale Har-Ber and will graduate in the spring, along with 6-foot-5, 270-pound tight end Josiah Wymer and four other off ensive starters.
A strong senior class of 34 players missed the playoffs with a 5-5 record in their final high school season, but their 5-2 start was the best at the school since the Bulldogs went undefeated and won the state championship in 2005. Replacing the key players won’t be easy and will likely result in a different look on offense next year.
“Every year you try to figure out what you can do within the grand scheme of your base offense,” coach Shane Patrick said. “How you can tweak things to take advantage of the kids’ abilities.”
And Springdale will still return some experienced talent on the offensive side of the ball.
Quarterback Fuller Chandler will be a seasoned starter after throwing for 1,110 yards and 12 touchdowns as a sophomore this year. And the Bulldogs will return five offensive linemen who started in 2013.
“Our O-line should all be seniors,” Patrick said. “We ought to be pretty salty in the O-line area. We’re just not going to be huge. We’re not going to be huge, but we’ll have a chance to be pretty good there.”
Trying to replace a player as dynamic as Murray won’t be easy.
But Springdale has a few options, including rising juniors Malcolm Neal and Kenneth Lane. And the Bulldogs could also benefi t from the addition of Farmington transfer Ian Crawford, a 5-foot-8, 160-pounder who transferred back to SHS on Monday.
“He was our backup at the beginning of the season,” Patrick said. “If he’s with us, he’ll have a chance. He would have played a lot this year. We had plans for him.”
The experience Chandler picked up while starting as a sophomore in the rugged 7A/6A-West should pay off as he preps for another season with a year under his belt. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder was understandably up-and-down at times, but also regularly showcased potential.
“With our quarterback being a returning guy and then with Drake (Wymer) getting some meaningful reps at the quarterback position, we ought to be able to just expand what we’re doing with those guys and build on that,” Patrick said. “Take some pressure off the run game.”
Tweaking the off ense isn’t a new concept for Patrick, who wrapped up his fourth season at the school last week.
“We started out with a no-tight end set and two backs side by side with the quarterback my first year,” Patrick said. “The next year we had a fullback and a tailback with Deandre where we knew we wanted to get him the football. Then you get Josiah and you have a tight end. So it makes it that much better in that kind of stuff . So we just try to use the people we have.”