Anybody Believe The Blair Football Team Is For Real Now?

[Bobby Mills Jr. (1000 Yard Guy)]

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Well folks, I kind of jumped on the band wagon a while back when I started watching film on this group of players and coaches. The entire focus seemed to be on a young Junior running back by the name of Ryan Randall……and why not. The young man accumulated 9 yards short of 2,100 yards rushing during the 9 game regular season. Oh yes, I heard the retorts “they haven’t played anybody”, "how many playoff teams have they faced?” “Can’t have a ONE-MAN team!” “you know they’re gonna have to pass!”

OK, lets start pointing fingers at the people who make this Blair bunch a success. First of all the coaching staff: Head man, Darren Harsin, a splendid high school quarterback from Alma (ask me, I watched him a time or two), and his assistants, Scott Flynn, Bryan Soukup, Jason Meggison, Norm Svoboda, and Lance Sorensen.
THEN, those “hogs” up front that open the holes for Mr. Randall: Connor Ellis, Chris Long, Pat Dutton, Cody Hill, Justin Stork, and Jarrett Grabbe. Grabbe, you wouldn’t want to call a name and run….not a great idea. Number 52 would run you down and swallow you up in a heartbeat. Happened to 1000 yarder Jared Janssen a couple of times tonight.

The Bears shocked a few folks this evening with a 24-6 win over Class B’s number 3 Waverly Vikings….at their house. When Jake Schany blew through and blocked a punt on Waverly’s first series and Jerad Peterson scooped it up and returned 22 yards for a score, the maroon guys were in shock. But, you know how Waverly is. They took the ball next possession and marched all the way down the field with the nifty running of number 15 Jared Janssen and moved to the Blair 5 yard line. A vicious hit on Husker recruit Ty Evans resulted in a lost fumble and the tone for the night was set. Waverly lost another fumble later in the half and Randall kept getting the ball in that Maryland “I” and the line kept opening holes and the Bears raced to a 17-0 intermission lead. Randall did break loose for a 51 yard scamper in the first half, on his way to a total of 177 yards on 33 carries. The Blair quarterback, Jordan Flynn, who never even attempted a pass last week, flipped a 51 yard scoring strike to a lonesome Joey Gentzler who went the distance all by himself. That was the “nail” with 4:34 left in the third. One of the ironic things about this game was that Waverly had less than TEN turnovers all season before tonight’s game, which produced four.

I have not added total stats as of yet, but I’m guessing that Waverly may have either come close, or even out-yarded Blair tonight, but the bend-not-break defense of the Bears was in full force. Two underclassman were impressive on pass coverage at times for Blair, and they were Junior Sean Wade and Sophomore Schany. Blair’s defensive scheme of 3 up lineman and 5 LB’s was deadly against the ‘Bone on this day. Jared Janssen of Waverly looked like himself all evening, twisting, turning and churning for 109 yards on 19 carries, but it was not enough.

Blair advances to the Semi’s and has a road gig at Omaha Skutt and a match-up that could see some rushing yards for the Bears, but that’s next week and this is tonight, and time to sit back and enjoy the glory…………..but not for long, because the quest continues for this Blair team not many gave any shot of getting this far. Waverly closes a very good season at 9-2 and brings the end of a football career to an outstanding group of Seniors.

Anybody want to jump on the Blair bandwagon now? I have a sneaking suspicion they’ll have a few more along for the ride than they had before this day.