Rochester football preview: Shaffer: Zebras have more backfield depth

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester football team will face Winamac in a scrimmage at Barnhart Field at 7 p.m. Friday. Their season opener is 7 p.m. Aug. 23 at Barnhart Field against Wabash. The Zebras are 22-8 since the start of the 2021 season.

Alex Deming and Brady Beck were a formidable duo for the Rochester football team.

Deming ran with the ball from his fullback spot in the Zebras’ wing-T offense, and Beck blocked for him.

On defense, Deming played end, and Beck played tackle. The Indiana Football Coaches Association named both Class 2A Senior All-Stars last year.

Rochester went 22-8 the last three years with Deming and Beck at the forefront. Deming and the also-departed Colton Ferverda combined for over 6,000 rushing yards and 88 career touchdowns in their careers.

With them gone, coach Ron Shaffer said that the Zebras might have more depth at the running back spots but less depth on the line. In fact, there might be three linemen – Mason Hisey, Callen Ferverda and Xavier Vance – starting both ways, and junior Grant Clark might be asked to start at both tight end and defensive end.

“I don’t know if it’s what you’d call typical,” Shaffer said when asked about the offseason. “For us, it was, I guess, identifying can we stay with the identity that we had? Could we stay with our identity? Looking at the kids that we had coming back, how do you replace an Alex Deming? How do you replace a Brady Beck?

“So we looked at some guys and we feel like through the summer with the weight room program and some of what we did at camp, I don’t know if they absolutely fill their shoes yet. We’ll find that out. But we feel like we can stay true to ourselves from what we’ve been doing the last several years and then maybe even expand on it just a little bit. I don’t say that we feel comfortable yet because we haven’t been thrown into the fire, but we know that we’re in a decent place, and we just have to coach and get the kids going where we’re in the right direction.”

However, the Zebras might have more depth at running back. Sophomore Kale Shotts, junior Brant Beck and senior Trevor Walley will compete for time at fullback. Beck, Zakk Parks, Kye Murphy, Clarence Garrett, Maddox Jewell and Trenton Meadows are among those who will compete for playing time at halfback.

Shotts, who wrestled last winter at the 144-pound weight class, now weighs between 180 and 185, according to Shaffer.

“He’s put on good weight,” Shaffer said of Shotts. “He put in a good summer in the weight room. He joined our 900-pound club. Between power clean, bench and squat, he accumulated over 900 pounds in those three lifts, so he’s a guy that’s put himself in good position to compete.”

In addition, Shaffer said that Carson Paulik’s role at quarterback will change in that he will be asked to carry the ball about “10 to 12 touches” a game.

“We needed him to manage the offense, and that’s what he really did,” Shaffer said of Paulik’s 2023 season. “This year, we’re looking for him to command the offense, rather than manage it – so, a larger leadership role getting us in and out of plays, making sure that everybody’s aligned correctly and then putting a little more workload on him both running and passing the ball. We look for him to really step forward and be that solid guy for us at that position.”

Look for Hisey and Callen Ferverda to play guards on offense. Vance, recovered from a torn ACL suffered against Lafayette Central Catholic last October in the sectional semifinals, will return to left tackle. James Gardner will take over at center while junior Matt Crossland will be a candidate to start at right tackle.

Liam Pinder is also competing for time at tackle.

Clark and Ethan Bailey will compete for time at tight end.

Drew Bowers, a senior who is playing football for the first time as a high schooler, came out for the team and will see time at both wide receiver on offense and free safety on defense. Shaffer said Bowers “looked like he had never missed a beat” and called him “a really, really big add for us.”

“He’s set himself apart from the others,” Shaffer said. “And then some of those guys like Maddox Jewell and Clarence Garrett, who are going to run some halfback stuff, are also going to be put at that split end position.”

The Manchester University team camp, held annually in June, is a jumping-off point for Shaffer and assistant coaches Isaac Shaffer, Ken Hughes, Deric Beck and Bryce Roberts to assess the team’s depth.

“I guess we don’t have necessarily the standout guys that we’ve had that can go both ways, so we’re trying to develop that depth on the offensive line and the defensive line,” Shaffer said. “I think we really have a larger corps of running backs than we’ve had in the past. … What we found out from camp is that we may have six or seven running backs that touch the ball. We’ve got about three or four guys that can run at split end if we need to. We’re a little thin at tight end, but we do have two solid tight ends. Those things are kind of what we learned at camp.”

On defense, Isaac Shaffer will start his fourth season on staff but his first calling the defense. He replaces Nate Basham, who resigned to take the associate principal position at Rochester Middle School.

The defense notched four shutouts last season, their most since they had six shutouts in 2009. But they also allowed 10 touchdown passes in their three losses to Tippecanoe Valley, Peru and Lafayette Central Catholic.

“Some of it comes down to not making plays, but I would say the majority of it was just a breakdown in coverage, not necessarily a breakdown in what we do,” Shaffer said. “Making tackles. Everything we did was pretty sound. It’s just sometimes other teams have better athletes, and LCC’s a pretty talented team. They went on to the semistate. We might have been their closest game up until that point. It’s tough.”

But Shaffer said it’s not “ideal” with so many two-way linemen.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had a couple guys injured here, and most of it is not even football-related, just some freak things with their jobs or some injuries from the past,” Shaffer said. “We’re hoping to get a couple guys back that we could take the load off, especially Callen and Xavier, but for right now, we’d have to go with those guys.”

Shotts and Bailey are competing for inside linebacker. Brant Beck will play weak side linebacker, and Parks and Murphy are competing for another outside linebacker spot.

Paulik, Jewell and Garrett are competing for the two cornerback spots with freshman Mitchell Clark also “mixing it up” for time at cornerback. Meadows, Bowers, Murphy and freshman Alejandro Chapman are competing for time at safety.

Senior Davis Renie, a newcomer to football, will be the placekicker. Renie, Paulik and Ferverda are competing to kick off. Paulik will “probably” punt, but Shaffer said Hisey, Garrett and Jewell can also punt.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been this deep at punter before,” Shaffer said. “We’ve got some guys who can punt the ball decently.”

Parks, who returned a kickoff for a touchdown against Whitko last season and whom Shaffer called “maybe the fastest guy on the team,” will return as a kickoff returner. Beck and Bowers could also see time returning kicks.

Schedule

Rochester’s schedule is unchanged from last year. Northwestern is new to the Three Rivers Conference, but the Zebras will not play them until 2025.

Aug. 23 – vs. Wabash, 7 p.m.

Aug. 30 – at Tippecanoe Valley, 7 p.m.

Sept. 6 – vs. Whitko, 7 p.m.

Sept. 13 – at Manchester, 7 p.m.

Sept. 20 – at Lewis Cass, 7 p.m.

Sept. 27 – vs. Peru, 7 p.m.

Oct. 4 – at Northfield, 7 p.m.

Oct. 11 – vs. Southwood, 7 p.m.

Oct. 18 – at Maconaquah, 7 p.m.

Oct. 25 – Class 2A, Sectional 36 quarterfinal

Class 2A, Sectional 36

Rochester, Alexandria, Blackford, Eastbrook, Eastern (Greentown), Elwood, Tipton, Wabash