The Score Football Preview- Illinois Small Schools

Out of the score Sunday, we have shifted our attention to the small schools in Illinois aI welcome Greg Armstrong back to . And I guess when you start talkg small schools in Illinois, the biggest change Greg, is the Lincoln. The LTC and the Prairie Land hae combined to create the Lincoln Land or the law firm of LLC, Knoxville, Mercer County will be on the bigger school side. And then on the smaller school , you have more of your traditionl Lincoln Trail teams and on Wethersfield Rover Williams field United a t. So they're dividing up Stark County also in the mix. So I think it's a good change because it gets the enrollments kind of equal sizes on each side of the conference. You mentioned Mercer County, new head coach, familiar head c. Yep. Someone that like actually we can remember doing great things in one state ship Tanner Mat like what does he bring? And and that's he comes in to a bunch of talent. There's high expectations once again in Alito. Yeah. I think there's always high expectations in Alio and I think when you lose a good solid head coach like Andrew Ho, you know, there's there's, you know, big shoes to fill. I like what I've heard from Tanner Matt look so far talking about not just so much X's and X's and O's but really talking about why we're doing the things we're doing learning the proces, learning what's important. And I think what's great for Tar Matlick as a former quarterback he has Colby Cox you know behind center who's going to be a realy dynamic weapon for Mercer Count. I think they have a chance to compete on their side of the division in the Lincoln land for sure. I remember anyone weather show t year cuff just calling certain s and then you saying like oh thee only a fresh they don't even sophomore. They returned a lot of talent from a really good team that had a good offense. Yeah. This is Tony Grips third year ad some of these guys have been wih him since he was freshman coachd one of those guys is Dylan Orry. He's the quarterback. He's been the quarterback since he was a sophomore. He kind of in when Colton Quagliano left and he's been doing a really good job. He's got some really good skills around him, not just on the edg, but he can turn and hand off to a guy in the backfield named Zeb Rash, who last year was all state guy. Look for him to do some big things again this year. This team, they're saying they want to get past second round, get past the first round, quarterfinals or bust is what they're thinking. Last year you loved Rover Williams Field. Yep. I think you still like him. Yeah, absolutely. I really like what t Grant Goldstrand is doing out t, Rover Williams Field. He returns a lot of athletes agn this year from a playoff team tt won a playoff game a year ago. It starts again with quarterback Riley Danner. He put up a lot of stat. He was toe for toe with Colby Cx last year in the leaders of the. He's back again. I think they're hoping for big things and I see that they could really compete on that side of the division in the LLC along with Annawan Wethersfield. Please forgive us, we can't go through every team in the LLC. I know Naxo is something they're all three excited about as well. So there's a podcast for you from the West. That's right. Absolutely one that focuses on the LLC, so you can check that out right. One of my favorite conferences has always been the Three Rivers going to be good again. And when you start talking about the Three Rivers, it's kind of the familiar names, as usual. There's a few that are kind of gaining some ground, but Princeton has had great team after great team. They lose a lot. They should be good again. Yeah, I mean, I think when you k at what Ryan Pearson has done, his body of work at Princeton is remarkable. And I think that every year he loses some athletes. But every year we find new names that we're calling out week after we. I think that's going to be the same this year. When you look around the landscape of the Three Rivers, think Princeton stands out. They get to play Sterling. Is that right? Yeah, that's that's a fun. Too bad we didn't get that last year. But this was going to be fun as well. When it comes to that Rock Ridg, always a good team that that did some good things last year, made it to the quarterfinals. How good can Rock Ridge be? They got some big shoes to reple but familiar names out there as well. Yeah. One of those Zeller tans, Zeller tans, Zarla tanus, easy. Got it. So but you're going to turn on hand the ball off to hi. They've got some good guys coming back. I'm really excited to see what they do with that offense. With Connor Dean, he played quarterback last year at the end of the year because of injuries. He was a wide receiver. He ran the ball a little bit. He's just such a dynamic weapon. I just want to see how they utilize him in that offense. I think there's a lot of potential for them to be near the top of the standings. Yeah, we talk Rock Ridge. Their rival is, is, is Sherrardd it went a lot of games last yea. But you know, they're doing good things. Brandon Johnson's doing great job rebuilding that. They could make a step or two ts year as well, don't you think? I think so. I mean what one wint year and they were in some game. I think the game they won was a game at the last second that thy ended up winning. It was against Believe. They beat Morris. Morris. Yeah, so really good game there. And he's talked about younger guys have gotten a chance to ply the past couple of the last year and they're still building that, the changing the culture, all that kinds of things that he's did. But he did it at Annawan Welshf. I expect him to do it again here at Sherard Morrison has a lot of speed from a team that was really good last year in flashes. They made the playoffs lost in the first round but they returned almost everybody and they they're just such a fast team. I look for them to make some noe other small schools of interest. Boy, it was a special season for West Central last year in eight man they lose a ton. But just being there and those s that are there now watched and partook and some of them what was the special season that's got to help this year. Oh absolutely. When you But when yu lose a guy like Kate and Rossi who scored over 60 touchdowns and did the things he did kind f led them to a state championshi. Tough to replace. They had a god group of seniors last year. Don't be surprised if coach Kirby hasn't planned at high level again this year. I think Kiwanis got a lot of pieces bac. Orion has filler back at quarterback as only a sophomore. If we didn't mention Orion, I got him in there. Text messages, right. So bless you Greg. Greg, we appreciate you. He'll be part of the score team again this year. Out with us on Friday nights. And again we mentioned it. View from the West Podcast. Download it. Subscribe, like, comment, listen, all the Things Podcasters sale. That's right, Greg, we appreciate you. Thank you. All right. All right. Top For our last bre. We'll talk some Iowa small school football when we come back on The Score Sunday.