Veteran Central football squad taking advantage of spring tune-up

PELLA— It’s spring, not fall.

The season is three games instead of 10.

There are no championships or NCAA Division III playoff berths on the line.

Some players will be competing in sports other than football. For many of the team’s seniors, the season doesn’t even mark the end of their collegiate careers.

Yet for coach Jeff McMartin and the Central College football team, after having the fall season postponed due to health and safety concerns, none of that matters when the team takes the field April 3 for the opener of its alternative reality spring season.

They’re keeping score, so the Dutch want to win.

“You take one day, one game at a time,” McMartin said. “We can’t do anything about the fall and if we learned anything from this past year, nothing’s really promised to us. And so we have to really be in the moment and enjoy the moment. I think that’s why so many of our seniors are playing in the spring and planning to come back next fall. They love to be on the field, they love playing Central football and they want to do it as long as they can. The time of year takes on a much lesser emphasis. The feeling I’ve gotten around the players is they’re prepping for April 3.”

It’s been nearly 16 months since the end of a memorable 2019 season, capped by a pair of stunning overtime victories that delivered a share of the nationally prominent program’s 31st conference championship and a first-round win in its 21st NCAA playoff appearance. Consequently, when the NCAA offered athletes an opportunity to play an additional season due to the pandemic-inflicted restrictions on 2020-21, the majority of this year’s seniors quickly signed on.

The 34 letterwinners back from that 10-2 squad include 12 starters with six returning all-conference players, led by generational star quarterback Blaine Hawkins (senior, Ankeny), the American Rivers offensive player of the year and two-time team MVP.

Offensive line

Second-team all-conference guard Josh Mayhew (senior, Aurora, Ill., West Aurora HS) is among three returning starters along with tackle Travis Wagner (senior, Mesa, Ariz., Mountain View HS) and center Ian Den Herder (sophomore, Mesa, Ariz., Desert Ridge HS).

“The offensive line is going to be important for us because we had a couple of guys that graduated,” McMartin said. “But we have some players who have developed and have been waiting in the wings and they’re going to get a chance to compete. And we may move some people into new positions.”

Tight end/S-back

The Dutch are looking for answers at tight end and S-back, the hybrid fullback/tight end position in the Central offense.

“We don’t have any seniors at the position so we’re going to see what a lot of these younger guys can do,” McMartin said.

Running back

Jason Hopp (junior, Earlham) received second-team all-conference honors after running for 787 yards and three touchdowns on 161 carries but others helped shoulder the load and will see action this spring.

“We’re going to give guys a chance to show what they can do,” McMartin said. “We’re going to be young at running back but I think we’ve got some talented guys.”

Receiver

Many of Hawkins’ top targets are back, including Erik Knaack (senior, Reinbeck, Gladbrook-Reinbeck HS), who was a second-team all-league pick, catching 67 passes for 1,088 yards, the second-best total in school history, and 14 touchdowns. He ranked in the top 30 nationally in receiving yards and TD catches and could threaten some school career marks.

“We have a lot of depth and we also have some really good young players who looked good in the fall,” McMartin said. “We’ll see if they’re ready.”

Quarterback

It takes some searching through the record books to come up with a Central passing mark that doesn’t already have Hawkins’ name next to it. It will be tough to top his 2019 numbers and he certainly won’t eclipse them in three games after throwing for 3,302 yards and 44 touchdowns, completing 252 of 382 passes (66.0%) with 14 interceptions. He also rushed for 522 yards and nine scores on 133 carries. Entering his fourth season as a starter, Hawkins has thrown for a record 6,889 yards and 79 touchdowns and counting.

But McMartin also wants to take a look at Nathan Herbers (sophomore, Urbandale, Des Moines Christian HS).

“Nathan missed all of last year with an injury so we’re excited to see what he can do,” McMartin said. “We feel like he can add a lot.”

Defensive line

Second-team all-conference pick Blade Durbala (senior, Blairstown, Benton HS) heads a veteran defensive line. Matt Glockel (senior, Malvern, East Mills HS) and nose guard Tom Adolph (junior, Coralville, Iowa City West HS) are also returning starters. Durbala made 55 tackles with 10.5 for loss and 3.0 sacks. Glockel and Adolph had 28 and 27 stops, respectively.

“We’ve got a lot of experience, but we also have some sophomores who will contribute and I think we have a really good freshman class,” McMartin said. “It will be interesting to see how they compete in live situations but based on how they looked in the fall, I feel like we have some really good players there.”

Linebacker

Three of the four starting linebackers are back. Tate O’Tool (senior, Fort Dodge, St. Edmond HS) was Central’s third-leading tackler with 92, including 9.5 for loss with an interception and five pass breakups. Hunter Maddy (senior, Mystic, Centerville HS) made 56 tackles with 5.5 sacks and an interception and inside linebacker Drew Smith (senior, Joliet, Ill., West HS) had 46 tackles.

“We’ve got some seniors there but also some sophomores that can really help us and we also have some freshmen who have come in and looked good,” McMartin said.

Defensive backs

Free safety Brayden Egli (junior, Saint Charles, I-35 HS) was a second-team all-conference pick and emerged as Central’s top tackler a season after moving over from offense. He racked up 101 stops with an interception and five pass breakups. But there will be new faces elsewhere in the secondary.

“We’re excited to have Brayden Egli back,” McMartin said. “And we’ve moved a couple guys over from offensive positions. I think they’ll create some great competition. It’s an area where I think we have good athletes but there are some unknowns there and guys are going to have to step up.”

Special teams

Replacing graduated all-American and CoSIDA Academic All-American kicker Jon Alberts is near the top of McMartin’s to-do list.

“We have three freshmen that are all competing at kicker who we feel good about,” McMartin said.

Sophomore Que Baker-McCauley (Mesa, Ariz., Tempe HS) shared the punting duties as a freshman and showed a promising leg at times. He averaged 35.5 yards a kick and dropped seven inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. He’ll be challenged by some freshmen, McMartin said.

Freshmen

The season’s rhythms are juxtaposed this year. Typically freshmen start practice before even stepping into a Central classroom but after fall practices that mirrored traditional spring workouts, the rookies in a promising class enter competition more game-ready.

“I think some of these freshmen have a real chance to step up,” McMartin said. “You almost look at them like sophomores or maybe freshmen 2.0. They’re in a very different place than they were in the fall. They’ve had more time in the weight room. They’ve had some more growth, they’ve gotten a number of reps and they’ve been in our meetings so they should be on par, knowledge-wise, with the rest of the team, whereas playing in the fall, there’s a great divide.”

The season

Central’s three opponents in its unusual April season—Simpson College, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Buena Vista University–were dictated by geography. And while McMartin knows what those squads were like in 2019, it’s hard to know what to expect this spring, particularly amid a global pandemic.

“There will be new faces, that’s just the nature of it,” McMartin said.

And while Central did have fall workouts, the Dutch didn’t really practice as a complete squad until drills began in March. As part of health protocols, players in the fall were usually confined to groups of 10-12 and practiced primarily without pads.

“I think the biggest we ever got (in a group) was 30 players,” McMartin said. “And we weren’t changing groups.

“It was a lot of technique stuff and instruction.”

McMartin will have an eye on the fall season which looms a little more than four months after the spring slate concludes but that doesn’t diminish the desire to win each game in April.

“We talk a lot about being process-oriented and when you should focus on product goals versus process goals,” McMartin said. “I think anytime you start a season and it’s an official season, that’s where you really have to bear down and focus on the process of trying to have good practices, trying to get better, trying to come together and create a closeness, a bond of brotherhood within the team.

“Everything the players are doing right now is to build to that point to be ready to play,” he said. “And when we get done with the spring, then we’ll really start to focus more on the long term. That doesn’t mean you don’t plan ahead and make decisions, you have to see it as a whole year. There’s a product aspect to it, too. But I think when we started practice, our focus really turned toward what we’re doing right now.”