Durango returns 13 starters, should be much improved

By Jesse Granger

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 | 3:41 p.m.

They took their lumps last season in winning just one game. A year later, the Durango football team is better off.

Younger players got experience last season, even in defeat, which should make the Trailblazers more competitive this fall.

“We look a little bit better than last year and that’s always a good thing,” Gerber said. “We have a lot of guys returning this year. We played a lot of young guys last year.”

They return 13 starters from last season, seven on offense — including quarterback Jonathan Schofield — and six on defense.

Schofield will be joined by three of the team’s top wide outs in junior Jayson Johnson (6 foot 1, 175 pounds), and seniors Troy Smidt (6 foot, 175 pounds) and Seth Garcia (5 foot 9, 185 pounds).

Senior running back Leontre Austin (6 foot 1, 190 pounds) returns after 125 carries and three touchdowns last year, but will need to improve on his 2.9 yards-per-rush.

“We were a little weak on the line last year,” Gerber said. “We return a couple starters on the offensive line, and we feel like we have a couple guys that can carry the ball as well.”

After scoring 11.8 points per game in 2014, the Trailblazers feel their up-tempo offense needs to be even quicker this year.

“If we keep pushing harder and don’t stop, when it comes to the fourth quarter and we aren’t the ones gassed out it definitely makes a difference,” senior linebacker Kenny Miller said.

Miller and Garcia make up a veteran group of linebackers that will be one of the team’s strengths this season.

“In any team, to develop some type of championship team it has to start on the defensive side of the ball,” Gerber said. “With these two guys we are in good shape.”

But no matter how much talent Durango stacks up in the backfield and secondary, it won’t mean a thing if they can’t hang with Bishop Gorman, Legacy, Palo Verde and Shadow Ridge in the trenches during Southwest League games.

In 2014, the Trailblazers were outscored by their division opponents a combined 227-34.

“It’s going to depend upon the offensive and defensive lines,” Gerber said. “If we can develop those we have the skill guys in place that we will have one heck of a team. How our lines go, so our team goes.”