Football Preview 2019: Wiregrass Ranch

Keith Walker is a big playmaker for the Bulls.

Like overcoming injuries or a lack of depth, losing players to other schools has become another one of the problems facing high school football coaches across the country these days.

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) coach Mark Kantor knows that more than most others. When the Bulls, 7-4 last season, open their season tonight at 7:30 p.m. at home against Zephyrhills, they will do so without two of their spring standouts — quarterback Hunter Helton and receiver Noah Biglow — both of whom have transferred to Armwood.

That will change some things for the Bulls, but it won’t change everything. Kantor says his team is rallying around new QB starter Rocco Becht, and still plans to make it to the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

Can the Bulls do it again? Let’s take a look:

QUARTERBACK: The plan was to prepare Becht for the starting role next season. But, the son of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Anthony Becht and last year’s junior varsity starter, where he did well, has now been thrown into the varsity fire.

RUNNING BACK: Seniors Nate Miller and Keith Walker will be the starters in the backfield. Miller led the team in rushing last year with 468 yards and was tied with Walker with seven touchdowns. 

WIDE RECEIVER: Walker (pictured, right) is a playmaker in the backfield and in the slot, where three of his five touchdowns in the spring game came on receptions. He will be a valuable weapon on offense. Juniors Tyler Brueckner and Broden Guirl, who is a big target at 6-foot-3, spent last year catching Becht’s passes on JV and will both be varsity starters in 2019. Senior Julian Gonzalez, who tied for the varsity team-high in 2018 with 16 catches, is back as well.

OFFENSIVE LINE: The Bulls have a wealth of experience up front. Connor Lenczden (the biggest lineman at 6-7, 275) and Robert Gibb will start at tackle, Daniel Thompson and Josh Hood will start at guard and Barit Dhugana handles the duties at center. All are seniors. 

“When they get after it, they can be as good as any offensive line I have ever coached,” Kantor says.

DEFENSIVE LINE: Seniors Tyler Hayes and Dylan Ridolph are linebackers who come up and play on the ends for the Bulls — they had 33 and 21 tackles for losses, respectively, in 2018 — and both are excellent pass rushers. Senior Gabe Thompson also will see time at defensive end, while Isaiah Miller, Andres Jimenez and Ian Alford all play inside. Like the offensive line, the Bulls starters are all seniors.

LINEBACKERS: Kantor has a solid crew, consisting of seniors Nick Graziano, Tyler Mesnekoff and Mark Kieper, as well as junior Craig Kailimai, but the best of the bunch and the squad’s leader is Ridolph, who had 82 tackles and 22 sacks in 2018. 

DEFENSIVE BACK: Senior Jonavon Tillis is a big corner at 6-3, and he will start alongside junior Larry Gibbs. Junior Grady Clower is the strong safety, and senior Julian Gonzalez is the free safety.  

KICKER: Adam Mihalek takes over as both placekicker and punter for two-year starter Hayden Wills.

THE FINAL WORD: Losing your quarterback less than a month before opening night can be a devastating loss, but the Bulls’ schedule may be an even bigger obstacle to overcome. WRH has six teams on its schedule that made the playoffs last year, and three of those teams won 11 or more games. Not a single 2019 opponent had a losing 2018 record, and the combined winning percentage of all 10 teams was a whopping .710. Yikes.

Wiregrass Ranch LB Dylan Ridolph Racks Up Sacks

Wiregrass Ranch linebacker Dylan Ridolph tracks down Wesley Chapel’s Jelani Vassell during the Bulls’ 43-14 victory back on Aug. 28. Ridolph had four sacks in the game. (Photo: Andy Warrener)

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) junior linebacker Dylan Ridolph is a physical force, a hard-hitting 6-foot, 200-pound missile in the center of the Bulls’ defense.

However, it is Ridolph’s mental approach that makes him one of the Tampa Bay area’s top linebackers.

A self-professed bookwork and history buff who is flirting with a 4.0 grade-point average, Ridolph often spends his free time watching history videos on YouTube, because, “it’s fun to see how in history, things connect. One event has a ripple effect that causes something else.”

In football, sometimes those events, like a missed block or blown assignment, have a ripple effect like, well, in Ridolph’s case, a sack.

Through six games, Ridolph is second in Florida’s Class 7A with 17 sacks, according to MaxPreps.

That’s just two behind the Class 7A leader, Winter Garden Foundation Academy’s Warren Sapp — yes, the son of the other Warren Sapp, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Pro Football Hall of Famer.

What jumps out even more than the number of sacks Ridolph has is the impact they have had on WRH’s opponents. His 17 sacks have resulted in 159 yards of lost yardage, more than nine yards per sack. By comparison, Sapp averages 6.5 yards lost per sack.

Pair Ridolph’s 17 sacks with his 26 tackles for loss, and you have a drive-killing specialist.

“Tackles for loss and sacks are great but they depend on the yardage lost — is it a one-yard or a nine-yard loss?,” says WRH head coach Mark Kantor. “There’s a big difference between 3rd-and-3 and 3rd-and-12. It’s also frustrating (for an offense) when you get a negative play on 1st-and-10. It puts you behind the sticks.”

Ridolph, who had 15 sacks last season and has received college letters from Harvard, Yale and the University of Cincinnati, credits much of his success to his pre-game habits. He says that as much as he loves studying history, he loves breaking down game film.

“I’ll call out where the play is going and who I would be going against on that play and I might watch that same play over and over again to see where the tackle is going, see how the blocker will set himself,”

Ridolph says. “It gives me an easier time to predict them and make my read (in the game) from there.”

Ridolph puts his homework to the test in games, and his analysis continues in live game action.

“In the beginning, I won’t give them a full-force rush, I’ll wait for them to make their move on me,” Ridolph said. “Before long, I’ll know what they are going to do before they get to me.”

Ridolph says he gauges if the offensive tackle he’s going against is a passive or an active blocker. It dictates which type of rush he’ll put on them. He’ll watch their stance. Do they lean a certain way? Are they in a balanced position?

Ridolph will even look at the way their feet are pointed as an indication of how the tackle will try to block him or tip off which way the play is going.

“By the lineman’s first two steps, I usually know where the play is going to go,” Ridolph says.

This acumen for the game and attention to detail also makes it difficult for the Bulls’ offense to run plays against Ridolph in practice. The fact that Ridolph knows no other speed but full-throttle makes it even more difficult.

“Dylan goes 100 miles per hour, no matter what the situation,” Kantor says. “There are times in practice when we’re trying to get a look on offense, that we have to ask him to turn it down.”

It’s a good problem to have.

“If I had 39 guys that go like that every day, we’d be a pretty darn good football team, even better than we are now,” Kantor said. “He makes the other guys a lot better.”

Ridolph’s highlight reel shows a linebacker intent on getting to the ball carrier. He lines up in a three-point stance and gets around the right tackle for one sack. He lines up on the other side and bowls over the left tackle for another. Ridolph stands poised on either edge and is on the quarterback before he can even set his feet in the pocket, and when he does escape, Ridolph has the speed to catch him from behind.

And, his ability to fend off blockers to be a force along the line of scrimmage and stymie the opposing running game is another attribute that likely makes offensive coordinators go batty.

“I don’t just go upfield on every play, I try to do what’s best for the team and not just myself,” Ridolph said. “Getting sacks is great but I’ll take a win over sacks.”

WRH is 6-3 this season (and 4-2 in Class 7A, District 8) heading into this Friday’s regular season finale at home against Auburndale. The Bulls are in the hunt for a third-straight playoff appearance but will need a strong finish.

 

Ridolph hopes the Bulls can keep moving forward, and plans on his doing his part by knocking the competition backwards.