Neuqua offense to have new look

There were no scoring updates, no charged timeouts, no pads and even no jerseys.

While the Neuqua Valley, Batavia, Kaneland and Aurora Christian football teams mixed it up with a little 7-on-7 scrimmage Friday night on the Aurora Christian field turf, the only real similarity with fall football involved the excitement of competing under the lights.

The jerseys thing? Well, the Knights went shirtless against the Wildcats to open the half-field, passing display since both wore dark colors.

There are several new storylines to watch for during the upcoming season, but the biggest is how do the Wildcats replace premier running back Trent Snyder as well as back T.J. Rhattigan, who is walking on at Penn State, and quarterback Jeff Samuel.

“We played well tonight and it was fun,” Neuqua coach Bryan Wells said. “We really appreciate (Don) Beebe and Aurora Christian setting this up so we can come play on July 1 and see where we are.”

The skill work is a new development following a 2010 offense that relied heavily on Snyder’s power running and consistent 200-yard rushing games.

Rhattigan’s brother Joey, a junior, along with junior Danny Dudek and senior Brandon Fatla will work to replace the regular ground production.

Seniors Nate Boudreau and Matt Grobe worked out at quarterback and both made their fair share of plays. How that translates once pads are on and defenders breathing down their necks are introduced will be the key.

For now, it’s good timing work.

“Every team needs to work on their passing game,” Wells said. “Every year, we rely on it at some point. It was a good chance for us to work on that.”

The other focus for Neuqua was defensively, trying to hold off notorious passing offenses from Kaneland, which showcases a no-huddle spread, and Aurora Christian, which regularly uses three- and four-wide receiver sets on one side of the formation.

It was an area where the Wildcats definitely need some work.

“It’s kind of like the difference between hitting in the cage and going out and facing live pitching,” Wells said. “The technique is the key. They had a pretty nice receiver (tall junior Cory Windle) out there. If you’re 8A or 3A, it’s the talent that matters on the field. They (Aurora Christian) have a good quarterback (Anthony Maddie) who can make all the throws and you have the Beebe kid (Chad) running all these crazy routes.

“We knew we were going to have decent competition coming over here and we were excited about that.”

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