looked good in practice.” ….

looked good in practice.”

Borchardt has a solid crew of receivers to throw to in seniors Michael Quednow and Trey Klemann, junior Dominick Classen and sophomore Jackson Blomberg. Quednow is the team’s leading returning receiver having caught five passes for 111 yards last year. Blomberg is a converted quarterback who has made a smooth transition to receiver.

The machine won’t go without good work from the offensive line and that’s where the coaches are looking for seniors Ty Annala, Brandon Heiser and Johnathan Konrad to lead, as well as senior Grant Cravaack, who the Hawks hope will return to the lineup by mid-season as he finishes up his recovery from a torn ACL suffered last Oct. 30 at Lake Holcombe-Cornell.

“The big takeaways (from the scrimmage) that we have to work on coming into this week are maintaining blocks and just getting in position,” Campbell said. “We had some guys in the right spot, but a lot of our plays broke down by being in poor position, poor blocking form and not staying on a block.”

Those seniors also will be key players at the line of scrimmage on defense as they will be counted upon to occupy blockers and free up middle linebackers Heikkinen and Yanko to make plays. Quednow returns at an outside linebacker spot, while Peterson gets the early nod at the other outside position in the Hawks’ 4-4 scheme that debuted last year. The secondary has a good amount of experience led by Gumz and Borchardt as safeties and Classen, Blomberg and Klemann being able to rotate at cornerback. The Hawks allowed less than 60 passing yards per game last year. They allowed just 19 points per game and a not-unreasonable 260 rushing yards in the three conference games before the strong teams from Spring Valley and Athens gashed them in November.

“The biggest thing on defense is being able to keep guys fresh,” Campbell said. “Our three starting defensive linemen will be our three interior linemen on offense. Can we sub for them? When is a good time to sub them? Our starting group looks pretty good at the scrimmage. I think one of the biggest takeaways was shedding blocks. It’s the opposite of offense where it’s about maintaining blocks. We’ve worked a lot of reps on knowing what you’re doing in certain coverages and certain play calls. They have that down, so hopefully we can eliminate some thinking and focus on the fundamentals.”

With Flambeau and Lake Holcombe-Cornell deciding in the off-season to jump right into eight-man football this fall, the Hawks are looking at a five-game Lakeland Conference schedule. Only Lake Holcombe-Cornell played its full allotment of seven league games in 2020 and went 4-3. Hurley won the “championship” by going 4-0 and rallying to beat 4-1 Grantsburg in the de facto title game late in the year. Unity (4-2), Webster (3-3) and Ladysmith (0-6) round out this year’s league opponents.

The Hawks were fortunate to fill the other holes in the schedule with Northland Pines, Abbotsford and Auburndale. Unity has already had to cancel its game this week due to health and safety issues, so anything can still happen. But for now, a full nine-game slate is planned.

“Some of that stuff is just out of your hands,” Campbell said. “A few other teams are playing duplicate games (to fill their schedules). The first one was one we weren’t planning on, they reached out to us. We’ve got Auburndale who we used to play. Northland Pines was in the rotation a couple of times. Abbotsford we haven’t played in my time in Rib Lake, so that will be a new one and fun one.

“I think we should be able to play our own game. Hopefully we can put a string of wins together and just see how it goes. We should be able to play some competitive ball.”