By Gary Housteau

sports@vindy.com

POLAND

The one obvious difference about Poland this season is there will be no Mark Brungard on the sidelines. But as the longtime defensive coordinator Ryan Williams takes over at the helm for the Bulldogs, he’ll indeed stick with some of the tried and true systems that Brungard operated under.

“The American History teacher in me values tradition and history and why things are the way they are,” Williams said. “We’re going to run ‘Dave,’ we’re going to count on our special teams and we’re going to play great defense.

“That’s what Coach [Jim] Tressel instilled in all of us and we’re going to keep that going on. I very much respect that and value that.”

Williams will definitely stress defense in his first year.

“I’ve seen football from the defensive side for 13 years and I think that will come out in how we do things now,” Williams said. “We practice defense first.

“We practice special teams first. We try to make sure that we take care of the defense and special teams first, maybe that’s what I’ll contribute as the one in charge.”

Offense

The offense starts with returning sophomore quarterback Cole Kosco.

“We’re going to feature his arm, absolutely we will,” Williams said. “He has some experience now and he’s a fiery competitor.

“But he’s going to manage the game and throw it when we need to.”

On the receiving end of Kosco’s spirals will be seniors Dan Klase and Tony Chiaro and junior Nate Alessi.

And on the ground Poland has four or five guys that can carry the football in seniors Reid Gould and Nick Petrolla, along with juniors Richard Bailey, Alec Catsoules and Dante Romano.

Up front Poland returns senior Kyle McCree and junior Drew Davies to anchor the offensive line and Williams expects three tight ends to get playing time in juniors Dante Ruozzo, Nick Miller and Cole Lavorini.

Defense

The strength of the defense will be at linebacker where Nick Miller, Cole Lavorini and Padraig O’Shaughnessy are all returning starters.

“Three of our four linebackers are back,” Williams said. “So we’ll have a nice linebacking corps.”

Chiaro, Alex Kotouch and Gould return in the secondary. And on the defensive line juniors Catsoules and Dante Ruozzo along with sophomore Jared Carcelli are all candidates for playing time as well as junior Jamie Ranalli.

Special Teams

“The strength of the whole team I’d say is the kicking game right now,” Williams said of Colt McFadden. “With his strong leg and he’s also punting the ball for us now.

“So if that’s the third phase of the game I’m real pleased with where we’re at at that phase of the game just with him.

“He’s a 4x100 state champion so he’s not a secret,” Williams said. “He’s going to get the ball as a wide out and he’s been in the secondary for us as well. He’s our utility guy. He’s our secret weapon.”

Outlook

“I expect us to be competitive and we should,” Williams said. “You have certain expectations in a program like this with a tradition and history and we just kind of approach it one game at a time and one practice at a time and when it’s all done, hopefully we’ll look back and there’s a whole bunch of wins there.”

At nine years, Poland has the longest current playoff run in the area.

“I’ve been here for that whole run and we’ve never once talked about [the playoffs] then so we’re not talking about it now,” Williams said.