Football Preview: While replacing two offensive leaders, Ridley to focus on defense

RIDLEY TWP. >> A sense of unfinished business pervaded Ridley’s football training camp earlier this month.

When discussing their successful 2021 season, senior captains Paul Jackson, Stephen O’Donovan and David Rainey, all returning starters, agreed they were not satisfied with the outcome. Although the Green Raiders advanced to the District 1 Class 6A semifinal round and went 12-2 overall, the most wins for Ridley since 2012, the players were disappointed after all was said and done. Maybe they were being too hard on themselves, but they truly believed they fell short of expectations.

“Our whole goal last year was CLC – Central League champs – and we didn’t do it,” said Jackson, the team’s versatile slot receiver and outside linebacker. “We didn’t win the districts, lost to Coatesville (in the district semifinals). We want to carry that over this year and go all the way.”

The Green Raiders return without 2021 Daily Times Player of the Year Tahir “Tubby” Mills, who set Delaware County’s single-season rushing record last year, and All-Delco quarterback John Heller. Both graduated in the spring following two of the best individual seasons by Ridley players in recent history.

“We still have strong leadership,” said O’Donovan, an outstanding defensive back and receiver.

“Obviously, Tubby and John were a big part of everything, and they were leaders. And the numbers don’t lie,” Rainey said. “But they didn’t do it alone. We have a lot of guys here that played a big part and (new players) are ready to step up.”

Ridley players are working with several new positional coaches after former offensive coordinator Mike Ewing left for the head coaching job at Cardinal O’Hara and took with him many of Dave Wood’s top assistants. Rick Larkin is the new offensive coordinator and has installed a new offensive system. Former Chichester and Penncrest head coach Ryan Smith joined the staff and is mentoring the receivers.

“At the end of the day, half of those coaches – they are amazing coaches – left us,” said Rainey, the team’s starting center. “They didn’t believe in us, and we’ve got to do it for ourselves now. We are working every day to get better.”

Wood said the biggest areas of concern are developing a new lead running back, or a by-committee system that can grow to become consistently productive, and offensive line depth. Four of Ridley’s starting offensive linemen are back in the fold – seniors Rainey, Antonio Saahir, Anthony Berry and Hayden Brown, who earned an All-Delco nod for his performance as a dominant two-way lineman.

First-year varsity starter and junior Alante Smith is first in line to earn the bulk of carries at running back.

Sophomore Ryan Carroll will be the quarterback, replacing Heller, who threw for a county-high 2,213 yards with 26 touchdowns. Carroll has a slew of strong receiving options including Jackson, senior tight end Nahaj Saleem, and senior wide outs O’Donovan and Kimir Stephenson. Junior wide receiver Khameen Powell is the big play weapon. Powell accrued 551 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns last year, but made his biggest impact on special teams, returning five kicks for touchdowns.

“Carroll did play some last year, he did really well in the Upper Darby game, so we have all the confidence in the world, but we know he is a young kid,” Wood said. “The biggest question, I think, that we have on offense is who’s going to be that running back for us? We have a lot of guys that saw action last year between Owen Bosak, Alante Smith and Steve Gerace. But who’s going to be the most consistent player, like Mills was?

“Nobody is going to repeat what Mills did, but we need someone to take over that position and be a kid that can stay down on all three gaps. I don’t want to be an offense where we are predictable and we’re putting one kid in this situation, one kid in that situation. So I think on offense, that’s where our biggest competition is.

“When you look at receiver, we have all those kids back and we do have depth,” Wood continued. “We are learning a new offense, so it’s some new things that we’re doing offensively with Coach Larkin and then we have to build some offensive line depth. We have kids that are back, but we really didn’t play a lot of different kids last year and those horses were really five, six kids that played for us on the line and then we also lost (Khalil Blagmon) to graduation. But really, when you look at it, the kids that are starting this year have all played a lot of football.”

Defensively the Green Raiders have 10 starters returning. Brown anchors the D-line and is joined by seniors Jayson Howarth and Dean Conant. Jackson, Saleem, Saahir and Connor Kelly comprise the linebacker corps. Seniors Stephen and Joe O’Donovan and JP Lynam are locked in at their positions in the defensive secondary.

“Even though we have those kids back, we have to improve physically on defense and we have to improve on points allowed on defense,” said Wood, whose team surrendered an average of 24.3 points per game last fall. “We won a lot of games but gave up 28 to 35 points, but the offense was scoring late last year around 40 points a game. I don’t see that happening this year. We’re going to have to play better defensively.”

Ridley begins its 2022 campaign with a plane ride to Florida to take on Crestview (Fla.), which posted a 6-4 record as a member of Class 7A, the state’s second-highest enrollment classification.