Photo By Steve Conner - #1 Gavin Capps
Preseason Coaches' Poll
1. Minico
2. Twin Falls
3. Jerome
4. Burley
5. Mountain Home
6. Canyon Ridge
7. Wood River
Written by: Brandon Baney
The Jerome Tigers are entering 2021 with several new faces donning the orange and black. The defending Great Basin 7 conference champs went 7-3 a year ago, but saw several talented playmakers depart via graduation.
“The graduating class of 2021 is hard to replace as a whole,” head coach Sid Gambles said. “So many guys on that team had 3 full seasons of varsity football. They cultivated the culture change in our program. It felt like guys like JW James, Dalan Thompson, Shayler Bingham, Jayden McIntyre, Kyle Craig, Joe Stevenson, and Ryan Almanza never left the field from their sophomore years on. They knew what the coaches expected of them and their teammates. JW and Dalan were extensions of our defensive and offensive coordinators on the field.”
The cupboard isn’t completely bare, though. Running backs Johnny Ramsey and Morgan Quam, wide receivers Colton Elison and Logan Worthington, and tight ends Gavin Capps and Nate McDonald all return to bolster the Jerome offense. “These guys all have the ability to score when they touch the ball,” Gambles said. “We spread the ball around a lot. Our screens act as an extension of our run game.”
The offensive line also appears to be a strength, with three returning starters (David Gill, Keenan Blair and Riley Sheppeard) back in 2021. The big question at Jerome is: who replaces quarterback Dalan Thompson? “Sophomore Daniel Gill is stepping in to play quarterback for us this season,” Gambles said. “Daniel is an athletic kid who is ultra-competitive, loves being in the weight room, and wants to lead at a young age which is great.”
The Jerome defense also shows loads of promise and potential. The defensive line will be led by nose tackle JJ Foster. “He is a sturdy, strong kid who commands a double team from the O-Line,” Gambles said. “Keenan Blair and David Gill are both guys who start on the other side of the ball too, but are always asking for more defensive reps.” Jerome’s linebackers include Quam, Capps, McDonald, Levi Lockett and Juan Benavides. The secondary will feature Elison, Ramsey and Worthington, among others.
Ultimately, Gambles believes Jerome’s fortunes this fall will depend on two areas: depth and player development. “We need to establish depth behind some of our two-way players,” Gambles said. “We need to find guys to step in and play a couple of series on the offensive and defensive line and allow the starters to catch a breather. We’ve always started the season with that in mind, but due to injuries or lack of depth that hasn’t been a thing we’ve been able to do. “
“The X-Factor for us this season in terms of our team’s success will be our young bucks making the growth from freshman and JV football to the Friday Night Lights,” Gambles continued. “We need Daniel Gill, Zander Bingham, Colby Coates, Rhyland Turner, Erik Casteneda, etc. to step up and be dudes for us. They are all athletic and have it within them to do that. Ideally you wouldn’t have to rely on so many underclassmen, but we don’t have a lot of depth on the field, so these young guys get thrust into the roles that they’re in.”
If the younger players can develop and increase Jerome’s depth, the Tigers will be able to wear down the opposition. In the always difficult Great Basin 7 conference, which features six league games on the schedule for Jerome, those factors could lead to another conference title in 2021.