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The Adaptation Of Shiloh
Not Quite The Saints Of Old, Shiloh Finds New Strength In Offensive Line, Ground Game
Last updated Thursday, October 11, 2007 10:27 PM CDT in Prep Sports
By Brandon Harris
SPECIAL TO THE MORNING NEWS
SPRINGDALE -- Nick O'Quinn didn't think he was ready for the challenge.
Just a junior, he was asked to lead the Shiloh Christian offensive line in a season of unknowns. Offensive line coach Caleb Perry told him this was supposed to be one of the Saints' best offensive lines ever. The men up front -- not the quarterback or the receivers like it has been for so long -- were to be the anchors of the Shiloh offense.
"I was scared," said O'Quinn, the starter at right tackle. "Coach Perry kept telling me this was going to be the best line we've had in a long time, and I couldn't believe it. I was worried before the season because I just couldn't picture it."
Graduation severely depleted the Saints' roster from a year ago. There was no more Matt Simpson or Austin Tucker at quarterback. No more Crosby Tuck at receiver. In all, five players went on to play Division-I college football. The athletes were still there, but they were unproven.
O'Quinn, the most tenured member of the offensive line, had to take two freshmen under his wing. He'd never played alongside the likes of left tackle Travis Bodenstein or right guard Samuel Harvill.
But now, six games into the season, O'Quinn instead wonders why there was any doubt to begin with. Add to the mix sophomore center Josh Salsbury and left guard Justin Young, and Shiloh -- the team known for its high-flying receivers, rocket-armed quarterbacks and playmakers galore -- has developed its offensive line into not only one of the best in the 3A-1 Conference, but the backbone of its team.
"(Perry) told us toward the beginning that our offensive line was going to have to come together and step up and make some plays," O'Quinn said. "We don't have the Crosby Tuck who's going to go up there and get it -- not yet, at least. He told us that us five combined are Crosby Tuck this year. Our go-to isn't Crosby, it's the O-line. When it's third-and-21, we go to the line."
It's a different situation for Shiloh, no doubt, but it's one the Saints welcome. Nolan Hankins anchored the offensive line last season, but the limelight more often than not fell upon his talented teammates who scored the points.
Now, the Saints are as powerful and plentiful on the offensive line as they were at the skill positions.
"We have some other guys who aren't necessarily starting, but they're getting some playing time," Shiloh coach Josh Floyd said. "It's people like Derek Dellinger. He could be a starter. He's right there, and he's usually in there by the second or third drive of the game. We have eight guys who can rotate. That's different for us that we have that many guys. We've never been able to do that before."
Goodbye, Finesse
The names of former Saints stars like Rhett Lashlee, Tuck and Floyd litter the passing and receiving categories in the state record book. Career passing touchdowns, passing yards in a season, receiving yards in a season. If a Saint isn't first in each category, there's one near the top somewhere.
Odds are there won't be a any record-setters in those categories this year, but that doesn't mean the Saints have stopped scoring. They're just doing it a different way.
"We've tried to change it up a little bit," Salsbury said. "Shiloh's known as a finesse passing offense. They said we'd just drop back in the pocket and throw it. But with this group and hopefully with the people behind us, we can put Shiloh on the map as having a running game, too. It starts our 'running era,' I guess you could say."
Without a game-changing receiver like Tuck, the Saints have taken advantage of their depth at running back, too. Seven different players have carried the ball for Shiloh this season. All but two of them have more than 150 yards on the ground, and all but one has a rushing touchdown.
Matt Gerlt is the Saints' leading rusher, averaging 60.2 yards per game with four touchdowns. Close behind him, though, is quarterback Blake Roberts with 53 yards per game.
"We definitely felt like our running backs were going to be a big strength for us this year," Floyd said. "And we have some depth there. We've got Jordan Moore, Mitchell Roberts, Matt Gerlt and Chris Bryant. All four of those guys could start at any time."
A change at quarterback has also aided in the increasing role of the ground game. Senior quarterback Blake Roberts entered the season having never played a snap of high school football.
It's the first season in some time the Saints have been without a quarterback who grew up in the Shiloh system from seventh grade to his high school varsity career. Simpson did it. Floyd did it. Lashlee did it. It's a part of the formula that made Shiloh successful in 2006 and for so many seasons prior.
But Floyd had watched Roberts play for the Saints on the baseball diamond and the basketball court, and he knew that Roberts was worth the chance.
"We knew we were going to have an inexperienced quarterback," Floyd said. "We knew that going into it because he wasn't crowned the Shiloh quarterback in the seventh grade. The bottom line is doing whatever we have to do to put points on the board."
Roberts hasn't necessarily struggled in the passing game -- he's completing 58 percent of his passes and averaging 266.8 yards per game. But his ability to run the football has helped him make up for where inexperience in the passing game has cost him.
"We're still getting 40-something points a game, just in a little different way," Floyd said. "It might take a little bit longer than it did last year, but overall, we've been pretty pleased."
Fighting To Win
These aren't the Saints of old, and the typical Shiloh offense isn't so typical anymore. And while the adjustment hasn't necessarily been an easy one, it's been worth it.
"One thing I really like with us doing it this way is our guys are learning to fight and win in the regular season," Perry said. "Last year we could throw it four or five times and be up. In some ways, it wasn't even realistic."
And some of the expectations held by the Shiloh coaches didn't seem realistic, either. But they worked.
They worked because Simpson had been the quarterback for so long and knew the playbook like the back of his hand. They worked because the core of receivers knew not only their own routes, but their teammates' as well. And they worked because of players like Tuck, who on any given night could make you stop and ask yourself, "Did he really just do that?"
"We definitely took some things for granted the last couple years," Floyd said. "With a guy like Crosby, if you threw it up anywhere close to him, he was going to get the football. That was always a huge weapon for us. We didn't really care what anybody played in coverage against Crosby. We didn't care what they did to him. He was going to get the ball and he was going to make plays."
The coaches have been forced to adjust, too. In his playing days as Shiloh's quarterback, Floyd was in a similar situation as Simpson was last year. He grew up in the Saints' system. He was used to it. He even had a set of talented receivers defenses couldn't choose to ignore.
But now he and the rest of the Shiloh staff has had to adjust, take a more active role and become a more balanced offensive unit.
"It's helped all of us coaches because for three years we developed this deep passing game," said Perry, referring to 2004-06 when Simpson was at quarterback and Tuck was at receiver. "Now, we're having to develop a shorter screen pass and running game with play-action. It's made us better coaches and the kids better players. In some senses, it's more fun this year."
Shiloh Christian Offensive Line
Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Yr.
Travis Bodenstein LT 6-4 275 Fr.
Justin Young LG 5-10 277 So.
Josh Salsbury C 5-11 240 So.
Samuel Harvill RG 6-1 240 Fr.
Nick O'Quinn RT 6-2 242 Jr.
Division-I Players From The 2006 Saints
Name Pos. School
Crosby Tuck WR Arkansas
Bo Scott* WR Arkansas
Austin Tucker* WR Arkansas
Matt Simpson QB Harvard
Adam Herring LB Auburn
* -- Walk-on.
Shiloh Stats Through First Six Games
2006 Season 2007 Season
Passing Yards/Game 323.3 268.2
Passing TDs/Game 3.7 2.7
Rushing Yards/Game 176.3 195.3
Rushing TDs/Game 2.8 3.0
Arkansas High School Records
Career Touchdown Passes
TDs Name School
171 Rhett Lashlee Shiloh Christian
125 Josh Floyd Shiloh Christian
119 Thomas Thrash Pulaski Academy
Career Passing Yards
Yards Name School
Yards Name School
13,201 Rhett Lashlee Shiloh Christian
10,656 Josh Floyd Shiloh Christian
10,075 Brooks Coatney Greenwood
Career Completions
Completions Name School
858 Rhett Lashlee Shiloh Christian
689 Brooks Coatney Greenwood
608 Matt Simpson Shiloh Christian
Career Receiving Touchdowns
55 Shane Williams Shiloh Christian
55 Josh Bell Greenwood
51 Kris Weible Greenwood
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