The start of the 2024 Ohio high school football season is right around the corner.
Most teams open Week 1 on Friday, Aug. 23, with a handful playing their season opener on Thursday, Aug. 22.
Here is one in a series of previews for area football teams:
USA Today Network Top 25 : Meet the preseason All-Ohio football team
2024 football preview: Tuscarawas County football coaches talk more than X's and O's
Mark your calendar: Team-by-team schedules for the Tuscarawas County area
Dover Crimson Tornadoes
Led by Ohio High School Hall of Fame coach Dan Ifft (22 playoff seasons), Dover begins its final year as an independent before rejoining the Ohio Cardinal Conference in the fall of 2025. The 2024 Crimson Tornadoes have outstanding talent, led by players such as junior dual threat quarterback Jack Judkins, running backs Justice Hughes, Daylen Clark and Caden Schie and defensive secondary standouts Isaac Blickensderfer and Clark.
"We’re going back to some of the things I did (offensively) in ’98 and ’99," Ifft said. "I think we have that kind of (speed). That, to me, is the essence of high school coaching and what can you do with what you have, because we don’t get to go out and recruit and say, geez, we need a 300-pound nose tackle. To me, that’s the beauty of our game versus the college game. It’s also fun. It’s been a lot of fun to try and fit the pieces in the puzzle, and every night you go home, you tinker a little more and see what it will look like this year."
The Tornadoes won four of their last five regular-season games last season which propelled them into the Division III playoffs. Dover will look to build off of last year’s strong finish and should feature an excellent balance between the run and pass game on offense.
The Tornadoes have been moved from rugged Division III Region 9 to Division III Region 11 this season and should be a strong playoff contender in that region. The Tornadoes play three new opponents this fall. They will travel to West Holmes to play the Knights in Week 3, host the Wooster Generals in Week 7 and travel to Mansfield Madison Comprehensive in Week 8 to face the Rams.
West Holmes, Wooster and Madison Comprehensive replace Taylor Allderdice, Columbus St. Francis DeSales and Boardman, respectively, on Dover’s schedule. The Tornadoes begin the 2024 season Friday night, Aug. 23 when they entertain the Federal League’s Green Bulldogs at Crater Stadium.
Coach : Dan Ifft (30th season)
2023 record: 6-5, including playoffs
Classification: Division III, Region 11
Playoff appearances under current coach: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
Key returners: Jack Judkins, Jr., QB, Ryan Lengler, Sr., OL/DL, Jack McKinnon, Sr., OL/DL, TJ Arnold, Sr., OL/DL, Daylen Clark, Sr., RB/DB, Isaac Blickensderfer, Sr., TE/FS, Justice Hughes, Jr., RB/DB, Caden Schie, Sr., RB/WR, Colton Gribble, Sr., ILB, Talon Patton, Sr., LB.
Key newcomers: “I always hesitate to mention newcomers because I do have some seniors waiting to step up,” said Dover head coach Dan Ifft. “I think the linebacker positions, they’re kind of wide open, and we’ve got a lot of newcomers in there in the sense that they played a lot of JV a year ago and worked out all winter with us and now we’re waiting for them to step up, and if they do, you’ll hear about them.”
Coach Ifft’s take: “ We have three really solid linemen in Ryan Lengler, Jack McKinnon and TJ Arnold. Those are kind of the focal points of our offensive and defensive lines. Issac Blickensderfer at tight end and free safety is getting a lot of Division I attention. We feel with Justice Hughes, Caden Schie and Daylen Clark (in the backfield), we have three fast youngsters. They’ve done a marvelous job. We’ve got to get them the ball in space, so to speak. I feel (offensively) this year we have to be close to balance (run-pass) as we can. With those three linemen we hope we can move some people and at least get some space for those kids (Hughes, Clark and Schie) and try to get the quick passing game going, and then stretch the defense vertically at least once a quarter if we can because of the speed those kids have. We’ll use multiple formations and multiple shifts.
“Defensively, those three linemen (Lengler, McKinnon and Arnold) will turn around and play some defense. However, we’re going to have to find some help, because those youngsters with the schedule we play, if you hope to go into the tournament, those kids are not going to last four quarters, especially early in the year when it’s 80-plus degrees. To that end, we’ve got another unit geared up up front and those kids are smaller but tenacious and if they succeed, we succeed, so we’re pretty excited about that group coming in to spell those guys. In the secondary, Isaac (Blickensderfer), obviously, Daylen (Clark) and (Caden) Schie in have done really well.
“We probably have the lowest numbers, 10 though 12, I’ve had in a while. We’re at 45 and usually we’re at 55 to 60 players. We’ve got some good 10th-grade kids, but we don’t have a lot of them and that’s usually where the depth comes from.
“It is (a tough schedule) but I think a lot of people are playing good people now, especially putting 16 teams in the tournament. We think if we can get there, we should be ready, if we stay healthy. I think more so when I started here in ’95 and ’96, injuries would decimate some things. I think we would really be scrambling to adjust the offense and defense. We can nil afford injuries.
“The goals are always the same. We want to go one game at a time and play harder than anybody else plays. That’s an objective because everybody says that and everybody wants that, and at the end of the 10 weeks, if somebody says your record is good enough to get in the tournament, then we make some noise. What that noise looks like, I don’t know, but we make some noise.”
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: 2024 football preview: Dover pulling out old-school looks to compliment speedy backfield
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