Central preview: Going old school

Nick Linne takes over at quarterback for Naperville Central, spread offense and all.
Jonathan Miano / Staff photographer

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Naperville Central will still put its athletes in space and force teams to defend the entire width of the field, all 53 yards.

The philosophy remains the same, even with a new quarterback and a rebuilt offensive line. The spread offense has become the next big thing in high school and college football, but the Redhawks will also incorporate two old-school concepts: the three-sport athlete and two-way player.

Quarterback Nick Linne may not yet be ready to run the no-huddle offense and call all sorts of audibles at the line of scrimmage the way Harrison Daniels did in 2007. But Linne says he grew up a lot faster last year playing varsity basketball and baseball, maturing just by being around older kids.

"If we didn't start him at quarterback, he could probably start at inside linebacker," Central coach Mike Stine said. "He's not a prima donna quarterback."

Last season Daniels, now at Princeton, completed 61 percent of his passes, throwing for 2,184 yards and 17 touchdowns against four interceptions. The Central program doesn't believe in athletes specializing in one sport - Linne and Daniels were basketball teammates last winter - and the 6-foot-1-inch, 200-pound junior sounded prepared for the environment. "A lot of teams are underrating us, thinking that since Harrison's gone, (maybe) we're not going to be as explosive," Linne said. "(But) we're going to come out strong this year. We're lookin' to put a lot of points on the board."

To do that, the Redhawks would no doubt like to achieve better balance. In all six of their victories last season, they rushed for more than 100 yards. In each of the four losses, they fell far under that mark.

"We still don't know the personality of our offense. We want to spread the field," Stine said. "We feel we got the ability to throw the ball upfield, but we're gonna have to run the ball."

Nick Kukuc, who rushed for 601 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior, will be working behind an offensive line that returns only one regular - tackle Joe Widman - and will be smaller but quicker.

While last year's unit averaged 260 pounds, this one might weigh 220 per player, the hope being that each can spring more downfield blocks on the screen passes and reverses designed for someone like Riley O'Toole.

At this time last year, O'Toole had never played wide receiver or defensive back in a game before. After a junior season that saw him catch 18 passes, break up six more and account for nearly 600 all-purpose yards, Central's staff wants O'Toole on the field for 120 snaps - 60 on offense, 60 on defense, plus returning punts and kicks as well as handling the punting duties.

By next August, the 6-4, 195-pound converted quarterback could be on scholarship at a a mid-to-high major program. That shows just how reliable preseason expectations can be.

"It's just a new beginning. (We) had a great quarterback and now we're going to have another," Kukuc said. "We're not going to hide anything."