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Buffalo enters the 2017 season with a new head coach in Ed Phillips.
Phillips, a Buffalo native, spent the last seven years as the defensive coordinator at Branson. He hopes to bring a culture of winning to the football field and mirror the success of the wrestling program.
“We are trying to discuss what the best do. We point to the wrestlers and state champions and ask what makes them better than anyone else? We try to teach them through our character lessons. We tell them the best know what they truly want. The best focus on the little things and don’t take for granted steps and stances and everything else,” Phillips said.
Several of those wrestlers will be factors on the football field, and it starts with Colten Kenady on the offensive and defensive lines.
“He is the strongest kid on our team. He has a great work ethic and great motor,” Philips said. “He knows how to win, he knows how to prepare and do what you need to do to win.”
Three sophomores will join Kenady on the offensive line in Cody Smith (6’1, 265 pounds), Hunter Crandall (6’0, 215 pounds) and Evan Potter (6’0, 195 pounds).
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“All three of those guys are trying to learn how to speed themselves from JV and freshman ball. How they develop will determine a lot of how good we will be,” Phillips said.
The quarterback situation is in flux with returning starting senior Kyle Cooley and sophomore Coltin Henderson battling it out for the starting spot. Both will join returning starter Brad Hosiner on defense to form a strong linebacking corps in Phillips’ 4-3 defense. Hosiner will bring a physical running style to the running back position.
Levi Phillips, Jared Gentry and Billy McCune will all be factors in the receiving corps. Gentry along with Cody Gruber will join Kenady on the defensive side of the ball on the defensive line.
The secondary will be led by returning all-conference selection and wrestler Marcus Autry at safety.
McCune, Phillips and state champion wrestler Ethan Smith are all also battling for playing time in the secondary.
For Phillips, who is trying to turn around a program that has won seven games in as many seasons, his team must learn what it takes to be successful before results will be seen on the scoreboard.
“I want to see first off that they understand what it takes to be successful. Not what a scoreboard says, but what it takes to be successful. It is not a scoreboard that makes me a champion. It is what we do every day,” Phillips said. “We have high goals and the higher the goals we have the harder we have to work.”
Buffalo will travel to Warsaw for its jamboree on Aug. 11.
The Bison open the season on Aug. 18 at home against Fair Grove.
