Coach Barry Lunney said he knows exactly what to expect coming off his third state championship at Bentonville.
No matter who lines up for the Tigers this fall, they will have a target square on their chest in the 7A-West Conference. That’s what happens when you’ve won seven consecutive conference championships and three state titles since 2008.
“It happens whether you have all your guys coming back or nobody coming back,” said Lunney, who has won seven state championships, three at Bentonville and four before that at Fort Smith Southside. “They just tend to put the team that has won the year before up there at the top, but we try not to worry about any of that stuff.”
Lunney is entering his 10th season at Bentonville and figures to have another team worthy of the hype.
Four starters return on defense, but they include all-state defensive end Javier Carbonell, 6-3, 290 pounds, and senior linebacker Harrison Rooney, 6-1, 215, who was the team’s leading tackler last season.
Bentonville returns its top offensive play-makers from the 2013 championship team, led by junior quarterback Kasey Ford, 6-5, 245, senior tailback Dylan Smith, 5-10, 200, and senior back Hekilli Keliiliki, 6-2, 235.
“Every year is different, and every team takes a different personality from a leadership standpoint,” Lunney said. “We’ve got some really good athletes and we have more Division I recruits at this point than any team we’ve had, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
Fayetteville has been one of Bentonville’s top challengers in recent years — particularly in the postseason, with the Bulldogs defeating the Tigers in the state championship game in 2011 and 2012 — and this season should be no different.
Fayetteville returns 13 starters and features C.J. O’Grady, a 6-5, 230-pound tight end who is orally committed to the University of Arkansas, and Dre Greenlaw, a 6-0, 220-pound safety and punt returner who is orally committed to Arkansas State.
“I feel like to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best,” Fayetteville Coach Daryl Patton said. “Bentonville is the defending state champs, and they’ve got a lot of tremendous athletes returning from that team and their coaching staff is as good as anybody around.
“We have to play them at Bentonville this year, so it’s not going to be an easy task, but we’re excited about the opportunity in Week 10. Obviously the last few years we’ve been playing for a conference championship in Week 10, and maybe one of these days we can beat them in the regular season.”
Like many teams in the 7A-West Conference, Fayetteville will break in a new starting quarterback, and it will be either sophomore Taylor Powell, 6-0, 190, or junior Jack Lindsey, 6-1, 160, who have been competing for the job through spring and summer drills.
Springdale Har-Ber lost two players who signed with SEC schools — Josh Frazier (Alabama) and Jake Hall (Arkansas) — and must replace all but one starter on offense. The Wildcats have lost no more than two conference games in each of the past seven seasons and they expect to continue the streak this fall.
Two familiar teams that are moving back into the conference could be in the hunt for the playoffs as well. Fort Smith Southside and Fort Smith Northside are back in the 7A-West after playing the past two seasons in the 7A/6A-Central. The Fort Smith teams swapped places with Siloam Springs and Van Buren, which moved to the 7A/6A-Central with the new reclassification cycle.
“Since I’ve been in the 7A-West, I’ve always been used to making a trek down the mountain to play the Fort Smith schools, so the last two years have been different,” Patton said. “Nothing against Van Buren or Siloam Springs. They’re both good programs and very wellcoached teams. But not having Southside and Northside in the 7A-West just felt weird, and it’s good to have them back.”
The Rebels return eight starters on defense and will lean on all-state tailback D’erek Fernandez, 5-11, 190, to lead a young offense.
Northside, which enters its second season under Coach Mike Falleur, returns 10 starters on offense and nine on defense.
The Grizzlies should be particularly tough up front on defense with Daytrieon Dean and Kylin Washington back. Dean, 6-4, 260, has orally committed to Arkansas. Washington, 6-2, 285, has scholarship offers from Arkansas State and Missouri.
“Southside is very rich in tradition, and Northside is back to where they used to be,” Lunney said. “I’m telling you, they might not have a lot of depth, but Northside has some great athletes.”