Football: Defense will be a key for Butler Bulldogs football team in 2012

By Steve Janoski

BUTLER — In Group 1 football, one great player can have an immeasurable impact on the outcome of a season. And, as Butler Bulldogs head coach Jim Matsakis is finding out, the absence of that one great player can leave quite a mark on the following years as well.

So, as the countdown to opening day continues, it does so in the shadow of the recently-graduated premier running back Mike Tenned, who scored over 30 touchdowns while leading the team to an 8-3 record and a playoff run last season.

Finding someone to replace him, Matsakis said, has been impossible; therefore, the Bulldogs aren't going to try. Instead, they're changing their entire philosophy, and moving away from the flashy barnburners of Tenned's days and towards a more blue-collar, back-to-basics approach that will stress a strong defense, low turnover numbers, and a grinding style.

"We have nobody that can replace him, that's a major void on both sides of the ball," said Matsakis. "This is a completely different team… he's gone, and they've gotta' move on and hope that these other kids can step it up and do some good."

There is a quartet of players that the coach is looking towards to provide not only leadership, but touchdowns as well: senior quarterback Chris Heredia, sophomore running back Ryan Cirillo, junior receiver Nick Ballistreri, and senior receiver Kirk Bargamento.

This foursome, Matsakis said, could come up with the 28 or 30 touchdowns the team needs, and together, provide the offensive firepower that the Bulldogs so sorely lack at the moment.

There is also some imposing size on the Butler roster, with several linemen measuring up at well over six feet tall. As Matsakis said, they're "tall and rangy and look good in shoulder pads," and the combination of the Butler colors on some large guys gives the team a psychological edge right off the bat.

Eight starters are returning on defense — a far cry from the three that came back last year — and of those eight, two are especially important: senior offensive/defensive tackle Billy White and junior center/middle linebacker Ryan Mack.

With the focus being on defense this year, as these two go, so goes the team. But with such a strong core surrounding them, Matsakis said, the Bulldogs could be in for a better year than many think.

"If they can play the way they're capable of, they're going to be very good defensively," he said. "It should be a good unit."

A new offseason conditioning program designed by Austin Wall of the Pompton Lakes-based Cannonball Gym was also instated, and Matsakis has already seen the dividends of that training.

Wall, he said, taught seniors like Heredia a thing or two about leadership, all the while putting players through grueling workouts designed to forge not only iron lungs, but an iron mind.

"Eighteen kids went there for five months…and one thing I noticed is that our conditioning and mental toughness is a lot better than we've ever been, and a lot of it is because of going to Cannonball," he said.

With the new blue-collar-Bulldogs' philosophy, that mental toughness will be of the utmost importance as his team begins to realize that Tenned "is not coming over the hill," to save the team.

"Of my ten years in Butler, this is probably the one year that the mental aspect means the most," he said. The first test will happen fairly quickly, as the Bulldogs' open the season against North Warren — a team they've never played before, and one who has "no fear" of the Butler name.

"I say to the guys sometimes that the yellow helmet is seven points right away…but they've got no history (with us)," Matsakis said. "That game, which will teach the seniors how to win without the players who have gone before, will be crucial."