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Red Road Block: Smith Center O-line nearly a picture of perfection
By CONOR NICHOLL
Hays Daily News
SMITH CENTER -- Smith Center High School, leading 16-7 in the second quarter against Pittsburg-St. Mary's/Colgan in the Class 2-1A state championship game, faced a long third down.
The Redmen coaches called a draw for quarterback Joe Windscheffel.
The senior took the snap, rolled to his right and faced heavy pressure from a Panther linebacker. He dodged the tackler, turned to his left and saw a welcoming sight.
Every Smith Center lineman was still working, still on their blocks and still focused on beating their opponent. The play didn't break down.
Windscheffel completely reversed field, ran behind every lineman's block and gained 30 yards that set up a Redman score.
"It was probably one of the biggest plays," senior tight end Jared Mocaby said with a smile on Thursday afternoon at the Smith Center Fieldhouse.
The run epitomized Smith Center's brilliant offensive line play, a line that was the fulcrum behind a 40-14 win in the state championship and a 13-0 record. It marked the Redmen's seventh state title in the past 30 years and fourth in a row.
The line, which executed head coach Roger Barta's patented wishbone offense to near perfection, helped Smith Center, who lost two of their top three running backs to season-ending injuries during the year, outscore their opponents 844-20 and tally at least 50 points in 11 games.
Smith Center rushed for 5,574 yards on 486 carries, an average of 11.45 yards per run and 428.8 rushing yards per game. Five players finished with at least 500 yards.
The line, tackles Matt Seemann and Justin Nixon, guards Godsey and Brayton Gillen, ends Drew Joy and Macoby and center Kirk Palmer are the Hays Daily News Offensive Players of the Year.
Every player, except Nixon, is a senior. Gillen, a captain, is also a member of the Hays Daily Super 11 team.
Pittsburg-Colgan head coach Chuck Smith, a veteran of more than three decades in high school football, said the 2007 Smith Center and the 1999 Claflin offensive lines were the best he has seen.
"Those were the two that stood out the most no doubt," Smith said. "Smith Center was a team of real tough, physical kids who were well-coached. They had an awful lot of talent and were awful skilled. They were solid in all regards. Those two teams could have played with anybody."
Barta, the 30-year head coach at Smith Center, said this line was arguably No. 1 in his tenure.
"A lot of kids got recognition this year, but the key to the team was the offensive line," Barta said. "It might have been our best offensive line end-to-end."
"We knew we could be special"
Everyone starts to play football in seventh grade in Smith Center. The year before, as sixth graders, the 2007 seniors started to think about state championships when they began to lift weights.
"We knew we could be special," Windscheffel said. "We had athletes who were great kids."
The junior high teams run the exact same offense as the high school team: the wishbone, where 95-98 percent of the plays are runs.
The playbook is simple; Windscheffel said the team has just nine or 10 plays, including three plays that are the same but are run left and right.
"You just get so used to playing with the same people and you know what everyone is capable of," senior running back Braden Wilson said. "It helps with running the offense with more precision."
The seventh grade featured Seemann as a tackle and Gillen at guard. The two players never changed positions for the next six years.
Smith Center lost just one middle school game because of a fluky schedule. Middle schoolers can play only five quarters combined if they are on both the seventh and eighth grade teams.
Several seventh graders, including Windscheffel, Seemann and Joy, played one quarter of a seventh grade game against Norton and were saved for the eighth grade contest, Macoby said.
Norton won the seventh grade game for the only loss the Smith Center seniors would ever have. They eventually beat Norton 48-0 later in the season with a full roster.
"We redeemed ourselves," Macoby said.
The rest of the line formed in high school. Godsey, a running back in junior high and the smallest lineman at 190 pounds, joined the offensive line as a freshman. Joy switched to tight end midway through his freshman season.
Palmer, who is from Kensington, came as a freshman and anchored the center position for the next four years. As a sophomore, the 6-foot-6 Macoby, the tallest member of the line and a basketball standout, became an end.
Smith Center, with most of the seniors first starting as sophomores, won back-to-back state titles in 2005-06. In May 2007, the team laid the foundation for this season, a season that needed to produce another title.
"It was probably the most important," Godsey said. "Everyone thought that we were going to be good and if we didn't go and win then they just kind of slams it in our faces, so we knew that we had to work extra hard."
"The weight room sessions were really important"
The work started in the Smith Center auditorium in late May when the team elected four captains: Windscheffel, Gillen and senior running backs Tate Arnold and Kerby Rice.
The captains ran a mock draft and each picked a team. The teams are posted on a wall of the weight room for summer workouts and the four squads earn points for lifting and running. They lose points when they don't show up or are in trouble for drinking, fighting or disorderly conduct.
Very few players missed any days at Smith Center's gigantic weight room, a room that Wilson called "the best in the area."
Most of the players worked on farms before they would come to the weight room about 7 p.m., Monday-Friday to lift off a set program and complete several conditioning and agility drills. Someone would put on a CD and the entire team would start work.
"When there was a personal best or someone was getting up there in weights, a bunch of people would turn around and cheer each other on," Gillen said. "It really helps out to give that guy motivation to not let them down. The weight room sessions were really important and just inclined everyone's talent."
The work ethic, named by several linemen as the No. 1 reason for the success this season, formed the backbone.
"As the game goes on, maybe the second quarter, or maybe it would be in the fourth, we just knew it was going to happen," Wilson said. "The (opponent) would eventually wear down."`
"There were a few"
In 2006, Norton had played Smith Center close and lost 14-3. One year later, the Redmen crushed Norton 60-0 in the first game of the season. The game proved Smith Center was a juggernaut - and better they were than the previous year.
"This was going to be special," Macoby said.
Three weeks later, Arnold tore his ACL against Ellis and would miss the rest of the season. Rice also hurt his ACL in Week 6 and didn't return. However, the line provided gigantic holes for the backups, 130-pound sophomore Colt Rogers and 155-pound junior Trevor Rempe.
"We knew the line had to step up after Tate and Kirby went down," Macoby said.
The line provided the backs with several yards of breathing room on nearly every play.
"Sometimes (the holes) would be wide-open like five yards wide," Wilson said. "You didn't even have to worry about getting touched until you were 10 yards down the field."
Asked if the offensive line ever allowed a tackle for loss, Seemann, after a short pause, said: "There were a few." Wilson, the senior running back, never recalled losing yardage. Neither did Windscheffel.
"I don't ever remember a defender came through a hole and hit our guy in the backfield," Windscheffel said. "If there ever was a tackle for loss, it wasn't the offensive line's fault."
"Brothers"
Helped by veteran line coaches Dennis Hutchinson and Tim Wilson - named by several other linemen as the biggest reason for the line's success - the O-line never regressed or was complacent after weekly blowouts.
Little changed after the national media came to Smith Center after the playoff opener. ESPN.com and The New York Times wrote features on Smith Center's dominance, including scoring a high school record 72 points in the first quarter against Plainville in the playoff opener.
"That is something we will always remember," Seemann said.
The coaches emphasized communication, watching the opponent on the other side of the line and playing hard 100 percent of the time - the mantra repeated multiple times throughout the season.
"The coaches focused on staying on your man," Palmer said.
Every lineman continued to improve in 2007.
Nixon, the 360-pound tackle, simply said "I got better." Others progressed in specific areas, including working on double teams, improving on reads and staying on blocks for a longer period of time.
The line also bonded off the field. Many players have known each other since kindergarten and first grade and Macoby called everyone "brothers."
They often went to a shed by Windscheffel's house to relax, listen to music and argue over Kansas and Kansas State sports teams. Windscheffel is a big KU fan, while Seemann and Macoby (among others) root for K-State.
They'll also play a lot of ping-pong and X-box.
"We are all real big ping-pong players," Seemann said with a smile.
Windscheffel is the team's best player and Seemann and Gillen are considered the top linemen at table tennis. Joy said "Nixon and I are the worst."
They'll also watch film, usually at Windscheffel's house, every Saturday. One player will make a phone call and everyone will view the film from the previous Friday.
On Monday, the coaches will pass out Barta's famous in-depth scouting report about the next opponent and Smith Center will watch film on the next team.
"That was awesome"
The Redmen opened the district playoffs with the 72-point first quarter and 83-0 win against Plainville and then beat St. John 64-0. In the sectional game, Smith Center's line played their best game of the season in a 56-0 victory against an undefeated Oakley team.
"They were stunting a lot and our line communicated and picked up their blitzes," Joy said.
"We had offensive linemen 40 yards downfield making blocks on plays that we scored on and you don't see that everywhere," Windscheffel added.
Oakley head coach Randall Rath was also impressed with Smith Center's line play.
"They can run through down linemen and that's hard for a high school lineman to be able to do that," Rath said. "They are able to get to the next level and do it quickly."
After a 44-6 win against St. Francis in the state semis, the Redmen were behind early against Pittsburg-Colgan in the championship game.
Windscheffel's reverse-field run changed momentum and helped Smith Center roll to the title.
"That was awesome," Godsey said of the play.
Smith Center's line capped their dominating season, blocking for 538 Redmen yards (their entire offensive output) on 61 attempts in the finale.
"I have never seen a line quite like that," Windscheffel said. "I know there are bigger lines and stronger lines, but never one that knew what they were doing like us. They were so smart. Just the way they worked as a unit was amazing."
Sports reporter Conor Nicholl can be reached at (785) 628-1081 or at cnicholl@dailynews.net.
