|
There is a new sheriff in town.
He doesn't wear a badge. He doesn't carry a gun.
He wears a whistle and carries a
video remote control so that he may break down films.
His name is Dino Kaklis and he's the head coach of the
Bethel College football Wildcats.
Maybe you've heard of them?
You may remember them as this
small college team that plays more homecomings than did
Bob Hope when he was a live.
Well, those days have long since
passed.
Overlook the Wildcats at your
peril.
Bethel was in striking range in
seven of its nine losses last year and could have won
most of those games with some proper breaks. In three
straight home games, the Wildcats enjoyed great goal
line field position only to suffer a turnover or some
other malady that caused a 14-point turnaround.
On the surface, some jaded souls
may shake their heads and snort, "well, that's Bethel
football."
But the true football
aficionados will look beyond that. They will see that
the Wildcats had largely a freshman and sophomore line
yet still averaged 25.3 points per game. Take away the
shutout at Nicholls State, one of the top NCAA 1-AA
teams in the country when BC played there, that average
increases to 28 points per game.
Despite their youth, the
Wildcats were able to put points on the board.
The good side of that is the
fact that Bethel returns almost everybody from that
team. And what it lost it replaced with smart
recruiting.
Kaklis and his staff have gone
after the best of the best. A lot of smaller schools
wait until the D-1s and 1-AAs get their pick, then the
NAIA teams pick up the scraps. Not so with Bethel, and
it shows with their recruiting class, which includes
all-state talent like Shane DePriest and Wesley Arnold
of West Carroll, Kris Sydnor of McKenzie and Terrance
Bell, who inked last Wednesday, from Huntingdon. When
you look at that list of players, you see some of the
best players from West Carroll, who won its regional
title last year; a player from McKenzie, whose senior
class won more games than another other MHS senior class
heretofore; and a player who was the Class 2A state
offensive MVP in the Clinic Bowl, a record setter and
MVP of a summer all-star game. That just scratches the
tip of the iceberg.
Bethel has recruited winners and
has recruited West Tennessee well. But the Wildcat staff
realizes that the world doesn't end at the state line.
Bethel has done well on the national front, too.
Quality players from Florida dot
the roster this year.
BC president Bob Prosser says
he's excited by the progress made with the football
program. The football stadium on College Drive is taking
shape and could be ready by homecoming, if all goes
precisely to plan. But as Prosser says, the new stadium
isn't out there for looks.
"We're committed to getting this
going," he said.
Football isn't just something
Bethel wants in its inventory; Bethel is ready to win
and win soon.
During his signing last
Wednesday, Bell proudly showed his state championship
ring, earned last December after Huntingdon dismantled
Lipscomb 48-14. Prosser was impressed with the adornment
as Kaklis chimed in.
The BC coach hopes that Bell
will have more rings than Saturn by the time he's
finished at Bethel.
"We want him to have a
conference ring and a national championship ring," he
said.
That's straight shootin' from
the new sheriff. |
