The Salina Central Mustangs are preparing for the 2024 football season with a blend of old and new strategies.

“We like to score often,” head coach Mark Sandbo said, “We do it with explosive plays.”

Sandbo noted that the team has a new group of offensive starters.

“We returned six offensive starters from the 2023 season,” Sandbo said. “But we have  a new batch of players, and we are pretty excited to see what they can do on a Friday night.”

Players such as Abram Owings, Noah Peck, and Christian Carter are among these new starters.

Sandbo emphasized the importance of finding where they fit on the team.

“When replacing our skill positions, we need to ask these new players, ‘What stands out?’” he said. “What do they have? What do they do differently than the kids last year?”

Sandbo explained that quarterbacks go through intense training. This year’s quarterback is a returning varsity starter, senior Jack Gordon.

“We work on their decision-making and execution daily, and we do it in several ways,” Sandbo said. “We do repetition in practice, putting them in various situations. Some of our drill work makes them uncomfortable and used to those situations.”

Last season, Gordon made 19 touchdown passes and was ranked 8th overall for 5A in passing yards with 1,945.

Defensive coordinator Austin Kinsbury said the defensive line is a key strength for the team.

“Our defensive line returns the most experience, with James MacKinney, Zach Calisti, Tyrus Young, and Connor Carter getting a lot of reps last year,” Kingsbury said. “They are really good football players.”

Last year Tyrus Young made the most tackles per game with an average of 6.5 and James MacKinney followed close behind with 6.4.

However, Kingsbury acknowledged that the secondary is an area of uncertainty.

“On the back end, we are inexperienced,” Kingsbury said. “That is going to be our biggest area of concern early in the season—trying to find the guys who are going to step up at corner and safety and fill those voids.”

To address these concerns, Kingsbury mentioned that they plan to implement some defensive changes.

“ We have decided to run a little more man coverage on the back end,” Kingsbury said. “We are  also going to sprinkle in some even fronts, with four-man fronts on our defensive line. We feel like it fits our players a little better, and  it will give us some options to hopefully help us scheme against some of the offenses we will see.”

Junior middle linebacker Jesus Delgado said that to play football, you must have discipline and a good mindset.

“Football is not only a physical game; it is a mental game,” Delgado said. “Every morning you are up at six, working out and lifting weights. If you break the mental barrier, I feel like everything else falls into place.”

Delgado also highlighted the importance of team camaraderie.

“If you see one person down, bring them up, because it tends to be a domino effect,” Delgado said. “If one person is down,  we are all going to be down. So if  we are all up, everybody is up.”

The Mustangs’ first game is against Salina South on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. Beyond that, one team goal is to make the playoffs.

“I would say the biggest goal is to beat South in week one and, as a team, play some football games in November,” Delgado said.