Lafayette Jeff Bronchos football: What and who to know

LAFAYETTE – Twenty years is a long time.

For every player on Lafayette Jeff’s football roster, it’s longer than their lifetime.

But that’s how long it has been since Lafayette Jeff has advanced beyond the sectional. Despite tons of recent success, no postseason trophies have been added to the luxurious Broncho locker room.

Recap

Calling 7-4 a down year last season tells you how far Lafayette Jeff’s program has come in the last half decade. In 2015, an 8-3 mark was reason to celebrate. A year later, going 6-4 in coach Pat Shanley’s first season was considered acceptable.

Then the Bronchos went 38-5 over a four season stretch leading into last year.

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Expectations changed.

“Going 7-4 is not the standard we set for our program,” Shanley said. “To these guys’ credit, they learned some valuable lessons from last year and turned the page.”

What’s new?

For starters, the schedule.

Previously a frontloaded schedule that saw nothing but inferior opponents in the latter half of the regular season, the Bronchos would typically enter a 6A sectional having blown through the final month of the season with one easy victory after another.

Now, Jeff opens its season with the perceived best team in the state when Cathedral visits Scheumann Stadium on Aug. 19. The following week is a trip to Michigan City against a Wolves team that is coming off a 9-4 season and a semistate appearance. The North Central Conference schedule also has been shaken up with some of the typical league front runners now on the back half of Jeff’s calendar.

“It is exciting. It gives you the chills,” senior receiver Abram Ritchie said. “We’ve been preparing all summer. This is a good opportunity for us. It is a lot different than what we’ve had. I like the schedule balance. We will have good teams at the beginning and end.”

Also changing is the requirements placed on the program. Previously, a 90 percent attendance in offseason workouts was required.

For the 2022 seniors, that wasn’t acceptable.

They asked Shanley to raise that to 100 percent mandatory attendance. Any missed workout must be made up.

“We hit Cathedral week one, if they do not have 100 percent throughout our offseason attendance, they will not be playing,” Shanley said. “These guys want to raise the bar. We fell short of our goals. These guys have been putting in the work to get where we want to be.”

Who to know

There’s a trio of talented quarterbacks driving the competition to succeed Brady Preston, but whoever takes over signal calling duties will be able to lean on a nice receiving corps that includes Brandon Jackson, Abram Ritchie and Asa Koeppen.

Glenn Patterson also has 1,000-yard potential out of the backfield. In just 90 carries last season as a sophomore, he rushed for 953 yards and 14 touchdowns.

The defense will get tested from the opening kickoff of the 2022 season, but has a lot of returning talent, including JoJo Houston, who had seven sacks and 23 tackles for loss at defensive end last year. Durya’ Minor racked up 123 tackles last season from his linebacker spot, then parlayed it into a strong season on the wrestling mat.

Expectations

With Merrillville no longer in the sectional, Lafayette Jeff is the probable favorite, at least entering the season, in a field that includes Crown Point, Lake Central and Portage.

It’s quite possible the Bronchos start the season with consecutive losses, just as they did a year ago.

That’s OK. The reason Lafayette Jeff bumped up its strength of schedule was to be ready for the sectional. Undefeated regular seasons were nice, but playing deep into the tournament trumps that.

“We have not won a sectional at Lafayette Jeff since 2002 and we are chasing hardware in November,” Shanley said. “That is our ultimate goal. Big goals. Big dreams and we understand it takes a lot of work to get there.”

That work has been seen and shared in unity.

“We’ve been staying on each other trying to get better, making sure we are doing the right things,” senior defensive back Latrell Hannon said. “You’ve got to have a good camaraderie. You don’t want to be looking to your left or looking to your right and thinking this guy doesn’t have my back. You want to feel like we all have each other’s back and play like it.”

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette Jeff Bronchos football: What and who to know