The traditional John Franco probably won’t be changing the Golden Eagles’ standard game uniform anytime soon. But if there were to be an adjustment for 2007, it could be changing the orange “T” on the side of the Eagles’ helmets to a question mark.
That’s because Tyrone in 2007 will face about as much uncertainty as any season since 2001, when the Eagles went 5-5 and lost in the first round of the District 6-AA playoffs for the first time under Franco.
It may not appear that way on the outside. After all, 1,000-yard rusher Johnny Franco is back after scoring 27 touchdowns his junior season. Receiver Shayne Tate is back with 255 receiving yards. Johnny Shaffer returns after kicking 54 extra-points and registering six sacks.
But for every two-way starter back for the Eagles, there’s a position open that was vacated by a two-year starter. For every player returning with career statistics in 2006, there’s a void left by someone who’s numbers were just as impressive.
“We’re looking to rebuild at almost every position,” Franco said. “We’ll basically have to put the whole team back together again next year. It’s tough because we have a small junior class. The juniors that played this season were outstanding, but there just weren’t very many of them.”
If they all return, this season’s 10 juniors will compose the TAHS football class of 2007. Franco, Tate, defensive back Shane Emigh and defensive lineman Josh Bradley were starters, while receiver Steve Catich and lineman Nick Wilson were in the regular rotation. Jesse Walk, Brandon Gehret, Brock Anders and Dustin Rudasill played on special teams.
What that amounts to is a need to replace almost the entire starting offensive line, the quarterback, one receiver, one running back, half the secondary, most linebackers and almost half of the defensive line.
And with just 10 juniors returning, where do you start?
Franco, while starting with his juniors, understands that he’s going to need a lot of help from this year’s sophomores, and even next year’s 10th grade class.
“We’re going to need big contributions from our sophomore class,” said Franco. “Some of them got some playing time this season, but they’re going to have to step up.”
That includes Shaffer – who will also see time next season at tight end – as well as Matt Murray, who became a starter on the offensive line early in the season.
Mark Mingle saw significant action in the backfield early in the season after Johnny Bartlett went down for the season with a knee injury, and defensive tackle Jordan Good emerged late as a serious force opposite all-state lineman Tyler Hoover on the defensive line.
On the bright side, there’s plenty of play-making ability in Franco, Tate and Shaffer. Franco’s 1,651 yards amounted to the fifth best single season effort by a Tyrone rusher, and Shaffer’s extra-point total was the second-best single-season total at Tyrone.
But the main concern will be replacing quarterback Tyler Golden, who in his only season as a starter threw for over 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns. Freshman Levi Reihart is an option, as is Steve Walker, who starred at the position in junior high last season.
According to coach Franco, his son Johnny – who threw for two touchdowns last season – is also an option, although nothing is in the works as of yet.
“It’s too early to say,” Franco said. “We’ll see who develops over the summer. It’s something that’s going to take a while to play out and evaluate.”
On defense, Tate and Emigh return in the secondary after junior seasons that saw them combine for four interceptions, while playing the run as well as any defensive backs in the MAC.
Franco – with five takeaways in 2006 – returns at linebacker, while Wilson, Bradley and Good return with experience on the line.
Coach Franco said one of the major keys to next season will be the example set by those who earned playing time last season, and followed an example set by a strong senior class.
“They’ve had great role models,” Franco said. “They saw the example set by kids who really developed into good players between their junior and senior seasons. They’ve got to see that and realize it’s their turn to be leaders and to try to put the best team on the field. We’ll need big contributions from the sophomore and junior class.”
John Franco has been the head football coach at Tyrone for 13 years, and nine of his seasons have produced 10 wins.
Eight of his teams have advanced to the District 6 championship game, 11 have spent time ranked among the top 10 Class AA schools in Pennsylvania.
In that way, the Golden Eagles of 2006 were no different from many of their predecessors. They finished 12-1, played for the District 6-AA title, and for the better part of the year were ranked in the top 5 statewide.
But when you examine their accomplishments within the context of the slings and arrows that beset the team from the first week of summer practice, one question remains unanswered: how did they do that?
“I think you’ve got to credit the seniors,” said Franco. “It was a great senior group attitude-wise. We knew if we were going to do anything, they were really going to have to be tough and we would need their best effort.”
The season started with injuries to a pair of three-year starters that had running back Tyler Gillmen out for the first three games of the season and tight end Doug Morrow out for nine. Then, in Week 2 against Huntingdon, senior running back Johnny Barlett went down for the season with a torn ACL.
Those injuries could have easily stretched an already thin line up to its breaking point. The Eagles returned just four starters on offense and five on defense.
Instead, they galvanized a group of players who had been patiently waiting their turn, and forced those players who did have experience to play at a level beyond even what they may have thought possible.
“No one cared who the star was. Everyone was concerned with their role,” Franco said. “A lot of times you have teams where someone is not happy with their playing time or their carries, but this team was excellent at accepting roles – and not just accepting it but diving into it. With that kind of attitude, you can build a lot.”
By winning its first two games of the season against the two toughest opponents on the schedule – the Eagles defeated Bellwood-Antis 16-0 and Huntingdon 35-13 – Tyrone did more than simply buy time until some of their veterans got healthy. Rather, they began to build an identity of their own, one that took shape around senior two-time First Team All-State tackle Tyler Hoover, senior linebacker-lineman James Updike, junior running back Johnny Franco, and the passing tandem of quarterback Tyler Golden and receiver Justin Schopp – two players who had spent most of their boyhood playing pitch and catch, but who were doing so on the varsity level for the first time.
By the time Tyrone’s remarkable run ended in November with a 38-27 loss to Bishop McCort in the District championship, Hoover and Updike had combined for 22 tackles for loss, Franco had rushed for the fifth-highest single season total in school history, and Schopp had become the school’s single-season receiving yards leader, thanks to an effort by Golden that amounted to the second-highest single-season passing total at Tyrone.
Along the way, the Eagles won some big games. On September 22, Tyrone walloped Bald Eagle Area 35-14 in the first game back for Gillmen, who ran eight times for 64 yards, caught three passes for 68 yards, and scored three touchdowns.
One week later, the Eagles overwhelmed Philipsburg-Osceola 31-0 in a game between the last two unbeaten teams in the MAC Nittany Division. On November 3, the Eagles beat once-beaten Johnstown – the No. 2 seed in the Class AAA playoffs – 35-7, and they advanced to the District title game with a lopsided 46-22 win over rival Forest Hills.
Along with the big wins came big numbers and individual performances. Franco became the 14th Golden Eagle to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark for a single season with 1,651 yards on 223 carries while scoring 27 touchdowns, including a career-high 222 yards on 23 carries against Penns Valley in Week 9.
Despite missing nearly a quarter of the season, Gillmen managed to run for 915 yards on 133 carries and score 17 touchdowns. He and Franco went over 100 yards rushing in the same game four times, while combining for 333 receiving yards.
But the key to Tyrone’s proficiency on offense may well have been the emergence of Golden and Schopp. In his first season as a varsity starter, Golden completed 79 of 142 passes for 1,476 yards and 14 touchdowns, while throwing just three interceptions. He passed for over 200 yards twice, including a career-high 233 yards against Huntingdon.
His yardage total places him just behind Tyler Mertiff, who in 2002 threw for 1,595 yards, while his touchdown total puts him behind Brandon Hoover, who tossed 16 touchdown completions in 1999.
Schopp, meanwhile, grew into as good a two-way performer in the area as there was anywhere. As a receiver, he hauled in 39 passes for 908 yards, the best single-season total in school history. He also tied a record shared by Buddy Daughenbaugh (1995) and Aaron Jeffries (2002) with 10 touchdown receptions.
On defense, Schopp was responsible for nine interceptions.
Hoover – a first team all-state defensive tackle in 2005 and 2006 – finished his season with 18 tackles for loss and 10 sacks, despite facing double and triple teams most games. He finished his career with 17.5 sacks and 42 tackles for loss, and the attention he gained as a senior opened up the field for teammates like sophomore Johnny Shaffer and senior Jason Reese to shine. Reese finished with 9.5 sacks and Shaffer six.
“We had a lot of kids who stepped up and made big plays, and it seemed like it was someone different every game,” said Franco.
It was the 10th unbeaten regular season in school history, and the fifth under Franco. It completed a string of back-to-back unbeaten regular seasons for the first time since 1996-1997, the third time in school history the feat was accomplished.
The team also posted the program’s 17th 10-win season, while running its regular-season unbeaten streak to 22 games, seven shy of the school record of 29 set from 1946-1948.
