Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

The Tyrone football class of 2005 ensured this season that its name forever would be mentioned with other great teams in the John Franco era – teams certainly remembered for victories and championships, but also for their character and heart.
But go back just two seasons, and words like “character” weren’t the first to come to Franco’s mind when describing the class of 2005.
Instead, he was using words like “immature,” selfish,” and occasionally “lazy.” The problem was, for all of the talent the class possessed – nine players from the group lettered their tenth grade season – it lacked the kind of drive that would make it successful in high level championship situations; and beyond that, the team had the potential, in certain areas, the be extremely good, which made some of its early success come almost too easy.
A case in point was the group’s unbeaten junior high season in 2001. As a football starved community watched the varsity team finish with a 5-5 split for the first time since 1994, its appetite was wet by a group of exciting youngsters who ran the table without a loss and won the first Big 8 junior high championship. The team was given plaques and trophies, and the community said it was destined to be the next great Franco-coached team.
That experience, along with the team’s tremendous talent, gave the class of 2005 a swagger when it arrived for Franco’s first camp in the fall of 2002, and he set out immediately to mold cockiness into quiet confidence, and individuality into teamwork.
That’s why he was as hard on the class of 2005 as any he’s had: because he had to be. And after back-to-back championship seasons that allowed Franco to become the school’s all-time winningest football coach, his method seems to make sense now.
“It was a lot of fun watching this group grow,” Franco said. “They were a fun-loving bunch, and when they first came up they were used to just being better than other teams. That can be tough when you get to high school and that just doesn’t happen anymore. By the end of their sophomore year, they realized they needed a serious commitment.”
Over 2003 and 2004, the Golden Eagles accomplished what only two other teams at Tyrone had done before them – win back-to-back District 5-6 AA championships and advance to the PIAA playoffs. Along the way, four individual and team records fell, five players made All-State teams, and a group once derided for its immaturity and selfishness matured into a unit where individuals played for each other, their school and their community.
Never was that more apparent that on November 12 at Mansion Park Stadium in Altoona. It was the District championship game – a game that, considering the expectations surrounding the 2004 team, may as well have been printed onto Tyrone’s pocket schedules – and the Eagles found themselves looking square in the eye with a crisis.
Senior Ben Gummo – perhaps the most versatile Golden Eagle in Franco’s 11 seasons, who started at four different positions, not the least of which was place kicker – was listed among those physically unable to play after tearing cartilage in his left knee a week earlier against Philipsburg-Osceola. Classmate Ralph VanAllman, a three-year starter on the offensive line, was out, as well, but he was an academic casualty. With them on the field, Tyrone’s task against a speedy Bishop McCort squad would have been difficult; without them, the situation was bleak.
That’s when the progress of the class of 2005 was most apparent. The senior class rallied the Eagles behind VanAllman, determined to give the senior at least one more game for the Orange and Black. And as for Gummo – what he did was straight out of a Hollywood movie, but if it happened on the silver screen, most of today’s sophisticated movie-going public would call it unrealistic. Gummo not only suited up to play, he started at defensive end, handled the kick-off duties, and filled his usual role as the team’s place kicker.
That didn’t seem like a wise decision after Gummo missed his first extra point, but it looked much better four quarters later after he made the last of his school-record tying three single game field goals, helping Tyrone to secure its seventh District title under Franco, 15-6. And it was all done on a plant leg that would require surgery as soon as the season ended.
A trip to the Western Finals followed, but that game stands as the high water mark in the development of this year’s senior class.
“Last season, this year’s seniors didn’t have a large senior class to learn from, so they had to learn a lot about leadership on their own, and they did,” Franco said. “They learned what it meant to have a target on your back. They kept their focus, and they grew up.”
But to place all of the success at the feet of the class of 2005 would be shortsighted. The group was aided and at times propped up by talented underclassmen, a group strong enough that, with its experiences from 2004, it will be considered a legitimate championship contender next season. The challenge will be for the football classes of 2006 and 2007 to forge for themselves the character developed by the Golden Eagle class of 2005.
Below is a recap of the key elements of the 2004 season, along with a preview of what will return in 2005.
Offensive Line
Franco for years has preached that it’s the offensive line that makes a football team go, but never was that more crystal-clear than in 2004. The Eagles returned five starters on the offensive line – three of which started since 10th grade – and were bigger and more physical than any team on their schedule.
Tyrone’s line averaged more than 250 pounds per man, and their edge in brute strength was apparent from Week 1, but the Eagles’ line was more than just a bunch of bullies – ask any coach Tyrone faced and they mentioned not only the size of Tyrone’s line, but also its athleticism. That started with senior center Terry Tate, a three-year starter who dominated the line of scrimmage. It also included VanAllman, a 295-pounder who spent a summer cutting weight to be more mobile his senior season.
Senior Ron Miller put aside his own knee injury to help anchor the line, and senior Jake Houck, though the smallest of the bunch, started for a second straight season. Senior Tad Chamberlain was perhaps the best blocking tight end in the Mountain Athletic Conference, and transfer Mike Jones used his 250-pound frame and ability to get out and run to become a regular and part-time starter in the Eagles’ line rotation.
In all, the group made it possible for Tyrone to amass 3,617 yards rushing, and average of 258 yards per game, and just 177 yards off of the single-season school record set in 1999.
In short, no team was able to stop the Eagles when they went to the ground game. The Eagles finished with 52 rushing touchdowns and out-rushed their opponents by more than 2,500 yards.
Sophomore Tyler Hoover (6-2, 300), who stepped in to start for VanAllman in the District championship game, is the player who will return on the line with the most experience. John Updike also earned valuable playing time, while sophomore Doug Morrow played often in Tyrone’s double tight end formations.
Skill Players
Were it not for a kid named Jesse Jones, who in four seasons at Tyrone gained nearly 7,000 yards on the ground and put together an unbelievable two consecutive 2,000-yard seasons, the numbers posted by senior Brice Mertiff in two-and-a-half seasons as Tyrone’s starting tailback could be placed in a more equitable perspective.
In 2004, Mertiff became the third Eagle running back to gain over 2,000 yards in a single season, piling up 2,042 on 246 carries while totaling 33 touchdowns. Only two other Eagles have scored 30 or more times in one season, and only one other Eagle – Jones – has more career rushing yards than Mertiff, who finished with 4,511 yards and 62 total touchdowns.
That means that Mertiff averaged over 1,500 yards per season since his sophomore year, a number that by itself is better than nine other rushers on Tyrone’s 1,000-yard rushing chart. And he did it in a variety of ways. He had the quickness and foot speed to elude defenders at the line of scrimmage or in the open field, and his open field vision allowed for some of the more entertaining cut-back runs in recent memory.
But Mertiff also ran with toughness and desire. In fact, his first string of 100 games – a pair of 177-yard performances in 2002 – came in back-to-back weeks against P-O and Indian Valley in a torrential downpour and its resulting slop.
But what made Tyrone’s running game as explosive as it was in 2004 was its versatility, a trademark of the best Franco rushing offenses. Take away Mertiff, and the Eagles still had junior Brinton Mingle, a bruising fullback who, on any other team, would have been at the very least a 1,500-yard rusher.
Mingle finished the season with 921 yards on 160 carries and scored 19 touchdowns, all on the ground. He gained over 100 yards four times and was the Eagles’ go-to back in short yardage situations, where his nose for the goal line or the sticks was Mark Wyland-like.
His return in 2005 assures the Eagles of another strong running attack, one that will be enhanced by the addition of Tyler Gillmen, a defensive starter as a sophomore in 2004 who, like Mertiff, was a thousand-yard rusher in junior high.
But for all Tyrone returns in terms of skill players, it loses much more. Gummo was Tyrone’s top receiver, pulling in 28 receptions for 446 yards and four touchdowns. Throw in his work as a kicker, where he converted on 50 extra points and kicked five field goals, and you begin to understand just how valuable – and underrated – Gummo was.
Chamberlain came on as a reliable force in the passing game, catching 15 receptions for 193 yards. Senior Josh Crabtree had 12 grabs for 122 yards and caught anything that was thrown in his vicinity.
With them departing, along with Mertiff, Tyrone will find a hole in its passing game worth 66 receptions and 962 yards. The lone receiver returning is junior Trey Brockett, a speedster who started for Tyrone in 2004 and ended with seven receptions for 90 yards.
Quarterback
The bright side to the Eagles’ passing game is this: in 2005, Tyrone will have a third-year starter manning the offense for only the second time in the Franco era, one that will be on the verge of rewriting the passing record books.
Leonard Wilson took over the starting job for Tyrone in 2003, three games into his sophomore season. Since then, he has completed 148 of 297 passes (49.8 percent) for 2,116 yards, 21 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. In 2004, Wilson was 83-of-165 for 1,170 yards and 10 touchdowns, while throwing only three interceptions. Two of those came in a Week 5 loss to Philipsburg-Osceola, and the other came on his last pass of the season in a PIAA Western Finals loss to Grove City.
Wilson will enter next season with several passing records within his grasp, including career passing yards, which is currently held by Tyler Mertiff, who in 2001 and 2002 threw for 2,866 yards. He will also be well within the reach of the career touchdown passes mark of 27, which is held by Jarrod Anderson, the only other three-year starter at quarterback under Franco.
But Wilson has proven himself to be more than just a passer. With 326 yards in 2004, Wilson’s career rushing mark stands at 446 yards and eight touchdowns, and his ability to move in the pocket, scramble out of trouble and make plays will be all the more valuable next season as the Eagles mold together a new offensive line through the early part of the season.
Defense
With Tate returning as a second-team All-State selection in 2003, and with eight starters back, it was obvious early that the Golden Eagles’ defense would be a dominant one. Just how dominant was never more apparent than Week 13, in the first round of the PIAA playoffs, on the road against an offense many considered the best small school unit in Pennsylvania.
Seton-LaSalle featured a state-record setting passer, a receiver chasing down national records, and a running back that had run for over 1,500 yards. The Rebels were averaging almost 40 points per game and had just won the WPIAL championship in the highest scoring game in league championship history.
Tyrone dominated the Rebels, and they made it look easy.
“To go to Pittsburgh, and beat the WPIAL champion was a phenomenal effort,” said Franco. “That will go down as one of the great wins in Tyrone history.”
Seton-LaSalle managed 167 yards in total offense, but most of that came on a 65-yard scoring drive to open the game. After that, even getting back to the line of scrimmage became a chore against the Eagles. Tyrone intercepted Bill Stull three times and held him 141 yards below his per game average, while star receiver Carmen Connolly was a non-factor, making just four receptions for 40 yards.
The Golden Eagles stopped LaSalle behind the line of scrimmage seven times and limited the Rebels to four possessions of four plays or less. Mingle had two interceptions, Crabtree came up with another, and Stull spent most of his night trying to elude Tyrone pass rushers, who got to him four times, including sacks by Tate, Gummo and Hoover.
That was a single game that showed just how good the Eagles’ defense was, but it was just another spoke in a wheel that consistently turned out dominant performances week after week. For the season, Tyrone limited teams to 161 yards per game, 78.6 of which came on the ground. Tyrone forced 29 turnovers and held their opponents to just 7.9 points per game while recording three shutouts.
Tyrone recorded 81 stops for negative yardage, led by Tate, who had 21. Gummo led the team with 6.5 sacks as part of 17 tackles for loss, while Hoover also reached double-figures in negative yardage stops with 10.
Many of the key figures from this year’s defense will be gone next season, most notably Gummo and Tate, who was named to the AP’s Class AA All-State first team as a defensive lineman. But the defense won’t be hit quite as hard as the offense. Returning are Wilson, who led the team with five takeaways (three interceptions), Mingle, a three-year starter who had two takeaways and six stops for loss, and Gillmen, who in his sophomore season started 13 games at cornerback.
Also returning are Brockett and junior Robert Emigh, who was third on the team with three sacks, along with Morrow, who has started at defensive end since being moved up as a freshman.
“We lost a lot of talent, but we have a nice nucleus coming back,” Franco said. “I believe any kid can make himself a great high school player by being committed, working hard, and wanting it badly enough. We set high standards, and this is where tradition comes in to play. We need kids who want to be a part of something special.”
EAGLE NOTES: Over two seasons as starters, the class of 2005 finished 23-4, with two District championships … Mertiff was Tyrone’s other AP All-State first-teamer, making it as a running back …for the season, Tyrone set records for field goals in a game and career (Gummo, 3 and 10), touchdowns in a single game (Mertiff, 6 against Purchase Line), and allowed Franco to overtake Steve Jacobs as Tyrone’s all-time winningest coach.

By Rick