June 18, 2023 at 8:10 a.m.
Hodag football mixing things up in bounceback effort
Hodag football mixing things up in bounceback effort
The Hodags are eager to get back to their winning ways and their official offseason program kicked off last Wednesday with the first of five coaching contact days the team is allotted during the summer.
That led into the first day of the Northwoods 7-on-7 Passing League on Thursday and will continue through the summer with open turf and weight lifting sessions prior to the team's four-day camp in mid-July.
"The kids are answering the call," Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. "They know they have a task after last season to kind of go after it and go get it."
One of the big transformations that appears to be taking place during the offseason is in the offense. Kraemer is back to calling plays while last year's offensive coordinator, Luke Roberts, will serve as the passing game coordinator and work with the quarterbacks.
"He's going to be the passing game eyes up in the booth, the if/then coach, which is important for our offense. We know who's making the tackle then we know how to attack that particular player," Kraemer said. "It's not that I'm demoting him, rather changing what his position is. I'll be the person calling it on to the field."
Kraemer also hinted the team will move away from the spread pistol attack it used last year in an effort to be less predictable in the run game.
"We had an H-back in the backfield that keyed where we were going to run the football," Kraemer explained. "If our tailback, if we had a hurt tailback or our tailback wasn't have a good game, teams could tee off on us because that was kind of the player in our system.
"We're going to try to spread the ball around a little bit more, to more players and get more players actively involved in the offense. We want the ability to get the ball to 5-to-6 players on any down. If they're not a lineman, we want the opportunity to get them the football in ways that confuse the defense."
Kraemer will also to continue to call the defensive plays, a role he took on last year after longtime coordinator Gary Zarda stepped away. That's a lot on the fifth-year head coach's plate, but he said the key will be to delegate to his position coaches during the week and put it all together, schematically, on Friday nights.
"You're going to see a lot of me trust in my position coaches to do what they need to do during practice and then me kind of bring it all together with the tackling, with turnovers and, on offense, blocking," he said.
On the defensive side of the football, Rhinelander will try to improve a defense that was last in both points and yards allowed in the GNC last season. While the team still plans to use its base 3-4 formation, Kraemer said the goal is to make some tweaks that will get both safeties more involved in stopping the run. Rhinelander gave up a GNC-worst 234.9 yards per game on the ground last year.
"One of the reasons we had a hard time with the run is we felt like our safety on the backside wasn't getting involved as much as he needs to," he said. "We're going to make a small change and shift in role, but it won't change the way we look defensively. We're still an odd (front) defense and that's the way we're going to roll."
While Wednesday's contact day was right before the start of 7-on-7, Kraemer said the day was less about preparing for five-week league that includes Lakeland, Tomahawk and Northland Pines, and more about getting a head start on installing the base offense and defense for the season.
"With an offensive change and our defense, small tweaks, we want to make sure our kids understand the base ways to align," he said. "As long as they understand spacing and where to align, formationally, then we can take our time installing the actual plays we're going to run during the season."
Most of last year's coaching staff remains intact. Kraemer noted the team has brought in former Wausau East assistant Rich Luedke to work with the middle linebackers and Taylor Kloehn will be back on the varsity staff after working at the JV2 level last year to help on the defensive side of the ball.
Hodag Football's team camp will take place July 17-20. Kraemer noted that, like last year, Crandon will join Rhinelander for two days during the camp. The first day of fall practice will be Aug. 1. Rhinelander will open the 2023 season at Tomahawk Aug. 18.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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