21 teams in 21 days: Bishop Brossart football preview

Paul Wiggins can’t say enough about the growth of Bishop Brossart’s football program over his tenure.

The Mustangs won one game his first season as head coach in 2014. But since then, the Mustangs have had just one losing season. They’ve taken big steps over the last three seasons with three consecutive district championships and going 25-8 during that stretch, including a 12-win season in 2021.

“We still have a way to go. But we are definitely trending in the right direction,” Wiggins said. “That’s due to a lot of hard work from players and coaches. If you’re going to wear a Mustang jersey, that comes with an expectation of hard work and discipline.”

Bishop Brossart finished 9-3 last year, making it back to the second round of the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. Their season ended with a 42-16 loss to Paintsville. Between Paintsville and Pikeville, those are the last three Class A state champions.

“Those are always going to be difficult because some of those mountain teams are engineered for football, just plain and simple,” Wiggins said. “At other schools, you have to share the athletes more than what happens at other schools.”

Brossart graduated 13 seniors from 2022 including their top passer, top four rushers and six of their top seven pass-catchers from last year. The biggest producer was Evan Orth, who rushed for 741 yards and seven touchdowns and caught seven passes for 117 yards and a touchdown.

Brossart lists 42 players on the roster this year. The biggest return is junior quarterback Keegan Gulley, hoping to jumpstart an offense that tallied 195 yards per game last season. Gulley’s play was limited after he started the season-opening win at Dayton last year, but suffered a concussion in that game and did not play the rest of the season.

“We just need to compete. Everyone has to do his job and we’ll be alright,” Gulley said. “We have a lot of plays that I think will work against a lot of defenses. I think we’ll do well. We’ve put in a lot of hard work in the offseason and I think we’re going to be really prepared for this season.”

Wiggins listed the offensive and defensive lines as the team’s strength so far. Seniors Jantzen Wittrock, Derek Smith and Nathan Heck lead the way there. Wiggins said junior Landon Geyer and Cameron Mandel could take handoffs from Gulley at running back. Senior wide receiver Alex Amin is the team’s leading returning pass-catcher with six receptions for 160 yards and two touchdowns last year. Wiggins also said senior wide receiver Luke Schroeder could make impact in the passing game.

“We do have a lot of skills guys that logged a lot of time,” Wiggins said. “Even though we lost running backs and whatever, we have some experience. So it’s not like we’re putting a lot of guys out there who haven’t seen the field a lot. They may not have started. But they got a lot of (playing time).”

Brossart’s defense allowed 15.5 points per game, able to show playmaking ability with 23 turnovers forced, 15 of them interceptions. The Mustangs expect to employ multiple fronts. Geyer, Schroeder, Amin and senior Henry Goering expect to make an impact at linebacker. Mandel and sophomore Nick Cozzi will be slotted in at defensive back.

“We’ve been practicing as hard as we can getting our fundamentals down,” Goering said. “You have to see the offensive line’s footwork to see what they’re doing whether it’s a run or pass play. Then you have to get past that. We have a lot of strong new players coming up.”

The landscape of district play has changed quite a bit for the Mustangs. Instead of heading south down the AA, they’ll play much closer to home in Class 1A, District 4 action against Ludlow, Holy Cross and Trimble County. Old district foes Paris and Nicholas County are still on the non-district schedule. The Mustangs play host to Walton-Verona to open the season Aug. 18.

District play starts on October 6 in consecutive weeks when they host Holy Cross followed by road tilts with Ludlow and Trimble.

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