CULLMAN, Ala. – It’s August, and that means it’s just about time to kick things off and get football season underway. All of our local teams have begun their fall camps and at Cullman High School, the Bearcats have been hard at work preparing for their season opener on Aug. 22.
Danny Stiff is entering his second season as the head coach at Cullman and after finishing the regular season 5-5 and earning a postseason berth last year, he’s looking forward to seeing what his team can do in year two. Stiff says the familiarity with the returning players has made things easier in the preseason this time around.
“Last year I had been with the kids a lot before we played but you never really know people until you get into a game environment. I’ve seen a lot of these guys play a lot of football, but it was hard for me not having spring training in pads and kind of waiting to do that now,” Stiff said. “I think the comfort of the players with what we do schematically and the understanding of not only the plays but the reason we run the plays and the concepts behind them I think is a little more advanced than it was last year when everything was new to them. So, we’ve got some guys coming back that understand it a lot better and when your players know it well, they can pull other players aside and they’ll ask questions that they won’t ask me. When their peers know the right answers that helps everybody along.”
Identifying leadership within the team is very important to Stiff and he’s been pleased to see several new and returning players step into those roles as the season approaches.
“We have leaders back that were leaders last year as juniors too, like Ben Conway. He was the only guy that was a junior that was a team captain last year and the rest of them were seniors so he already kind of had that role and then it’s about the other guys that will step up. Sometimes it happens naturally and sometimes you’re forced into leadership roles because of your role as a player on the team. I think of someone like Cooper Ogstad who’s a quiet person that doesn’t have a lot of confrontation to him but he’s going to have to learn lead in his own way because whether he likes it or not, he is a leader of the team,” Stiff said. “So, you just have to remind guys like that that people are watching your actions and watching what you do. It just is that way. Some people step up and are more vocal and then some guys say things in the locker room or other settings, and everyone is different. I think when you have the right environment and atmosphere for guys to be comfortable doing that, you’ll have someone rise up every year. That part happens kind of naturally and then you have to fill the holes as the head coach and step in when you need to, but you want them to lead the team.”
The Bearcats will have to replace a lot of offensive production from last year’s team but Stiff feels a lot better about that when he sees how much the offensive line has improved and who is returning at skill positions.
“The first group that pops into my head is the offensive line because I can remember the day we started our two hour practices in our first spring last year and seeing them and thinking, ‘holy moly, we’ve got a long way to go.’. That’s a critical position and those guys got so much better between that first day out there and the fall. So now we fast forward a year and we still have four of those guys. We kind of look at them as the rock of the team and I thought about it during spring this year how much better we feel about the offensive line and how big of a positive it is now. At receiver we lose Wyatt Buchanan, and he was a huge part of the offense and an awesome football player. Cooper Ogstad is going to have to step up and he has a lot of experience, and he can do it. He was just kind of behind Wyatt last year in terms of who Tanner (Gaines) was going to look at. Cooper made some huge plays in his own right in some clutch situations, so we know he’s got that in him and he’s just going to have handle being the guy and I think he’s ready for that.”
Stiff is excited about some of the new additions to the Bearcat backfield as well.
“We’re determined to have people that can run the football this year, several of them. One guy that has really stood out is Cooper Loftin. He’s a big guy, plays baseball and came back out to play football this year for the first time since ninth grade and he’s a big guy that can move,” Stiff said. “He’s one of the fastest guys on the team and we haven’t seen him in pads yet but with his size and the way he moves I doubt that’s going to be anything I’ll be disappointed with. He’s a really good kid that’s eager to learn and eager to be coached.”
The ‘Cats will be hungry to topple their rivals like Harstelle and Jasper and get back to the playoffs once again but something else Stiff will be looking for this season is the way his team plays. He wants to see consistency and efficiency as the season goes on.
“I want to see the maturity and growth of execution in games. I think if we take all of our kids’ best plays in practice or their best plays in games and we find a way to make those more consistently, I think we’ll be a much better football team,” Stiff said. “I think that just comes from practice habits and you’ve got to be at the speed and the attention and focus of a game in practice so that when we get out there for a game, it’s not the first time you’ve had to do that. That’s where you press every day as a coach to try to get them playing at that speed. I pick on those things everyday so that it makes them practice in more of a game-like environment and they get more comfortable. That sounds easy, but it’s very hard. It’s very hard to mentally do that, it’s hard to physically push yourself to do that. We’re just trying to reach that point and want to make people beat us. I want to make somebody beat us without us beating ourselves. Don’t give it to them. That’s been our biggest emphasis that I’ve been thinking about probably every day since last November.”
2024 Cullman Bearcats Football Schedule
Aug. 22 – @ Bob Jones
Aug. 30 – vs. Mortimer Jordan
Sept. 6 – vs. Athens*
Sept. 13 – @ Jasper*
Sept. 20 – @ Muscle Shoals*
Sept. 27 – @ Brewer
Oct. 4 – vs. Hartselle*
Oct. 11 – vs. Columbia*
Oct. 18 – @ Decatur*
Oct. 25 – vs. Buckhorn
*region game
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