Inside Michigan high school football's wild Southeastern Conference race
Both divisions of the Southeastern Conference suffered quavering results last week that have changed the conference races.
Temperance Bedford, which had two losses, stunned previously unbeaten Saline, 7-0, to put a damper on what should have been a winner-take-all Red Division showdown Friday when Dexter hosts Saline.
Saline, which had its conference consecutive victory string snapped at 50, now needs to win to force a co-championship. But this game was supposed to feature two unbeaten teams.
The White Division was put to bed when Tecumseh shocked defending Division 4 state champ Chelsea, 50-34, for its first league title since 1991.
This was an amazing victory for Tecumseh, which had lost eight straight to Chelsea, the class program in the White.
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This was startling because Tecumseh (7-0, No. 7 in Division 4) has not finished above .500 since 2013 and had totaled eight wins in the previous four seasons.
Amassing 50 points against Chelsea was surprising, but that is what the offense can do with Jake Burns at quarterback. He completed 34 of 41 passes for 366 yards and two touchdowns.
“What people saw was offensively we give people problems and our quarterback has the ability to extend play and when that happened it kind of turns into backyard football a little bit,” Tecumseh coach Greg Dolson said. “They struggled covering guys when we got on the edge and we took advantage of that.”
Making Burns’ performance even more meaningful is that he has a separated AC joint in his left shoulder and his only practice time last week came on Thursday.
“The doctor said it was stable and he could play, it just depended on how much pain he could tolerate,” Dolson said. “He played the whole game. It was amazing. I’ve never seen a kid do that. He wouldn’t let us take him out.”
Burns has some excellent targets in Gavin Chenevey, who caught 11 passes for 96 yards and tight end Ryder Zajac, who has eight receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown.
Throw in the running of AJ Bryan, who gained 182 yards and scored five touchdowns, and Tecumseh has a varied offense that gives defensive coordinators migraines.
“We had some gaudy numbers against a Chelsea team that... Grant Fanning is one of the best defensive coordinators,” Dolson said. “For us to be able to do that was beyond impressive.”
Offensive coordinator Al Romano has proven to be a calming influence; and not just for the Tecumseh offense.
We don’t mean to imply that Romano is old, but he coached Erie Mason to the 1987 state championship. He has also been a head coach at Adrian and Tecumseh before coming back as an assistant.
“When you have young offensive coordinators and they have something that is working, sometimes they go away from that because they know it’s working and they can come back to it,” Dolson said. “Al’s old enough and wise enough to know that he’ll keep taking what’s working and he stays with it.
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“He’s fantastic with the kids. He’s changed what we’ve done in the weight room. He’s brought a lot to us.”
This is Dolson’s seventh season as head coach. He came from Gibraltar Carlson, where he coached under Kent Sikora and he played for and coached under Ron Adams in Taylor.
“I’ve never seen a guy whose more competitive and driven than Ron,” said Dolson. “A lot of what I do with the kids in terms of character-building, it all comes from Ron. A lot of who I am and what I do program-wise is all rooted in what Ron has done over the years.”
Tecumseh led 28-27 at halftime, but permitted only one touchdown in the second half and maintained a two-score margin much of the half thanks to an offense that totaled 579 yards.
“I couldn’t believe we could run the ball the way that we did,” Dolson said. “We were just moving the ball at our pace. At the end of the game, we really took advantage of that.”
Ready for a new challenge
Walking off the field after losing to Traverse City Central in the Division 2 semifinals, Caledonia coach Derek Pennington knew the season was not an aberration.
He was confident the Fighting Scots would return with possibly an even better team this year, his second as head coach.
“We knew we returned a lot of skill, but we did have some concerns like replacing linemen,” he said. “The year of experience with all of our skill has probably outweighed anything we lost in the line and we’ve had some kids step up in the line.”
Players have stepped up all over the joint for Caledonia, which is 7-0 and ranked No. 2 in Division 1.
The Caledonia program has had some roller coaster success over the years. The highwater mark came in 2005 when it won the Division 3 state title and lost in the semifinals the next season.
Then the Fighting Scots moved up to Division 2 and the state playoff success was limited before suffering through five consecutive losing seasons before Pennington arrived and the cupboard was not bare.
Leading the way was quarterback Mason McKenzie, who has been amazing running the spread offense, which bears a remarkable resemblance to the offense run by Ferris State.
“To be honest, we’ve got some players,” said Pennington, who had a successful 13-year run at Zeeland East before moving to Caledonia. “Our backfield is pretty special, starting with Mason. I’ve been in the spread offense running what I would call a dual read quarterback when they run it and throw it.
“I’ve had some real good ones for the last 15 years and I would say Mason is definitely the best kid I’ve ever had. He’s a 4.5 40 kid.”
Junior Brock Townsend is a 6-feet-2, 220-pound back who tears through the line of scrimmage. And then there is Derek Pennington Jr., who is the H-back and is a threat running and catching the ball.
Throw in slot receiver and Coach Pennington isn’t kidding about having players.
“We have a lot of explosive players on offense and Mason’s done a great job distributing the ball and we’ve done a pretty good job balancing that out,” he said. “Our offensive line replaced three guys and they’ve done a great job jelling together. We’re a little different in the O-Line than last year. We’re quicker, we’re not quite as big as we were last year, but I think we move better.
“There’s just a lot of fast guys on offense.”
Caledonia is also faster this season on defense, where Blake Herron is a standout linebacker.
The Fighting Scots have benefited from playing in the OK Red, one of the top conferences in the state. But now they will be competing in the Division 1 playoffs.
If you can survive the OK Red, you should be able to hang in the D-1 playoffs.
“You just go through those games every week and it’s a grind and you get beat up every week,” Pennington said of the Red. “We were a little banged up after going through Hudsonville, Grandville and then Kentwood. We beat Kentwood 29-0, but Kentwood beat Brother Rice and then next Brother Rice beat De La Salle.”
Caledonia has always supported its athletic teams, but the support for this team is off the charts.
Pennington said its home side stands seats 8,500 people and the visitors’ side handles another 1,500 and good luck finding a seat if you’re late.
“There’s a lot of excitement and energy arounds here,” Pennington said. “We played Kentwood and it was our homecoming and we had around 15,000 people in the stadium. We’re getting 10,000 to 15,000 here on a regular basis. And who knows what that Rockford game Week 9 at our place will look like.”
It will look like another terrific crowd in a community what revolves around the school and its athletic events, especially football.
“Kids want to play football in Caledonia and the community supports it,” Pennington said. “That’s huge because it’s not like that everywhere. There’s very few towns that are putting out 10,000 to just a regular home game.”
There is no such thing as just a regular home game at Caledonia this season.
Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Save $10 on his new book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” by ordering right now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Inside MHSAA football's wild Southeastern Conference race
