Is Lutheran football back? Or will Byron put the Crusaders back in their place?

The Lutheran Crusaders' football program has been on a bit of a roller-coaster ride over the decades, but it may just be hitting another exciting stretch — one that could land it in the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

Defending Class 3A state champs Byron are awaiting a visit from the Crusaders this Friday night, which could do one of three things to Lutheran's current ascent: a big loss could derail it all together; a tough loss could just be the motivation it needs; and a win could accelerate the rise altogether.

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"Is it for real?" said first-year Lutheran coach Jeff Luedke, a former assistant under Bruce Bazsali during Lutheran's glory days which started a decade ago. "I think we can win five or six games, get this group into the playoffs, and then, as you and everybody knows, anything can happen.

"But are we back? We haven't proven anything yet."

Lutheran's glory days

Luedke was an assistant at Lutheran under Bazsali from 2000-2016, and they led the Crusaders on their last playoff run. That happened to have coincided with the arrival and departure of then-budding star halfback James Robinson, who is now a growing NFL star.

Robinson rushed for an state-record-setting 9,045 yards from 2012-2015, leading Lutheran to a 42-6 record in that span, which included three straight state quarterfinal appearances. But after going 8-3 the year after Robinson left for Illinois State — and eventually the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL — the Crusaders fell on hard times.

Since Robinson graduated and Bazsali left the next year, Lutheran hasn't won more than four games in a full season. The Crusaders haven't been involved in the last four postseasons.

But then they knocked off Byron 6-0 in the 2021 spring season after COVID-19 had postponed the fall campaign. The Crusaders played only two games in that shortened season, but carried some momentum into 2021. Byron crushed Lutheran 47-19 in Week 3 last year, but then the Crusaders went 4-2 the rest of the way.

Are they back?

That led right into a season-opening upset of North Boone by a score of 20-14 on Aug. 26. Much of the rise has been fueled by multi-talented senior quarterback Kyng Hughes. But junior running back AJ Moore and sophomore wide receiver David Ballard, among others, have the Crusaders believing in the future, as well as the present.

"It's kind of been a mindset change over the past couple of years, and especially this year," said Hughes, who is 20-for-32 for 179 yards passing with a pair of touchdowns through the first two games. "It's been a team re-set. And now that we're here, it's time to make the playoffs again, and get as far as we can once we get in."

Hughes and Lutheran fell 42-20 to Genoa-Kingston last week, but they are looking to play Byron strong this week to get back on track. Byron is hungry right now, so a win on Friday will be no easy task. But a strong game? That's something they expect nowadays. Again.

"They're all tough in this conference, and we know that. We just want to be tough every week, too," Luedke said. "This game against Byron is just another opportunity to get better. We'll see. We'll just try and get better, and we'll see."

Byron is hungry, though

Lutheran will not have any chance of getting Byron with its guard down, however. Not this time.

Byron fell 15-7 in overtime to Stillman Valley in the season opener this year, but the Tigers appeared to be on a mission to get back on track last week while rolling over Winnebago 42-7.

"That was a big win for us," Byron coach Jeff Boyer said. "Our focus was to bounce back big, and coming off a tough loss, that's not always easy.

"Now we have to keep improving, and keep it going."

Byron, Boyer insists, will no way look past Lutheran. And the Tigers are on red alert after getting upended early in the season.

But Hughes and the Crusaders expect nothing but Byron's best this week. They're hoping to give it back as well.

"We've shown a lot of potential so far, but this is the game that we can really show what can happen when we play well," said Hughes, who was a backup quarterback and played a little bit in the fourth quarter when they beat Byron 6-0 back in 2021. "

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, for more than 20 years at the Register Star, and for nearly 30 years all together. He was a four-sport athlete himself, and is the father of five that went on to be jocks of some kind as well.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: IHSA football: Rockford Lutheran on the rise ahead of Byron game