Countdown to kickoff: Chargers intent on ending playoff drought with tenacity and toughness

Coverage of the Illini West football program brought to you by:

CARTHAGE, Ill. — The Illini West football program is stuck in the middle, and Chargers coach Jacob Calvin senses the urgency to change that.

“These kids are tired of it,” Calvin said.

The Chargers head into this season looking to snap a playoff drought that matches the longest in school history — four consecutive times — and haven’t been to the postseason since 2018, when they were 10-0 before bowing out in the second round to Sterling Newman Central Catholic.

“They want to do something themselves,” Calvin said. “They don’t want to be that team that goes 4-5.”

Each of the last three seasons, the Chargers entered the final week of the regular season with a chance to earn a playoff spot with a victory.

They lost each time.

Last fall, the Chargers dropped their Week Nine game 29-26 to Moweaqua Central A&M to fall to 4-5 and narrowly miss out on the postseason by a matter of a few playoff points. Six teams with 4-5 records made the field of 256 playoff qualifiers.

What makes that pill even tougher to swallow is how close the Chargers were to winning that game and punching their ticket to the playoffs.

First-team All-Lincoln Trail-Prairieland Conference running back Ian Bentzinger put the Chargers in front 26-21 on a 62-yard touchdown run with two minutes left in regulation. With less than a minute remaining, Raiders quarterback Emmett Stenger connected with Maddix Plain for the game-winning — and the Chargers’ season-ending — touchdown.

Defensive end Roan Jackson and the Chargers were understandably deflated.

“That last game just ripped our hearts out,” said Jackson, a senior. “To have the chance to bring the first playoff berth in four years is a big deal. This program brings a lot of legacy, so to be able to go to the playoffs consistently was a big thing for us.”

But that deflation has turned into hunger.

“We don’t want to worry about the naysayers, we just have to worry about us,” Jackson said. “This is a very important year for us. We have a lot to prove.”

Senior linebacker Justin Baxter has confidence the Chargers will do that.

“It’s infuriating as a player because we know that we had a chance to win every single game, but it’s a ‘what if’ scenario — What if we did this? What if we did that?” Baxter said. “It’s got to be certain, and I believe we can round that out this year.”

Week 1 foe offers immediate test

You’ve got to beat the best to be the best. The Chargers are reminded of that on a daily basis.

“Every day in the weight room, we have Farmington up on the TV screen. We look at that picture every day,” Jackson said of the Farmers, the reigning Lincoln Trail-Prairieland Conference champions who beat the Chargers 39-12 in last season’s opener. “If we beat them, we prove to the rest of the conference that we’re here. We show what kind of team we are.”

The Chargers face the Farmers in Week 1 at Fuzz Berges Field.

“It’s going to be tough, but it’s going to be a great matchup this year because our kids are hungry to get out there and show people that they’re a different team,” Calvin said.

Senior quarterback Max Kinnamon said the first game is a prime opportunity to make amends for what could have been in 2023.

“We have bottled up emotions from last year and week one is the first time to prove what we could have done last year,” Kinnamon said.

Johnson, Knotts to shoulder backfield load

Bentzinger blazed a trail on the football field and the track during his senior season. He amassed 1,106 yards rushing on 119 carries and scored 13 touchdowns last fall. He followed that up in the spring by finishing fourth in the 100-meter dash and fifth in the 200 at the Class 1A state track and field championships.

Replacing Bentzinger’s speed and power will be a difficult task. Calvin believes the Chargers have plenty of horses in the stable, including senior Nick Johnson and junior Isaiah Knotts.

“It’ll be by committee, and if one guy takes the lead, that’s great, but I think we have multiple guys who can step into that role and not have to focus on one guy,” Calvin said. “As a defense, it’s pretty easy to say ‘We have to tackle Ian,’ but if you have multiple guys, that makes it tougher on defenses to key on one person.”

Johnson, who had 11 touchdowns in 2023, will begin the season as the Chargers’ starting tailback.

“Nick is probably our best all-around player,” Calvin said. “He’s a physical kid who isn’t afraid of contact. He is pretty shifty and can catch the ball well out of the backfield.”

The best comparison to Bentzinger in terms of strength and explosiveness is Knotts, who has run a 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds and squatted 405 pounds.

“Isaiah Knotts is probably one of the most physical kids in the area,” Calvin said. “I’ve seen him suplex kids. He plays with anger.”

Knotts, who also plays linebacker, wasn’t too pleased with the lack of contact when the Chargers participated in Quincy University sprint football’s 7-on-7 camp this June.

“He was getting upset because we weren’t running the ball. I was like, ‘Dude, it’s passing stuff,’ and he’s like, ‘I’d rather just run them over,’” Calvin said. “There would be kids who would catch a pass in front of him and he’s got to do a two-hand touch on them. That’s not his style.”

Knotts packs all this punch in a 5-foot-7, 165-pound frame.

“He’s not the biggest kid, but he hits, and he’s our best blocker,” Calvin said. “Other kids see that, and they don’t want to be the guy who gets put in the ground. They have to raise their level as well.”

Johnson said he and Knotts will form a potent 1-2 punch out of the Chargers’ backfield.

“Isaiah is a very powerful back with a ton of speed,” Johnson said. “With us complementing each other’s abilities, it allows for a lot of room for creativity in play calling.”

Defense expects to take big strides 

Now that Jackson has adapted to a different stance at defensive end, he thinks the sky is the limit for the leaps he could make during his senior season.

“I played a standing defensive end position for most of my JV years,” Jackson said. “Going down to a downstance my junior year was kind of a shock but after the first game I felt more comfortable. I felt like I was more explosive.”

While there was a bit of a learning curve at first, Jackson anticipates an even better season than last, one in which he was the Chargers’ second leading tackler.

“I wasn’t used to getting that low,” Jackson said. “I have to adjust my feet, I have to pinch, I have to do a lot of new things. And we had a big offensive line last year, and there were some days where I was like ‘I don’t know if I can do this’, but the more I worked at it, the more comfortable I got. After I got used to getting off the ball, it just came easy.

“I believe I will take a big step this year and mean more to the defense than ever.”

Johnson will lead the linebacking corps.

“(Johnson) is great in space,” Calvin said. “He played outside linebacker for us last year and we moved him inside because of his ability to chase down the ball and make plays.”

Baxter, who will join Johnson, Brady Blanton, Shawn Watkins, and Stephen Sparks at linebacker, sharpened his pass coverage skills at QU sprint football’s 7-on-7 camp.

“I used to really suffer at getting hands on receivers,” Baxter said. “Jamming is a new thing we’re adding to the linebackers this year, jamming the No. 2 and 3 receivers if they come inside, being really vocal about if they’re going in or going out, calling out the routes.”

In the secondary, Kinnamon, Tre Neiderman, and Khile Stonger anchor what Baxter anticipates to be an improved pass defense.

“It will be a strength of this team, 100 percent,” Baxter said. “We have a lot of good corners. The linebackers are really rounded out, and Max has what it takes to play free safety.”