Schuckman: Blue Devils adjust to role of having to protect WB6 crown as league play begins

QUINCY — The hunted, not the hunter.

That’s the role the Quincy High School football program is embracing.

Rarely has there been a season since the Western Big 6 Conference was formed in the early 1970s where the Blue Devils were the odds-on favorite to win the league title. As league play kicks off Friday night, Quincy isn’t merely the reigning WB6 champion. It’s the prohibitive favorite to repeat. 

That hasn’t happened around here in half a century and an opportunity the Blue Devils don’t want to let pass by.

“We can’t show the other teams that we’re susceptible to being beaten,” junior linebacker Ben Schelp said. “We need to get out of the gate with a big win.”

So there is a sense of urgency and pressure with Rock Island coming to Flinn Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Friday for the league lidlifter. Quincy hasn’t opened its WB6 slate against Rocky since 2015 when the Rocks won 30-28. Since then, the Blue Devils have won five of the seven meetings, including a 41-7 victory last season.

With the Rocks sitting 0-2, there will be a sense of urgency for them to change the course of their season and their program. Rocky has only one playoff victory since 2016 and has missed the playoffs the past two seasons.

“They will be hungry to win and to beat us,” QHS coach Rick Little said.

A determined opponent is the kind the Blue Devils need to face.

“I want to create pressure,” Little said. “You have to be threatened. You have to feel your opponent is going to threaten you. That’s the feeling I feel each and every week.”

Every opponent wants to take something away, be it the Blue Devils’ conference crown or the swagger that comes with success.

Quincy has won 14 consecutive regular-season games and nine consecutive WB6 games — the longest streaks in program history. The Blue Devils are ranked ninth in the latest Class 7A state poll and foresee themselves making another playoff push.

That’s only if they meet the awaiting challenges head on.

“We are no longer in that role where we are trying to go get something,” Little said. “We are in the role where we are protecting something. That’s a different place to be. So you have to be careful on how you approach that. It’s going to be drilled and instilled like it has been all week that we can’t ease into a street fight. We have to protect our ground.”

That entails setting the right tone.

Although the final scores of the first two games have looked skewed, the Blue Devils were locked in first-half dogfights against both Quincy Notre Dame and Alton. In the second half of each game, the Blue Devils were dominant, but it took time to get there.

That’s especially true of the defense, which has pitched second-half shutouts in consecutive weeks.

“We can’t let those early possessions get away from us,” Schelp said. “We have to be focused on tackling and knowing what we’re doing.”

He trusts everyone will be on the same page.

“Knowing the guy next to me is going to do his job is very important,” Schlep said. “Whenever I only have to worry about what I’m doing, it’s very easy to do my job. I can play pretty free when I don’t have to worry about anything else.”

Little hopes the entire defense can be a little more free flowing.

“We have to be able to react quicker to things that we’re seeing,” Little said.

That includes sending a direct and immediate message the title has to be wrestled away.

“If you set the tone early, your opponent will go away quicker,” Little said. “If you don’t, they’ll hang around and then you’re in a ballgame.”

And that’s when you succumb to be the hunted, not the hunter.