South Jordan • Tisi Tuifua, a running back and rising senior captain, peers out on to the field. He watches his team, clad in blue shirts, make their way through the drills, darting through cones and starting to sweat.

He doesn't frown, but he doesn't smile either. There's a long summer ahead.

"It's going well but I wish we had everyone," Tuifua says. "We'd like to see more guys get here, but that's our fault, too. It just means each of us has to put more and more on ourselves."

Following perhaps the greatest football season in Utah high school history, the upcoming class of Bingham Miners are looking to make their own mark. It's an uphill climb, built by both the program's storied tradition and its monumental expectations. When Bingham takes the field, they're the team to beat.

The legend of Bingham's invincibility has been much more prevalent in the past two seasons, when the Miners have gone 26-1 and earned two Class 5A championships. In the last five years, the program has only six losses.

After last season's undefeated run — during which Bingham beat its opponents by an average of 40 points per game — a stunning 15 football players accepted scholarships to play in college. Even coach Dave Peck thinks it might be the most talented class he's ever coached. But the mass exodus of some of the top Miners means many of the players who rarely saw playing time must now fill some gargantuan shoes.

"I think some kids are a little scared or intimidated because it's a lot of weight on our shoulders," rising junior offensive lineman Keegan Hicks says. "It's an amazing tradition, and in my mind we want to try to carry it. Hopefully we can come out of that shadow and prove we can play with the best of them."

Part of what has made Bingham so competitive is the atmosphere in practice. Players describe last year's practices as "hell" or "a battle." Peck and his coaching staff try to breed an underdog mentality in the reserves and get them to fight for spots, even if there isn't much chance of getting it.

But there is one big rule about starting spots: No guarantees. It's a concept that many of the rising upperclassmen are wrapping their minds around as they now try to hold off the backups for the bigger roles they've been eyeing for years.

That's why it's so hard for middle linebacker and captain Taylor Hansen to sit out with a broken fibula. The urgency to make an impact and seize a starting spot in his senior year throbs in his chest as he watches the summer conditioning sessions from the sideline.

"For me, playing with this team is everything — I would do anything for this team," Hansen says. "It's such a competition out there, you know you can be passed up on the depth chart."

Once the starting rotations are set, the greatest challenge for Bingham will be its own history. Although many of the players say they try not to focus on the past, their roots are all around them: trophies, championship banners, memories of the players they admired. The weekly meetings about the team code of ethics reminds players to stay out of trouble after a few Bingham seniors had unsightly run-ins with the law last season.

Even the bloodlines within the Miners program are permanent markings of past success for players such as Paul Langi, whose older brother Harvey Langi was an all-state runningback.

"I went through a lot of high school being Harvey's little brother, and yeah, it gets a little frustrating," Langi says. "We know we're going to be compared to last year's team, and we want to honor their season. But we have our own things to deal with."

One of the things they didn't have to deal with last year was losing. But undefeated seasons are usually a rare luxury, and players admit the thought of defeat crosses their minds now and then.

"We don't like to lose, but it would be a humbling experience because a lot of people think we're bound to take state," Langi says. "It would be tough, but we would have to try to grow from it."

There are a lot of hurdles ahead for Bingham, but no one seems to expect much dropoff. Even if this version of the Miners is not quite what last year's version was, Bingham is still Bingham, right?

Steve Spiewak, the national football writer for Maxpreps.com, says one constant in the high school football world is programs with proven track records tend to keep being successful year after year. In Bingham's case, Peck and his staff should provide a stable foundation for more winning seasons, despite the talent gap between the two teams.

"Coaching is the biggest factor in the high school game," Spiewak says. "The difference from the very good seasons to the tremendous seasons could be talent level, but coaching is at the heart of dyansty programs."

Coaches around the state aren't about to say the 5A field is wide open, either. Bingham still looms large on the landscape.

"They're just going to reload," says Fremont coach Kory Bosgieter, who fell to the Miners in last year's championship. "They always have guys. Coach Peck does a great job every year of getting them ready."

Of course, coaching will only take a team so far. The new faces of Bingham know they'll have to take on a lot more responsibility. It means working harder, taking control of the team and being accountable — not just for themselves but for everyone who wears the Miner blue.

It means digging in for a long, hot summer.

"There were a lot of guys whose footsteps I followed in this program," strong safety Kendal Cloward says. "It's gotten to where there's no one left to follow. Now the other kids look up to us, and it's up to us to make sure this tradition never dies."

kgoon@sltrib.com

Twitter: @kylegoon —

Bingham Miners define dominance

• Six year record: 73-7

• Won championships in 2006, 2009, 2010 under Peck

• Defeated opponents by an average of 40 points per game during 13-0 season in 2010

• 15 seniors accepted football scholarships after the season

• Returns few players with experience: safety Kendal Cloward, tight end Josh Smith, linebacker Jared Afalava, defensive lineman Lowell Lotulelei