Region 4 preview: Riverton Silverwolves

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RIVERTON SILVERWOLVES

The Hurry-Up — Riverton finished 2-8 overall in 2015, 0-6 in Region 4, and did not qualify for the postseason.

Second-year Riverton coach Brent Hawkins admitted he was naïve last season. The Silverwolves slumped to their worst season since 2004, but Hawkins was under the impression the team would compete for a postseason berth.

"It was disappointing last year," Hawkins said. "I thought that team would make the playoffs. There wasn't a lot of varsity experience, but we'd had guys who had been in the program. I was probably a little naïve thinking we would be OK. We just didn't finish."

This season, Riverton is focusing on establishing one voice. Many times football games trickle down to one or two plays, so having one clear objective can help eliminate the costly errors.

"We've spent a lot of time on leadership training, I think the offseason has been really good that way," Hawkins said. "We've got pretty good leaders. Not as many seniors as we did last year, but the ones that are back, so of them have experience, and they're leading better."

Analogous to last year, the 'Wolves will be young once again, but Hawkins said that hasn't deterred from the competitive nature circulating throughout the program right now.

"We're going to be young, but I think we'll be really competitive. So far they've shown they're a resistant little, competitive group," Hawkins said. "They get after it in practice. They enjoy the competitive part of the game. I'm excited to see. We're young, we've got to be patient, and we've got to be great teachers. They want to learn, and they compete like crazy, and they have fun doing it, too."

Quarterbacks — Hawkins lit up talking about his quarterback this season, Ryan King. "I love everything about him. Probably the best thing, as far as a wing-t quarterback, he's willing take that option to run," Hawkins said. "We feel like we have that threat back to really stress the defense. Not every year we get a kid who is really willing to take that option. He's good at throwing the ball, makes good decisions, he's confident, but I think the key thing, is in our system, we need a run threat at quarterback."

Running backs — Many coaches say they'll rotate running backs by committee. It's a demanding position that requires players to sustain frequent collisions. But, running the wing-t offense, Hawkins wasn't exaggerating when he said the position will feature numerous faces. Cole Anderson, Travis Mohney, Jaxon Smith, Nate Hamblin, Gavin Lalliss and Daniel Jacobsen will all see time. "We're kind of a running back school," Hawkins said. "We're coach them up, and they'll do a good job."