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Morristown East’s football program’s offseason has been one of transition.

Losing upwards of thirty seniors to graduation, including their starting quarterback and running back, there have been holes to plug all over the field.

To add to the turnover in player personnel, they also enter the season under a new head coach, Dallas Kuykendall.

“Luckily for me I wasn’t here last year, so I didn’t really know what we had to replace, I just know who’s on the team,” Kuykendall said. “But those kids have done a great job, we’ve come leaps and bounds since spring time. A lot of sleepless nights early in spring, but we’re getting there and we’re trending in the right direction, that’s always good to see.”

Kuykendall may only have one year of head coaching experience under his belt, but in that one year he showed he knows how to win football games.

He led Chuckey-Doak High School to a 10-2 record, increasing their win total from six the year before, advancing to the second round of the playoffs before being knocked off by Gatlinburg-Pittman.

This year, he’ll look to usher in that same type of win total increase to East.

While the ‘Canes eked out a playoff berth last season, they finished with a record of 4-7. East hasn’t finished above .500 since 2016, and Kuykendall is looking to change that.

To build a winning culture, you need buy-in and support, and he’s received nothing but that to this point.

“It’s been awesome; everybody from the community to the administration has been really supportive of what we’re trying to do,” Kuykendall said. “The kids have been great, I think they’re buying into what we’re trying to do, so it’s been a really good transition as a whole.

“The best thing about it is, these kids are putting in work outside of practice, and we’re starting to reap the rewards of that.”

A lot of the pieces they’ll have to replace will be on the offensive side of the ball this year. New play caller, new backfield; the offense will have a lot of questions to answer this season.

“Not a whole lot of experience on that side of the ball this year, but they’re coming together,” Kuykendall said. “A lot of juniors are coming together and working hard. It’ll be a little bit of a different scheme than what they’ve been used to, so there was a learning curve there early, but I think we’re really starting to hit our stride, and we’re making improvements everyday.”

Kuykendall’s offensive philosophy is that of a power-run. Control the line of scrimmage, be patient, keep the chains moving.

At running back looking to do just that, Easton Woody, Eli Davis, Cade Henson and Cam Miller will all see carries for the ‘Canes.

As a committee of running backs they’ll have a lot of production to replace in the loss of Ethan Ledford and Ryan Adams to graduation. Ledford broke the East career rushing record last season.

Carter Gilliam, Austin Brannan and Will Hemminger will be the playmakers out wide at receiver.

Brannan, now a junior, returns as a two-way starter from last season and looks to impose his will on both sides of the ball this year now a year stronger, faster and more developed.

“We’re a pistol-zone team,” Kuykendall said. “Inside/outside zone, we’ll do some different stuff in the pass game, but we’ll really try and hang our hat on being a physical run team and really try to control the line of scrimmage, because to me, to win football games you’ve got to be able to run the football. We’ll let our weapons play in space. We don’t really try to overthink it, put the ball in your best players hands and let him go make plays. So that’s what we try to do.”

To do that effectively, they’ll need a lot from their offensive line this year. Luckily for the ‘Canes, Kuykendall has a lot of confidence in his guys up front.

“We’re really excited about our front on the offensive line, they’re doing a good job,” Kuykendall said. “Peyton Cox, Cayden Mcbee, Hunter Livesay, Miguel Escobar and Kayden Young. They’re really clicking and starting to gel together.”

One of the biggest questions left to be answered this season is at the quarterback position. Eli Seals, the starter for the ‘Canes the previous two seasons, leaves a big hole behind center, and Caleb Billings has worked tirelessly this offseason to fill it.

“Caleb Billings keeps getting better every single week. If I showed you the tape of him in the spring to where he’s at now, you’d think I was playing you two different kids,” Kuykendall said. “And that’s just a credit to him and the work he’s put in, what he does on the side. Coach Smith, our quarterback coach, does a great job with him, working with him everyday, so we’re really excited about his growth, and now we’ve just got to keep him on that right track.”

On the defensive side, the ‘Canes bring back a bit more continuity.

“AB (Austin Brannan) in the backend does a great job of getting us lined up. Trevor Foulks, and Jay Harrison have been our steadies in the middle at linebacker, they kind of know the expectation there. We’re really excited about a bunch of places. Our two corners, Will (Hemminger) and RJ (Lawson) have done a great job, we’re a little older on the defensive side so they do a good job of heading up that group.”

Scheme wise, they’ll be more familiar on that side as well.

Defensive coordinator Jason West returns for his third season at East.

“Coach West is back, he does a heck of a job with our defense,” Kuykendall said. “So we’re kind of multiple, we’ve tweaked some things, so we’re a 3-4 multiple team. We’ll play some three-down front, we’ll play some four-down front, and do some different things on the backend. So it’ll be kind of similar to what we were, but we’ve added some wrinkles this winter. We’re really excited, we’re senior heavy on that side of the ball, so we’re really excited about that.”

Controlling the line of scrimmage will be a cornerstone on both sides of the ball this year for East. Max Baker, Skyler Arwood, Jacob Pirkle and JC Hines will comprise the defensive line group for them this year.

In terms of scheduling for the ‘Canes, they’ll start by hitting the field against familiar foe and crosstown rival Morristown West before hosting Hardin Valley the following Thursday.

Following that, they’ll have three consecutive region matchups. First, they’ll travel to William-Blount where they’ll look to repeat the success they had against the Governors last season. Then, they’ll host Jefferson County, followed by another road game against Dobyns-Bennett.

After Dobyns-Bennett, they’ll travel to Lenoir-City before getting to their most favorable stretch of schedule in terms of travel.

They’ll host three consecutive home games, first against region opponent Science Hill, who won the region last season, followed by Gibbs and Campbell County.

To wrap up the regular season, they’ll travel to West Ridge to take on the Wolves.

“There are no easy games in 6A football,” Kuykendall said. “So we’ve got to come out here and put in the work every week, prepare the right way every week, know what that looks like, and go out there and try to execute and see where it lies at the end.”

As far as expectations for this year go, Kuykendall just wants effort from his guys. When interviewed over the summer, he said he was trying to get his guys to learn how to compete. As kickoff approaches, those teachings have now become an expectation.

“When we first came in, that was one of the first things we talked about, is we’ve got to compete,” Kuykendall said. “We’ve got to compete, and we’ve got to compete now. And how that happens is we’ve got to come out here and stack good days together and work hard and hold each other accountable. So the expectations are to go out here and compete.”

The season opens up for the ‘Canes on August 18 against Morristown West at Burke-Toney Stadium in the Citizen Tribune Kickoff Classic. The game is slated to start at 7 p.m.

“We’ve just got to keep everything trending in the right direction so that when it comes close to kickoff we’re ready to go,” Kuykendall said.