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Eagles have an inexperienced team

File photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm running back Cole Ranweiler will be a key to the Eagles offense this season.

NEW ULM — With only four starters coming back this season for the New Ulm football team, many younger players — who saw playing time in last season’s 3-6 journey — will need to step up to improve on that mark that saw a three-game winning streak.

“We are young but I do not know if we are inexperienced,” head coach Eric Kauffmann said. “Playing at the varsity level we are inexperienced but those kids got to play on the JV last year. We are a younger team — we have over 20 freshmen out — so that adds to the inexperience.”

Kauffmann said that the biggest hole that he needs to fill is on the offensive line.

“We lost 90 percent of our line so that is the biggest part to fill,” he said. “We are going to have to have players step up who have not played on the varsity level before.”

Kauffmann said that senior Connor Slette will anchor the inexperienced offensive line at a guard.

“Dylon Schroeder, who started part of the season is also back,” Kauffmann said. “But then after that we have a lot of players trying for spots.”

Kauffmann looks to junior Jaden Drill along with newcomers junior Brayden Hoffmann, Matthew Swift and Julian Hernandez along with sophomores Nate Wolkow, Ethan Drake and Jared Beranek, a transfer from New Ulm Cathedral.

“Our size is OK — they are pretty well put together — we did not lose anything size-wise. In fact we may be bigger this year,”said Kauffmann. “It is just the experience at the varsity level.”

The Eagles also need to find someone at quarterback to replace graduated Nolan Drill.

“Right now we are working out in Isaiah Miller, who was a wide receiver last season and Jacob Martinka,” Kauffmann said.

While there is inexperience at the quarterback spot, senior Cole Ranweiler, who rushed for over 1,300 yards last season, returns.

“He is obviously a big part of our offense. He will see a lot of carries again this year,” Kauffmann said. “We may try and utilize him more this year than last year. We will put him in a couple of different positions to try and use his speed and ability. He is quick and he has put on about 10-15 pounds of muscle.”

Kauffmann knows that teams will be keying on Ranweiler so he is hoping that there are players who can take the heat off of him.

“We are hoping for big things out of Dylan Carreon,” Kauffmann said. “He is a junior who played some fullback at the end of last year. We are going to move him over to wing. He is a pretty fast kid. He is a kid who can carry the load. And we are also looking at Jaden Miller as well.”

Kauffmann hopes for catches and yards from wide receivers Brayden Garriety and Ethan Stade.

“Brayden has gotten better, is faster and can jump more,” Kauffmann said. “And Ethan Stade came out as a senior. He has not played for a couple of years. He is tall and kind of built like a Reece Melby that can play some tight end or wide receiver for us.

“We have some young kids and new faces that have not played for a while so it will be interesting to see what they do.”

The Eagles defense will be young.

“But we have revamped our defense in the off-season to try and find what is really us,” Kauffmann said. “Last year, depending on who we were playing, we were jumping around from an odd front to an even front. This season you will see us in more of an odd front to an over front. You will see more activity out of us on defense.

“We have not gone full bore yet in practice. We just want to get everybody ready to play. And the limited practice time will be a big deal for us.”

And the Eagles get a big test in their first game when they host Marshall at noon on Saturday.

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