Photo by Lauren Florence Linsly’s Alex Taylor carries the ball against St. Clairsville earlier this season.

The Linsly Cadets finished last season 10-1, with impressive wins over teams like Morgantown, Steubenville and Fort Frye. With the Cadets marching toward the 2023 season, they return many core pieces, and see plenty of potential in the spots that need replacing.

“Expectations are pretty high in the sense that we return a pretty good core from a successful season last year,” Linsly head coach B.J. Depew said. “We have a very large senior group, there’s a lot of experience in there. We’ve had a great offseason. With that said, our schedule is really tough.

“What we’ve learned from the last couple years — every week presents a new challenge and no matter where we’re at, our opponent is making us reach a little higher from week to week. If this group has learned from the previous couple of teams they’ve been a part of, they’ll know what to expect and it’ll just be a matter of if they can meet the challenge.”

Senior quarterback Atley Cowan (6-2, 175) returns after an explosive junior season that saw him throw for 2,418 yards, 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Who’s slinging the pigskin will not be in question for the Cadets — it’s who Cowan will be throwing to.

“There are a lot of holes to fill there,” Depew said of his wide receiver room “We graduated three really good seniors — Nate Coleman, Luca DiLorenzo and Jyleik Johnson.

Coach B.J. Depew on the upcoming season

“We pretty much play a spread offense, so oftentimes we’re four-wide on the field and Malte [Feil] is the only returning starter there. So we’re going to be looking for three — if not six or eight — guys there, because we try to use a lot of people there. We play up-tempo, we spread the field and we really try to run our offense as fast as possible.”

Malte Feil (6-4, 187) is due for a larger target share after posting the third-most receiving yards and third-most touchdowns on the team with 419 and five, respectively. In the mix for the other vacant wide receiver spots, of which there are multiple, are John Paul Jones (6-0, 163), a returning starter at corner for Linsly, juniors Rocco Paolina (5-11, 152) and Ramello Derr (5-8, 135), and sophomore Lucca Troullos (5-8, 146).

“Those are all guys who got really good JV playing time for us last year,” Depew said. “Truthfully, there are six to eight guys early on in camp who are catching our attention.”

Also in the wide receiver room for the Cadets are Jaxon Murray (6-0, 161), Chris Upton (5-10, 145), Taven Mayo (5-6, 113), Julian Fischer (5-11, 167), Rodrigo Ballesteros (5-8, 156), Nathen Smith (5-10, 183), Justin Heckman (5-10, 137), Jaycob Sauvageau (5-11, 170), Fisher Palian (6-3, 161), Atte Peltola (6-2, 157), Pedro Calsavaro (5-11, 180), Peik Abrahamsson (5-11, 146), Lane Kendzerski (6-1, 195), Gavin Spadafore (5-10, 150), and Diego Villalobos (6-0, 150).

“That’s, for me, one of the most interesting parts of our camp, seeing who’s going to end up starting at wide receiver,” Depew said.

Linsly also returns a long-time stalwart of the program at running back in Alex Taylor, though the circumstances — and what will be asked of Taylor — may facilitate some younger players chipping in to the rushing workload.

“Alex is a returning captain, he is our No. 1 running back returning,” Depew said. “But Kevin Stanisi (6-0, 205), Neri Weiner (6-1, 190), and Nathan Clifford (5-6, 170) all are ready to take that next step and have all experienced some varsity playing time.

“We’re pretty deep at the position, so Alex will not have to shoulder the load all by himself. Because he’ll probably play in our defense, we’ll look to give him some breathers offensively, probably even more than last year.”

Taylor rushed for 544 yards and three touchdowns last year, averaging 5.4 yards per tote. He also caught 11 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown.

Others in the running back room are Brody Cottrill (6-3, 210), Mikey Troullos (5-7, 157), Cole Kendzerski (5-10, 147), Chase Labritz (5-9, 163), Rocco Troullos (5-8, 150) and Joaquin Zarur Avila (5-8, 162).

Many of those names could also line up as a pseudo-tight end in Linsly’s spread system.

Along the offensive line is a mix of new and old for Linsly. Senior tackle Jack Selmon (6-1, 194) looks to lock down the edge after transitioning to the offensive line from a wide receiver-tight end type last year.

“Jack Selmon played undersized against a tough schedule last year and did an incredible job,” Depew said.

Fellow senior Toni Malkki (6-0, 223) also returns for Linsly, and may play two ways for the team as well.

As for the remaining holes in the line, Depew hopes to sort that out through the Cadets’ boot camp.

“The O-line is something that’s going to have to come together in camp,” Depew said in early August. “A lot of good junior candidates, Brock Kuttie (6-5, 276), Isaac Depew (5-10, 227), Patrick Christ (6-2, 215), Adam Kotson (6-2, 322), these are all juniors who we’re hoping are going to develop from JV players last year to capable varsity starters this year. We have three weeks to figure that out.”

Also competing along the offensive front is Roi Gerson (5-9, 186), Raymond Kovalesky (6-3, 227), Jamie Riedel (6-2, 304), Landon Taylor (6-2, 240), Tommy Turak (6-5, 234), Vaughn Crile (6-2, 240), Will Riesbeck (6-0, 220), Anderson Palian (6-4, 259), Darryn McCormick (5-8, 224) and Nee Boateng (5-11, 232).

On the defensive side of the ball, Linsly anticipates some two-way play, perhaps more than last year, when they had only two players go both ways. Like the Cadets’ offense, the defense has a solid core of returning players, and newcomers that can raise the group’s ceiling.

“Our defense, like all defenses, it’s very team-oriented and you need all the parts to work for it to work at all,” Depew said. “We’re strong in the box, we do return three starters on the defensive line and both of our linebackers. Really happy with that. Raymond Kovalesky is also a returning captain for us and really has developed into a great leader on and off the field. He’ll be back in the middle of the defense at linebacker. Brody Cottrill, who got hurt early, was a starting linebacker for us and because of that, three or four other guys — Neri Weiner, Kevin Stanisi and Jack Selmon all got some playing time at that position, they’ll mix in there a little bit.”

The three-man D-line group of Jamie Riedel, Landon Taylor and Roi Gerson bring experience to the up-front attack, though it is a area where Linsly hopes to get others involved.

“There’s good depth there as well and that’s another group where we hope to work different people in,” Depew said.

Kendzerski, Christ, Turak, Depew, Kuttie, Kotson, Crile, Riesbeck, Palian, McCormick, Malkki, and Boateng make up the rest of the defensive line group. Braden Wade (6-0, 187), Landon Cottrill, Sauvageau, Fisher Palian, Clifford, Kendzerski, Calsavaro and Rocco Troullos make up the rest of the linebacking room.

It is Taylor and John Paul Jones who are set to lead the defensive secondary, with the other half of their respective positions — safety and cornerback — to be decided by an eager group of Cadets.

Linsly also plays plenty of three-safety sets, the third “joker” safety a speciality spot that needs filled. Murray, Derr, Paolia, Feil, Upton, Mayo, Fischer, Ballesteros, Smith, Mikey Troullos, Heckman, Lucca Troullos, Peltola, Labritz, Abrahamsson, Zarur Avila, Spadafore and Villalobos are all in the defensive back mix.

“In our mind, we’ve got ‘defensive players,’ and as the weeks go on, it’s our job to put them in the right spots,” Depew said.

Depew is assisted by James Wallace, Chris Kiedaisch, Brian Valentine, Gee Lofstead, Mark Dodd, RJ Zitzelsberger, Doug Tush, and Trevin Tush.