Bulldogs looking to bounce back against Titans

SANDPOINT — Bulldog head coach George Yarno thought of his late dad this week, a former NFL offensive lineman and longtime college and NFL assistant coach who possessed a wealth of football knowledge from a life spent in the game.

After the Bulldogs’ season-opening 58-12 loss to Post Falls, which featured some of the usual mistakes found in most season openers, and took solace in some sage advice as he watched the film.

“My dad always told me ‘it’s never as good or bad as you think,’” described Yarno of his team’s opener. “There are some things we need to fix. Our tackling was not up to par, and our O-line needs to fix a few things.”

The Bulldogs (0-1) went to work this week fixing some of the problems that plagued them in their opener, as they prepare to face Greater Spokane League foe University High School tonight on the road.

Unfortunately, they’ll take the field without starting senior quarterback Robbie Johnson, who hurt his non-throwing shoulder in the opener and will be evaluated week by week. Filling in will be backup quarterback Declan Plummer, the proverbial “next man up” in this case.

Prior to Johnson’s injury, the Bulldogs were having some offensive success against the Trojans, out-gaining them in the first half. But a 30 point third quarter, full of correctable mistakes, proved costly. Yarno loves how the team responded this week in practice, and hopes it translates to success on the field.

“We have some special kids who work their tail off day in, day out,” claimed Yarno. “We have to be disciplined and execute, play hard whistle to whistle, and we’ll have a chance. Stick to our game, try and put ourselves in position to win a football game.”

Standing in their way is one of the biggest teams they’ll face all season, at least size-wise, as the Titans boast an offensive line that averages nearly 300 pounds per player, including Brigham Young commit Campbell Barrington, a 6-6, 300 pounder who anchors both lines.

The Titans have switched from a spread offense to old-school power football, looking to utilize their size and swap finesse for power. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs swapped their traditional power-I, downhill offense last year for a new pistol-based offense this year.

Last year the Titans pulled out a 13-10 win, but with a distinctly new identity from both teams, it’s tough to predict how things could turn out.

“They’re going to pro right, pro left, lead right, lead left, iso right, iso left. They’ve got a bunch of 300 pounders up front that they plow you over with, we’ll need to shoot some gaps and do some things,” said Yarno, who isn’t worried about the size they’ll face tonight. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at University High School.

Chris Chatburn and Bob Witte will call the game live on AM 1400 and 105.3 FM.