There will be nothing fancy from the Fairview High School football team.

No gimmicks. No trickery. Just some old fashioned football.

That's what makes Slippery Rock coach Clyde Conti so nervous. That's also why he admires Fairview's simplistic plan so much.

He'll get to see it close up when the two teams meet at 7 p.m. in Fairview Friday night in the season opener for both teams.

"What I like about them is they are old school," Conti said. "They draw an X on the field and say, 'Here we come. Try to stop us.' We're going to have our hands full."

The offense came almost out of desperation for coach Jerry Lightner, who is entering his seventh year with the Tigers.

After struggling to find an offensive identity for the first few years at the helm, Lightner decided to go back to basics.

He enlisted the advice of the coach who preceded him, who ran a smash-mouth offense, and tweaked it. What resulted is the attack Lightner employs now.

"Years ago they had success here with this kind of offense," Lightner said. "We had to get tough up front in order to turn this program around. We got tough and now we do what the Tigers do come hell or high water."

It helps to have the personnel to do it with.

Last year, starting tailback Myles Wayne moved out of the school district in midseason, but that opened the door for Ty Perry.

Perry rushed for 1,800 yards and earned the telling nickname of "Touchdown Ty."

Fairview, a Class A team, went 7-0 in its region before losing to Linesville 35-28 in the District 10 semifinals.

Perry is back and so is a bulk of the offensive line that opened holes for him last year.

Also back is quarterback Kevin Stephenson.

That makes for a tough task for Slippery Rock.

"Everyone is tough one for us," Conti said.

The Rockets beat Fairview 28-9 in the season opener last year in Slippery Rock.

"Looking back, we wish we could have that one back," Lightner said.

This year, they'll get their chance.

Slippery Rock has Ben Collins back at quarterback, but is thin at several key positions because of graduation losses, injuries and other factors.

"This whole group has made it fun to go to practice," Conti said. "The chemistry is better, I'm not sure talent wise, but we work hard and it's easy to come to practice."

Lightner views Slippery Rock as a very dangerous team, particularly with an experienced quarterback such as Collins at the helm.

Ligthner said he has no idea what to expect from the Rockets.

"Collins is a great athlete," Lightner said. "But we can't be so worried about him that some of their other players come up and bite us."

Slippery Rock will again run a modified wing-T attack with some power-I thrown in for good measure.

But as long as Conti is roaming the sidelines, anything is possible.

"They have that three-back attack," Lightner said. "(Conti) is a master of the wing-T. The hardest part about preparing for the wing-T is getting your practice team to run it the way they do."