Rankin

BUTLER TWP — Butler's defense is ahead of its offense right now.

But can it stay in front of New Castle's offense?

That question will be answered Friday when the Golden Tornado and new coach Jim Rankin open their 2010 football season at 7:30 p.m. at Taggart Stadium.

"We may be a little more physical and stronger than them inside," Rankin said. "But they don't like to take the ball inside very much.

"They run some nice counters and traps, but New Castle wants to get the ball outside. They're all about speed and quickness. If we don't stay in position defensively, we're going to be doing a lot of chasing."

The Red Hurricane finished 8-3 last year and reached the second round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs. They opened the season with a 20-14 win over the Tornado at Art Bernardi Stadium.

Butler claimed a 28-21 victory at New Castle in 2008 but is riding a 14-game regular-season losing streak dating back to that season.

Rankin has installed his Wing-T offense that showed some improvement in last week's scrimmage against Blackhawk.

"We hit some nice passes there, but we're still not where we need to be offensively," Rankin said. "It's an assignment situation. We'll keep working on it.

"Our pass protection improved last week and Jordan (Lumley) throws a nice ball when he's got the time," the coach added. "He's working on where to look and how to read things quickly."

Lumley, a senior, will be behind center for Butler. Cole Baxter and Trevor Wideman will see the bulk of the action at halfback. The fullback position remains unsettled.

"Since we started school last week, we lost out on a few days of two-a-days," Rankin said. "That's four practices. There's nothing we can do about that except deal with it.

"Getting the timing down in this offense is gigantic. That's extra time we could have used."

The Butler defense had plenty of standouts during the preseason. Baxter and Matt Pribis at outside linebacker, Dane Patricelli at safety, and Ben McKnight, Adam Steiner and Chris Huselton up front have been a few of them.

"Our defensive line has been impressive," Rankin said. "We've got some strong kids up there."

New Castle will bring plenty of weapons to test the Tornado defense, however. Quarterback John Matarazzo threw for 2,128 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2009.

Justin Fleo rushed for 730 yards — averaging nearly 10 yards per carry — and scored eight touchdowns. Marcus Carter caught 23 passes for 472 yards and two scores while Darien Rice had 16 catches for 346 yards and four TDs.

All of those players are back.

By comparison, Butler returns only one touchdown from last season (Baxter on a reception), and Carlos Sanchez is the team's most productive rusher returning with 73 yards.

None of that matters to Rankin. It's all about new beginnings and preparation for him.

"Controlling the line of scrimmage will be a big thing Friday," he said. "We want to get in their backfield and not let them get started — and we have to be hard to stop."