BUTLER TWP Call the 2010 Butler football season, well, unRankin-like.

The first-year Golden Tornado coach and his players endured an 0-9 season, getting outscored 314-57 and being shut out four times.

The winless season was Butler's third in four years.

“As weird as this sounds, that experience will probably enhance their lives,” Rankin said of Butler's seniors. “They went through a rough time in their football careers here and they stuck with it.

“I have tremendous respect for those kids. They never quit working. They never quit, period,” he added.

Rankin had never experienced a winless season in his previous 27 years as a head coach. The worst year he could recall was the 4-6 record his last North Allegheny team posted.

Rankin was 144-66-2 with the Tigers, reaching the WPIAL playoffs 17 times.

So how did he handle this season?

“Honestly, it wasn't bad,” he said. “The coaching staff has tremendous teachers and they're a pleasure to work with. And the kids really wanted to be good. They killed themselves in practice.

“We have a ways to go fundamentally. There was a long learning curve here and I'm not sure why that is,” he added. “Other teams were simply ahead of us fundamentally. We weren't good tacklers and we weren't good blockers, so we never got anything going.”

Rankin, 62, hasn't committed to returning next season. Also, his contract has yet to be renewed.

“We do evaluations on all of our coaches and I'm in the process of doing that with our fall coaches now,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said. “Those evaluations will be submitted within a month or so.”

Rankin said that if he opts not to return, it will be for nonfootball reasons.

“I do have family and personal issues to deal with,” he said. “Ultimately, this may not be my decision anyway. I'm sure (the Butler school board) didn't get what they were expecting.”

Rankin's staff this year included Nick Sciarro, Jeff Wagner, Tim Mahoney, Eric Christy, Bill Elliott, Chris Cafardi and veteran coach Bernie Storer. Wagner (Karns City), Elliott (Knoch) and Christy (Butler) all played high school football in Butler County

“We had a good blend of veteran and young coaches,” Rankin said. “The younger guys brought a good enthusiasm level to the kids and that's really needed in Butler, given the situation here.

“I thought we would do better this year, definitely. I also thought we'd be building off a foundation. ... We were putting the foundation in.”

Butler had 41 players two-way starters counted twice miss games with injuries.

“We never had the same offensive line, secondary, linebackers, etc., from week to week,” Rankin said. “That was problematic. I have never heard of a team losing that much manpower to injury in one season.

“I'm not saying it cost us wins. Truth be told, if we have all hands on deck all year, we probably win one more game. But it's pain vs. injury.

“If you're injured, you don't play. If you're feeling pain or soreness, well, this is a rough game,” the coach added.

Rankin said a Butler player injured an ankle during pre-game warmups at Shaler “and we never saw him again.”

“We need better communication in terms of rehab and recovery, about what's going on with players,” he said. “Concussions are pretty basic. You have to pass a test to play. I don't know all of the ins and outs with the medical system, so the problem is hard to put a finger on.”

Tornado seniors Cole Baxter, Matt Pribis, Chris Abbott, Jordan Allen, Jordan Lumley, T.J. Hays, Adam Steiner and David Hohn were among those lauded by Rankin.

“Those guys were warriors. We only had four or five kids quit the team all year. That's pretty good,” he said. “The brightest spot this year was working with the coaches and players. They're good guys.”