KHQA/ADVANCE Physical Therapy Barnstorm Tour: JACKSONVILLE CRIMSONS

It is one of the crown jewels of the Midwest Summer Football circuit; a seven on seven showdown in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus.

And when the dust cleared at the University of Notre Dame back in June, the last two teams standing and the best passing teams in the heartland...both came from the Central State Eight.

Fullback/Linebacker Jake Mills: "Well, we learned we can compete with the best, you know. Made it to the Championship Round (at Notre Dame 7 on 7).....that was good enough for me. Lost to Griffin, that kind of sucked"

Granted, any story that ends with a loss to Kenny Leonard's SHG Cyclones is less than storybook for the Crimsons. But Jacksonville's stellar offensive showing South Bend confirms our suspicions that year two of the "Air Grounds" offense will be better; especially with 10 starters back in the spread.

Mark Grounds: "When we sat down and evaluated some of the things that needed to change after we didn't make the playoffs in 2006, we looked at what our kids best assets were. We felt the new offense and spread system was going to match their skills the best. And quite honestly, the kids took to it a lot better than I did. I am still a little bit of an old school coach. I believe in my Triple Option attack. And the kids were a lot more comfortable early on with it than what their coach was. So I put a little bit of that on my shoulders, getting myself out of my comfort zone."

A comfort zone that expanded as his Quarterback began turning into the the Tri State's answer to Tim Tebow.

Grounds: "He's the glue. We've always put a lot of pressure on our Quarterbacks to make decisions out there and we've had some pretty good ones since I've been here. And the year two of running it, and the expectations; we've had guys out there that have been kind of like coaches on the field. Schnitker has definitely in that mold and I look for even bigger things out of him this year."

Quarterback Blake Schnitker: "I've been a runner, well, my sophomore year, because we were under center. But my throwing...just in the off-season we worked a lot on Open Gyms. Throwing a lot with my friends. So my arm has gotten stronger and my throwing game has improved."

So too has his Offensive Arsenal. The Offensive Line, led by 275lb Jake Henneisen, is sizable. Jake Mills is back to run the football. And the Crimsons overall receiving corps is lights out.

Schnitker: "We've got a lot of weapons. Lots of speed this year with Kendall Phelps coming back. Even the young guys like Caleb Howell and Alvis Berry on the outside. Lots of speed. Lots of weapons."

Grounds: "We've got a great possession WR coming back in L.J. Flynn. Kendall Phelps, his second year of being able to play high school football after some medical things got taken care of, he took off down the stretch. Looking for good things out of him. Bryce Heaton, a sophomore last year, he gave us some quality time and has really been a dominating over the middle receiver for us. He's big, tall, and lanky. And then replacing Trevon Harris with his type of speed, was not an easy task but Alvis Berry, who has been a varsity basketball player for two years; he fits right into that spot. And there are about 5-6 other guys that in normal years would definitely be starting for us who are backing up those guys."