MOUNT CARMEL - Excitement comes with question marks this year at Mount Carmel.
The Red Tornadoes are turning a page. After losing 19 seniors to graduation, head coach Carm DeFrancesco is well aware of the steep task his club is facing this year.
As usual, anything less than making the playoffs will not be handled well by the Mount Carmel fans. DeFrancesco knows this. Among his goals are to improve defensively after an up-and-down year on that side of the ball and get out of the offense's way.
"Our expectations are to be better defensively. How many games are we going to win? I don't know. Are we going to be in the playoffs? Yeah," DeFrancesco said.
"If I expect us to be in the playoffs, we have to win six or seven games. We expect Mount Carmel Area to be in the playoffs every single year, and we're expecting that again."
Despite all that talent last year, the Red Tornadoes only went 6-4 in the regular season but caught fire in the playoffs and made it back to the District 4 Class AA championship game.
Still, changes needed to be made and were.
The Tornadoes' offense is now built on a fast-paced passing attack.
Zach Wasilewski is a senior and will start for the third season.
It's that experience that helped the Tornadoes turn to a high-tempo, no-huddle offense this year. Backup Dominic Farronato is right in sync learning the new offense and saw extensive time in two games last year.
"They're both smart kids," DeFrancesco said of his quarterbacks. "They've really embraced (assistant coach) Marc's (Persing) ability to teach them how to read defenses on the fly, run a no-huddle offense and replace a blitz. They're getting really good at that.
"We're planning on throwing the ball and we have to throw the ball. We don't have experience on the offensive line, but the way the quarterbacks have progressed in reading defenses we plan on throwing the ball a lot."
The Tornadoes want to throw the ball at least 25 times a game, which would shatter the program's season record for pass attempts of 250 set by Dave Shinskie in 2002.
Wasilewski threw the ball 179 times a year ago, complet-
ing 91 passes for 1,393 yards and 14 scores.
"We've never done that, but that's our goal," DeFrancesco said.
After quarterback, the rest of the offensive positions are a little thin on experience.
Only one receiver, Treyvon White, returns. White caught five passes for 50 yards in 2012.
Among those expected to run routes are Juwan Sullins, Jimmy Williams, 6-foot-4 Joey Dormer, Mike Gilger (when he's not in the backfield) and Farronato, who coaches think is too athletic to leave out of the game plan each week.
"We can't have him sitting on the bench on offense," DeFrancesco said. "We lost a bunch, but we have some good ones coming up."
At running back, Mount Carmel must replace 1,600-yard runner Lucas Klingerman with what DeFrancesco described as a three-headed monster.
Blake Panko, Gilger and Kyle Karycki had a total of 39 rushing attempts between them last season and gained 190 yards. All three offer the Tornadoes' running game something different, but are unlikely to offer the team what Klingerman did in the backfield last season - a lethal combination of speed and wiggle.
Gilger is the veteran of the group and, although his offensive touches have been limited because of his value at cornerback, he has good vision and can find the hole. Panko is a junior this season and has good top-end speed, while Karycki is the most bullish of the group at 6-1, 192 pounds.
It took a lot of offseason work, but the Tornadoes think they have the ability to still run in what will be a pass-heavy attack.
"We've put in a nice package of running between the tackles out of a one-back set," DeFrancesco said. "That wasn't easy to do. We had to go to a lot of clinics to learn these offenses."
Much in the same vein the Tornadoes used Eric Joraskie last season, junior Christian Kelley will be a different type of weapon for the Tornadoes. Kelly was a member of Mount Carmel's state-qualifying 4x400-meter relay team.
"Christian Kelley is off the charts. We're going to use him at tight end, slot and motion him," DeFrancesco said. "He's going to run the rocket sweep that we ran with Lucas. The reason we're doing that is when you get a 230-pound guy with a running start and get him turned around the corner, that could be huge for us. Once he gets going, it could be lights out."
In two-back power sets, Brett Zosh will replace Joraskie at fullback.
The offensive line also lost bundles of experience. In addition to three starters lost to graduation, injuries sustained last year convinced two would-be starters to hang up their cleats.
The tackles, senior Jake Jones (6-3, 252) and junior Michael Kaminski (6-4, 220), are the only players with varsity experience, but they'll be crucial in neutralizing other teams' pass rush from the outside.
The other starters will be junior Austin Joraskie (5-11, 218) at center and Lee Amarose (6-3, 280) and Glenn Barwicki (5-11, 198) at the guard spots.
Flipping over to the defensive line, those same names will be pressed into service and rotated.
Jones and Kaminski will both start at defensive tackle with Dylan Patrick at nose guard in the Tornadoes new 3-4 scheme.
Amarose, Dormer and Girard Reichwein (6-0, 243) will see snaps defensively.
Expect the inside linebackers to be more free to make plays and the outside linebackers to drop into coverage a little more in the Tornadoes' new philosophy.
Barwicki and Zosh will start at inside linebacker after making 58 and 37 tackles, respectively last year. On the outside, Tyler Thompson, Kelley and Dormer will all play, with Karycki (26 tackles) set to play both inside and outside.
DeFrancesco also hopes the secondary will be more consistent than last year. Panko and Farronato will play safety, with Gilger and White at the corners.