The Rams won their first SWOC title last year, while the Cougars are looking for their first title since 2018, but Commins is more interested in winning the rivalry game.
“It’s come up, but our focus is really on the rivalry of Edgewood,” said Commins, whose teams ranked eighth in this week’s Division III state poll. “I think it’s great the winner of this at least can say they ‘have a share of the title,’ but as far as we go, it’s not about the title. It’s about us getting better. Our focus always is ourselves and beating Edgewood. That’s a trophy all in itself.”
Since Commins took over as Ross’ head coach in 2017, he has emphasized a desire to develop football players who are successful in life: Making them “good friends, good husbands and even better fathers” someday.
But with that has come a lot of success on the football field. Asked if he would be talking about a conference title next week if all goes well Friday, Commins acknowledged that the SWOC title was always a goal – just not the motivating factor.
“Every high school football team when they start off has goals of winning a state championship, making the playoffs, winning a conference championship,” Commins said. “I don’t think we’re different than any other team when it comes to the fact winning a conference championship is great, but it’s not going to define who we are. If we do what we’re supposed to do and work like supposed to, hopefully a conference championship is a byproduct of that. As a carrot dangling in front of the kids? Absolutely not. The carrot is Edgewood, and whatever the ripple effect of that, we have to deal with it.
“At the end of the day, only one team is going to be undefeated in the SWOC, and we want to make sure we have something to say about that.”
Edgewood is the carrot this week, Commins said, because of the admiration he has for Cougars coach Scott Clemmons and what he’s done with his program.
The Cougars won three SWOC titles in a row under Clemmons from 2016 to 2018, then experienced a down year with a 2-8 finish in 2019 before bouncing back to 6-4 last year. Now, they’ve won five in a row while outscoring opponents 226-54.
“I’ve never hidden my admiration for Coach Clemmons and the Edgewood program,” Commins said. “I admire the heck out of him and the fact you may get a share of something, that’s great, but I have enough admiration for what they do, we are looking at them and only them. Their physicality, they buy into what they do, which is what I admire. They are going to do the traditional Wing-T things, and they just kind of narrow down what they want to be really good at, they’ve focused on that and gotten really good. There’s no secret to what they do, just like us. There’s no secret to what we’re going to do, and they just have good players too. Offensively talking about the running backs in Tavionne Crosby and Jay Dailey, the quarterback (Eli Jones), and they’ve got guys everywhere.”
Jones ranks second in the SWOC with 619 passing yards, while Crosby adds 563 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground and Dailey has 543 yards rushing and 12 touchdowns.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Ross has been clicking into gear offensively as well, while also playing solid defense all along. The Rams beat Harrison 55-17 last week, which was the product of momentum Commins saw building in the second half against Talawanda the week before in a 41-20 win.
Commins said special teams is the area that still needs to “get over a hurdle,” after giving up onside kicks the last two weeks, but the offense has been probably the biggest surprise to outsiders who took note of the weapons lost to graduation last year. New quarterback Brayden Fraasman (818 yards rushing, 11 touchdowns) and running backs Riley Caldwell (569 yards rushing, five touchdowns) and Aidan Brown (533 yards rushing, five touchdowns) have picked up right where their predecessors left off.
“That’s what fueled a lot of these guys from last year,” Commins said. “People telling them we were a one-and-done or a flash in the pan because of one class. That irritated the kids, irritated the coaches like we had just prepared one class for one season. But at the same time, you drown that out. Expectations are what they are here, and the senior class is meeting those expectations of not being outworked, and the result of that is winning football games.”
Badin-Fenwick canceled: Fenwick had to cancel its Greater Catholic League Co-Ed rivalry against Badin this week because of COVID-19 protocols. The undefeated Rams, the state’s second-ranked team in Division III, were trying to find a new opponent but as of Thursday afternoon, they had not been able to replace the game.
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