Neosho football will look quite different in 2021.
The Wildcats finished 2020 with an 0-10 record but the upcoming season is a clean slate with Brandon Taute taking over the program as the new head coach. Taute is the former offensive coordinator for Joplin. With the Eagles, Taute was in charge of a prolific scoring offense that resulted in some of the best success the Joplin program has ever seen. Now, Taute brings that success to Neosho.
“I am excited,” Taute said. “We have an awesome group of kids. I have a great coaching staff with me and the community has been super accepting and supportive of us. I am excited for what we have going and what we’re building for the future.
“(My time at Joplin) was huge for me. I got to work with some really good coaches in Joplin, and I got to work with some really good athletes. I learned so much in my time there, stuff that I took from each coach that I worked with. Coach (Curtis) Jasper was such an awesome head coach to work for. He let you take on so much responsibility and ownership of what you’re doing. Being able to work under him and with the guys I worked around really set me up for this opportunity.”
Since taking the helm, one of Taute’s biggest focuses has been changing the culture. Of course, following a winless season, it can be difficult to change the players’ mindset.
“Since Day 1, we talked about focusing on today and getting better today,” Taute said. “Our goal was to be better than we were yesterday. … We challenge the kids to ask themselves if they are better than they were yesterday. If they can answer yes to that question, then we are taking steps in the right direction.
“All of the wins and losses will take care of itself. We haven’t talked about goals in terms of number of wins, it’s all been about focusing on the moment and seizing the opportunities we have. We can’t look at things like practice, or time in the weight room or speed development as something they have to do, but as an opportunity they have to get better. And the kids have bought into it. They are super high-character kids and I am really excited about their development.”
When a new coach takes over, that generally means there will be a system change. Offensively, the Wildcats will be switching to the spread offense, much like Taute ran while with the Eagles. Of course, the plan is to ultimately fit the offense — which will be run by new offensive coordinator Dayton Whitehead, who came over from Joplin with Taute — to the players’ skills on that side of the ball.
“It is going to be similar to what we’ve done in Joplin,” Taute said. “We have a really good group of (coaches) who buy into the philosophy of what we are doing. … We will adapt as the year goes on and our offense will tweak every week to fit the kids we have. We have a pretty good grasp right now, but that will change week to week when we see how the kids perform under the lights.”
With several seniors coming back to the defensive side of the ball, Neosho plans to keep much of the prior defensive scheming in place under holdover defensive coordinator Erik Yoakam.
“Coach Yoakam was the DC for the last four years here at Neosho,” Taute said. “They have a group of coaches who are familiar with each other and the system they are running. … The kids are familiar with the defense he runs and that has been a huge help to us. With a whole new offense and teaching the kids new terminology, it’s nice not to have to do that on both sides of the ball.”
Neosho brings back returning starters DL/OLB Marcus Duncan, OLB Tristen Linders, WR/DB Isaiah Green, OL/DL Nico Olivares, OLB/RB Collyn Kivett, RB Talon Mitchell, OL Seth Green, WR/DB Logan Whetzell, QB Evan Haskins and OL Pete Houk.
Other players expected to contribute heavily at the varsity level this season includes LB Jeremiah Cobb, DB Aidan Howell, DL Hunter Stockton, DL/OL Eric Renner, OLB/RB Jared Siler, DB/WR Landon Werneke, DB/RB Noah Reed, DE/TE Andrew Rupert and OL Carter Baslee.
Neosho opens the season on the road against Republic with a 7 p.m. matchup on Friday.
