LT Football Needs to Get It Together

9/21/2018

Oh no. The worst possible start for the Lions has come true. Coach Weinberg worked tirelessly this summer to make sure that LT would be ready for the daunting season ahead, but clearly did not have enough time to prepare this extremely young and inexperienced football team. An 1-3 (1-1 in conference) start with a state ranking of 206 wasn’t what anyone had in mind, but it didn’t come out of the blue.

After going 7-3 last season and a tough loss in the first round of the playoffs, LT knew their football team might crumble. Ben Bryant, the outstanding quarterback who lead the varsity team to winning seasons all four years of his LT career, graduated and took his talents with him to the University of Cincinnati. He was the thirteenth best football player in the state of Illinois and received various scholarships, most notably from the University of Wisconsin. The Lions also lost several key offensive and defensive pieces, each of them heading off to their respective colleges. The Lions knew that they had some gaping holes to fill, but it would clearly be a tough task.
They decided to start senior JJ Dutton at quarterback this season, a guy who did play the position for one year at Mount Carmel before transferring over to Lyons Township. It was a big gamble, however, as Dutton had won MVP on defense at defensive back for LT last season and was the Chicago Tribune athlete of the month after returning a 100-yard interception for a touchdown. LT would have preferred to keep him at his natural position, but sacrifices had to be made to win. Most of the other positions were filled with players who had little to no experience last year and would have to learn their positions on the fly.
Lyons football fans got a glimpse of how the season would go as LT took on Carl-Sandburg for the first game of the year. Although it was senior night and the home opener, giving LT a little something extra to play for, they did not seem ready to start the season. A 24-13 shellacking by the Eagles at Bennett field left the bewildered Lions players wondering if they might not make it to the playoffs again this season. They followed that with a 27-7 loss at Hinsdale South and a 28-0 loss at home against York. Dutton ended up breaking his right wrist against Hinsdale South, ending his short career as the LT quarterback, but did get an interception against York after switching positions. Thankfully, LT did makes its mark in the win column last week against Proviso West squeaking out a 13-7 overtime victory!

Here is hoping the winning streak is extended this week at Homecoming as our Lions take on the Leyden Eagles at 1:30pm on Saturday.

Come on LT, we’re pushing for you!

Want to know how the rest of the year plays out for LT football? Tune in to 88.1 FM WLTL LaGrange to catch every game both home and away this season!

1 Comment

Jay Dutton

6/6/2019 07:36:27 pm

I’m not sure why I’m responding to this after all this time, I suppose because I stumbled on it and it is my son, but as a former journalism major I’m always concerned when things are factually incorrect for no reason.

JJ Dutton was in no was, shape, or form a “gamble” at quarterback and he did not “play one season at Quarterback as a sophomore at Mt Carmel”. That’s couldn’t be the furthest from the truth.

First of all, his Uncle was a Divison II All-American QB/P and in his college’s hall of fame. JJ started playing QB as early as he could walk. He started at QB from the youngest age allowed (8 I believe) for the Hinsdale Falcons and by the time he was 14 was one of 2 QBs selected to the FBU All-Illinois team to play nationally , the same group that puts on the Army All-American team. One of the 2 best Illinois QBs by age 14.

The following year he lead LT to an 8-1 record as their Freshman QB (while sophomore Bryant got bumped up to varsity), and my understanding is that was the best freshman record 9n the history of LT, ahead of even Ben’s record.

After that season in the offseason, he tried out for the national champion “MIDWEST BOOM” 7-on-7 and beat out the best kids in Illinois for the starting job, where he took them to the National semifinals in Dallas and along the way was named the MVP of major national tournaments in Atlanta and Indianapolis which included tons of kids committed to D1 schools before even their sophomore years.

The only year he never played QB was as a junior because Ben Bryant was still there, but how did he handle the transition?..... Despite a broken thumb making it very difficult to catch or tackle anything, tougher it out for a team leading 5 interceptions including 2 for very long “pick 6” touchdowns, a fame sealing winner in the first game at Providence , and a very acrobatic catch with a huge catch against York. Here’s the link if you want to verify: http://www.hudl.com/v/28BHqU . He ended up defensive MVP and all- conference at a new position.

Sure he got hurt early his senior year, as did a ton of players hence the poor record. He and Ben were always different styles, Ben bigger with the bigger arm and JJ smaller but quicker and the better “dual-threat”. But JJ was groomed for that since elementary school and working with the top QB guru in Chicago for several years, so yes the senior year injury sucked but to call putting him at QB a “risk” is asinine . Just looked at what happened after he left , they had to bench the backup QB and put in. WR in “wildcat” formations.

The least risky thing about the 2018-19 Lyons football team was JJ Dutton at QB.

LT Football Needs to Get It Together

Leave a Reply.

Archives

Who Are We?