Walnut Hills Eagles (D1 Region 4)
Head coach: G. Benjamin Myles (2nd year, 0-10 at Walnut, 9-24 career)
Assistant coaches: Jerrell Moore, Jerry Thomas, Justin Beers, Mark Fightmaster, Mike Woolfork, Rob Morton, Tony Mitchell Jr.
Record last season: 0-10 (0-9 ECC)
Record the season before that: 0-10 (0-9 ECC)
Record the season before THAT: 2-9 (1-7 ECC)
Notable losses (graduates): RB Zion James (604 rush yards, #8 in ECC, 123 tackles, #1 in ECC, first-team all-ECC), OG/DE Dezmond Gayle (6.0 sacks, #8 in ECC, 16.5 TFL, #1 in ECC, second-team all-ECC), WR/DB Braden Upp (205 receiving yards, 1 TD, 2 INT on defense), C Taysean Behanan, OT Omar Mrabet, P Juan Cruz-Garcia, K Kaelyn Carr (no more girl kicker RIP)
Notable losses (transfers out): KR/DB Javien Jackson (4 INT, 9 PD on defense, 422 KR yards with a long of 60, first-team all-ECC) (Princeton), LB Michael Sammarco (St. Xavier), DB Josiah Ravilus (Withrow), QB Chris Potts (Colerain)
Notable returners: QB Will Rivers (193 yds/game, 52.1 CMP%, 5 TD, 6 INT), WR Ty Austin (21 rec, 262 yards, 3 TD, 2 100-yard games, third team all-ECC), WR Mark Bronson (31 rec, 333 yards, 2 TD), DE Kade Fightmaster (3.0 sacks, 1 INT, 1 FF/FR), OL/DL Donovan Gayle, OG Stevie Gordon, DB Christian Parker-Rowe, RB/LB Jared Ross, WR/DB Dashaun Hoskins
Interesting newcomers / breakout candidates: DE Braylon Coleman, DB Braylon Dennis, DT Johnathan Smith, OL Fender Sardo, OL Brady Knollman, K Colin Ross, WR/DB Jaylon Cromwell (transfer in - Sycamore)
Outlook: Walnut Hills has not had a winning season since 2011, when everything came together under HC George Kontsis to get the Eagles to their only 7-win (and 8-win) season in the playoff era. When the pinnacle season in your team's history is a 54-point loss in the first round of the playoffs, that says a lot about what life as a Walnut Hills supporter is like.
In the present, Walnut holds a 27-game losing streak, the fourth-longest in Ohio entering 2024 and longest among D1 teams. Another winless season would extend the streak to longer than their 36-game streak in the mid-oughts, although that streak at least ended with the Eagles getting Kontsis. The reasons for how this current streak came to be are numerous and have been argued to hell and back on this forum, but Walnut's consistent loss of talent to the transfer portal compared to what they can bring in plays a big part.
Although the Eagles scored a miserable 6.5 points per game on offense last year, there is reason for optimism. Walnut returns quarterback Will Rivers and receivers Ty Austin and Mark Bronson, who if unlocked correctly could form one of the better passing attacks in the ECC. The pieces surrounding them are not clear as of now. Walnut's key to offensive success lies in the trenches, where they were very weak last year as an already poor O-line suffered many injuries throughout the season, and lose sturdy contributors Taysean Behanan and Omar Mrabet. Walnut may turn to the young bucks in that room to grow alongside anchors Donovan Gayle and Stevie Gordon, but it could lead to some struggles against the early parts of their schedule as the line figures itself out.
There is less room for optimism on defense as first-team all-ECC DB Javien Jackson announced his transfer to Princeton so that he could do silly things like "winning football games", so the Eagle defense across the board will be young and shaky. I project their best two defensive players to be their DEs, senior Kade Fightmaster and sophomore Braylon Coleman, who both grew well during the course of last year and are having good offseasons. Beyond that, the Walnut defense is looking for a multitude of players to break out on all levels of the field. Senior Donovan Gayle, who got hurt early in the season last year, returns as the heaviest player on the team. Senior Jared Ross is in the same boat, having forced 2 fumbles in limited action but not being able to stay on the field. Sophomores Jonathan Jackson Jr., Braylon Dennis, and Joshua Thornton are all looking for emergent seasons after changing their numbers this offseason and adding some weight. Junior Jaylon Cromwell is Walnut's only transfer add this season, but it's unclear if he will have an impact as he was just a depth piece for Sycamore last year. All of these players, plus others, will need to step up their game for Walnut to be able to compete with the high-flying offenses of the ECC.
The special teams were, uh, quite awful last year, and have been for a while. Walnut has not converted a field goal since the season finale of the 2020 season, a stretch spanning 30 games, even longer than The Streak. Last year's Little Miami game also featured a number of special teams miscues by Walnut, which contributed heavily to their loss in that game. The unit will need to clean up their act across the board. Sophomore Colin Ross is the likely starter at both kicker and punter.
Walnut Hills opens the year at home against Western Hills in a battle of teams with double-digit losing streaks against D1 opponents. It's the most winnable game on the schedule by a long shot. They also draw Turpin and Little Miami early in the season, two of the three ECC opponents that Walnut kept within 20 points of in 2023. If they're good enough to win all three, they can probably snag a low playoff seed, but if they lose all three of those games, then it's all but guaranteed The Streak will chug along into 2025.
2024 Schedule:
8/23 - WESTERN HILLS - 4-7 in 2023
8/30 - MILFORD - 11-1
9/6 - TURPIN - 3-8
9/13 - at Little Miami - 1-9
9/20 - at Winton Woods - 8-4
9/27 - LOVELAND - 5-6
10/4 - at West Clermont - 4-7
10/11 - ANDERSON - 13-2
10/18 - at Lebanon - 7-4
10/25 - KINGS - 6-6
Gun-to-my-head record prediction: 0-10. They'll find some crazy way to lose the Western Hills game and then won't be able to make any noise in the ECC with their defense.
