Folsom football team seeing good things during summer practice

Most every high school football team is not only excited for the upcoming season during the summer but is also optimistic of the kind of season the team is going to have. Everything looks good in practice when teams are practicing against themselves. Thing has looked good for the Folsom Bulldogs this summer, although their coach Paul Doherty doesn't think his team is as good as last year's team which made the Nor-Cal championship game and lost to Pittsburg. From that the Bulldogs lost six Division I recruits: defensive linemen Josiah Sharma and Theo Greule and linemen and tight end Nela Tupou, safeties Jaron Hodson and Kam Totten and running back Carter Jackson. "The summer program is going really well, better than a year ago," Doherty said. "Mostly because we've got a lot of returning kids, and it's Coach Irsik's second year here as defensive coordinator so there is more familiarity with his system, which is a totally different system than we had before. "So there is a lot more familiarity and the overall operation is better, the flow is better. We're not as good as a team. We don't have as many good players; we were exceptional a year ago, but the overall operation is better." Quarterback Ryder Lyons likes how things are going. Lyons himself will be in the news next week, as he will make it known to the world what college he will play for. "The summer is going great," Lyons said. "The team looks amazing, The O-line is amazing; the D-line looks great. I'm feeling good about the team." Lyons has a lot of returning starters with him on offense, including three offensive lineman in tackles Malachi Coleman and Vlad Dyakonov along with center Zach Ramirez, as well as his top three wide receivers in Jameson Powell, Isaiah Williams and Rob Larson. The Bulldogs had Casa Roble transfer Sunia Vuki lined up to start at guard, but tragically lost him for the season when he was diagnosed last week with having AVM. A cerebral arteriovenous malformation is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels in the brain where arteries connect directly to veins, bypassing the normal capillary network. Vuki, a 6-5, 350-pounder with an offer to Oklahoma State, would have given the Bulldogs a huge boost on the line. "We've got some really big guys out here, so I think the line will be great," Ramirez said. "We're all great players." Offensively, Doherty likes how Lyons has progressed now that he's in his senior year. "I think his day-to-day urgency and focus, not that it was bad before, but it's improved even more," Doherty said. "I think he's more aware of what the next level quarterback looks like. He went and saw what Bryce Underwood looks like at Michigan. He went and saw what Julian Sayin at Ohio State looks like and he saw what Dante Moore looked like at Oregon. He's been out there and seen these guys don't mess around. He's coming to me before practice asking me to go over the scripts and making sure everything is good. It's not all about him, either, but he's got to make sure everybody else is on the same page, so it's more of a leadership role. Lyons has been criticized for running too much or running when it's not necessary to run from the pocket at times in past years. Doherty said he's made improvements in that area. "He's had a ton of reps and he's got more experience of what the coverages are and where it should break open and how it's breaking open," Doherty said. "So when there is pressure, he has confidence of where that thing is going to go. He does a much better job of moving on to the next guy in the progression." Defensively, Folsom lost a lot of big-name starters from last year's team, but Lua Deberry returns to the lead the defensive line. "I'd said we're looking pretty good, we've just got to keep working toward that first game," Deberry said. "There are a lot of people to fill in since we lost those D-I guys. We're just getting those guys together, because they've got some big shoes to fill. I feel like we're doing a good job, the entire defense. The guys learned a lot from last year and now they know what to expect. I'm saying our defense will be pretty good this year." Folsom's defensive coordinator Jordan Irsik is pleased with how the defense has looked this summer. "It's their second year in the system, so even with the guys moving up from the lower levels there is some familiarity with the scheme and how we practice," Irsik said. "It's made for a pretty smooth transition even with a lot of senior turnover from last year's defense. "We've got a lot of green faces here but practice and understanding things have gone really well, even with the new faces. It's taking off really well, figuring out who can play what and experimenting with positions and different ideas. One of the benefits of having guys that are more experienced in the scheme, is we've been able to build on the scheme and run more things than we did a year ago so we'll have newer things on the call sheet because those guys have those foundation blocks to build on now."