3A high school football preview: Expect quarterfinals to be close

When it was suggested to him that there will be perhaps a clear favorite in each of the four Class 3A quarterfinals this weekend, Hurricane coach Chris Homer made an astute observation — nobody in the classification should feel safe, not with the eight coaches and programs that are left in the tournament.

On one hand, you could make a solid argument that pre-tournament favorites Juan Diego, Park City and Hurricane should be considered favorites in their second-round home games against Cedar, Delta and Morgan, respectively, and that Region 10 runner-up Wasatch should be lumped in as a fourth favorite at home to Bear River.

But on the other hand, all eight teams left in the tournament are good ones. All eight come from established programs and have enjoyed stability under their respective coaches.

In particular, Homer pointed out that the coaches of the four so-called favorites — John Colosimo of Juan Diego, Homer of Hurricane, Brandon Matich of Park City and Steve North of Wasatch — should beware of the coaches of the four so-called underdogs — Todd Peacock of Cedar, Kovi Christiansen of Morgan, Russ Henrie of Delta and Chris Wise of Bear River.

"You're dealing with good coaches, with coach Henrie, coach Peacock, coach Christiansen and coach Wise," said Homer. "You look at that group of coaches right there, and I think every one of us is in trouble. In 3A, we've got super quality coaching, I think. There's eight good coaches left, regardless of talent, and I think any of us coaches could lose because of the great coaching that's out there.

"They'll have their kids motivated and ready to go."

It might be easy for any coach to heap praise on his peers, but in the case of Homer's assessment, it's dead-on.

Under the guidance of their respective coaches, the eight programs left in this year's tournament have enjoyed quite a bit of stability in recent seasons and have all enjoyed success at or near the top of 3A football.

"I think you get to a point where you say as a coach, 'This is what we're gonna do, and we're gonna hang our hat on that,'" said Colosimo. "And when you finally come to that realization that it's not smorgasbord — this is what we're gonna do offensively, this is what we're gonna defensively, and yeah, there are some limitations to those things, but we're just gonna really try to do them really, really well — that's when you start being successful year in, year out.

"I think all eight teams know what they wanna do on both sides of the ball, and we have no secrets. Cedar City has no secrets. They're gonna come out and do what they do, and we're gonna come out and do what we do. And we'll just see who does it the best and who doesn't make mistakes, and I think that'll be true in all four of those games that you'll see on Friday. There'll be four good games, I think."

The other coaches in 3A echoed those sentiments.

"I think the right eight teams are there — I'll be very honest with you — and I think it's gonna be a fun weekend," said Matich. "The most prepared teams, the most physical teams and the teams that get the luck of the bounce of that little football will be moving on."

e-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com