Mark Spader speaks Thursday after being announced as Bowling Green High School’s new head football coach during a news conference at the school.

For several months following that mid-November night at El Donaldson Stadium, the scoreboard didn’t reset. Interim head coach Mark Spader used it as motivation when Bowling Green’s football team ran bleachers during winter conditioning.

“I joked that if I turned that scoreboard on when we run the stadium in the cold, it would say 28-21,” said Spader, who was officially hired as coach a few months later. “If somebody wanted to quit or slow down, I’d say to wait a minute and look at that scoreboard. That’s our lasting memory of the season.”

That taste of humble pie – a 28-21 home loss in the 5A regional final to South Warren – might be what Bowling Green needed.

It’s a new era of Purples football on Rockingham Avenue. Longtime defensive assistant Spader was promoted to head coach after Kevin Wallace, now at St. Xavier, led the program for 22 years and won five state championships from 2011 to 2016.

Minimal staff changes followed, so there hasn’t been a culture overhaul in the Purples locker room. But there is a taste of hunger with the ending of 2017 still fresh and a lackluster unofficial start to the season in a scrimmage at Louisville Male last week.

Spader referred to the scrimmage loss as a wake-up call before Bowling Green opens the year in the Rafferty’s Bowl against Central Hardin on Saturday night at Western Kentucky University’s Houchens-Smith Stadium.

“Last two games, we’re 0-2, so that’s never a good feeling,” senior linebacker Miles Smith said. “We’re just trying to get a lot of things corrected and changed. A lot of guys are motivated.”

Beau Buchanan returns as the senior quarterback after taking over as the starter last season. With an offseason conditioning program and a diet that has him 40 pounds heavier, Buchanan is stout physically and confident mentally to lead the offense now led by coordinator Kyle McGraw.

Buchanan stepped into the Purples’ signature spread offense last year and held his ground despite offensive line issues throughout the season. He threw for 2,287 yards, 25 touchdowns and didn’t have an interception until throwing three of them in the finale against the Spartans.

Another year under his belt and a revamped offensive line coached again with the return of former Greenwood coach Chris Seabolt, Buchanan thinks the Purples can work faster. Senior Sam Vitale anchors that offensive line at the center position.

“It’s about the same, only a lot faster,” Buchanan said. “We definitely need to be in better shape than last year because we’re going a lot faster.”

Junior DeVito Tisdale and Jamil Smith will be the featured running backs. Tisdale (6-1, 185 pounds) is rated a 4-star prospect by 247sports with offers from FBS programs Oklahoma, Louisville, Kentucky, Purdue, Tennessee and Western Kentucky.

Senior wide receiver Harrison Riggs returns after missing the majority of last season with an injury. Junior receiver Elvin FoFanah and sophomore tight end Jordan Dingle are expected to make impacts as first-year varsity players.

Defensively, Spader will still run the defense from the sideline while Demont Franklin will act as co-defensive coordinator from the press box. The senior Smith leads a group looking to fill voids left from defensive end Devan Jackson and linebacker Justice Dingle, now playing at Georgia Tech.

Senior Harris Tomblinson joins Smith at linebacker this fall and junior Keaton Oldham also returns as a starter. Senior Javon Martin steps in at defensive end and junior Terrion Thompson returns at defensive tackle.

Senior Jaylen Wardlow leads the secondary with Evan Spader returning and junior Tucker Preiskorn stepping up at cornerback.

“We’re a lot smaller this year but a lot faster,” Smith said. “We’re going to have to use those key points to stopping the run and stopping the pass and use our speed to our advantage.”

Buchanan added that the bit of humbleness the Purples experienced in the offseason has led to maturity on both sides of the ball, noting he noticed it on the defensive side from an offensive player’s perspective.

“Coming off that loss from South, that really humbled us,” Buchanan said. “An example from last year was when we played Male and beat them (in a scrimmage), I feel like everybody was going into the Rafferty’s Bowl like, ‘Hey, we’re Bowling Green and we should win.’ We won, but we didn’t play nearly as well as we should. This year I get a completely different vibe from everybody. I feel like everybody is completely focused.”

BOWLING GREEN SCHEDULE

Aug. 18 – Central Hardin*

Aug. 24 – Pleasure Ridge Park

Aug. 31 – at St. Xavier

Sept. 7 – at Owensboro

Sept. 14 – at Warren Central

Sept. 21 – Greenwood

Sept. 28 – Grayson County

Oct. 5 – OPEN

Oct. 12 – at Warren Central, Ind.

Oct. 19 – at South Warren

Oct. 26 – Bullitt Central

*Rafferty’s Bowl at WKU

Follow sports reporter Elliott Pratt on Twitter @EPrattBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.