Nathan Smith spent a lot of his first season as Edmonson County’s head football coach relying on one player offensively and “shooting from the hip” on defense.

Smith was no stranger to Edmonson County in Year One of leading the program. He was a varsity assistant and the middle school coach for a number of years prior, but now he has a better grasp of what works and a wealth of experience to make it happen.

The Wildcats come off a 4-6 season where Daniel Caudill carried the offense with 1,544 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns. He averaged 154 yards per game and accounted for 45 percent of the Wildcats’ offensive production.

Caudill graduated, but Edmonson County returns starting quarterback Tucker Cole, its entire offensive line and a host of other skill players that might help make it tougher to game plan against the Wildcats.

“It probably won’t be one guy to step in and fill that role,” Smith said during the Sporting Times Media Day at 6-4-3 Sports Bar and Grill on Saturday. “That’s a pretty big hole to fill … We’ll probably spread the ball around a bit. We’re going to miss Daniel for sure, but at the same time, it’s nice to have a couple of different guys to get the ball to instead of Daniel so we can disguise what we’re going to do a little better.”

Junior Kenny Logsdon is the returning leader in rushing after netting 243 yards and a score on the ground last season. Senior Brayden Carey will also run from the backfield in addition to receiver duties. Carey had 236 receiving yards and three touchdowns last year.

Cole enters his third season as the Wildcats’ starting quarterback after throwing for 1,439 yards last season. Smith said Cole will have an expanded role this season as a mobile quarterback.

“I’m expecting some really big things,” Smith said. “He’s pretty athletic and he likes to move around in the pocket a little bit. We’ve done some things this summer to free him up a little more and use his ability to get outside the pocket and maybe create some mismatches for people and make decisions there.”

Part of what will help the offense is returning all five offensive linemen with four seniors and a junior in Tyler Cherry, Brett Brannon, Gary Porter, Chandler Jones and 6-foot-6, 370-pound junior Logan Hagan.

Brannon returns as Edmonson County’s leading tackler with 97 stops as a linebacker. Smith said he’d put the defense ahead of the offense at this point in the summer because of a change in scheme the coaches are familiar with. Last year they tried working out of an odd front, but now the Wildcats work out of an even front with four down linemen.

Smith hopes that change can make the difference in wins and losses. Last season, Edmonson County gave up 27.6 points per game, but three losses were by a touchdown or less and two more were by a nine-point margin.

“It makes it much more comfortable,” Smith said. “It fits much better and I know how to coach up every position again. We were just kind of shooting from the hip last year and trying some new things. We ended up late in the year going back to what we’re doing now, so we’re a lot more comfortable.”

Edmonson County will scrimmage Allen County-Scottsville on Thursday before opening the season at home against Caverna on Aug. 18.

2017 Edmonson County schedule

8/17 – Caverna

8/25 – Butler County

9/1 – at Grayson County

9/8 – Warren East

9/15 – at Metcalfe County

9/22 – Elizabethtown

9/29 – at Adair County

10/13 – Hart County

10/20 – at LaRue County

10/27 – at Barren County{&end}