Signal Mountain

Head coach: Josh Roberts (24-31 here and overall)

Returning starters: 6 offensive; 7 defensive

Last year’s record: 6-5 overall, lost in Class 3A first round

Key players: Daniel Odom (6-4, 250) Sr. OT, Luke Alexander (6-1, 220) Sr. OG/DE, Ripley Hutcherson (6-3, 205) Sr. RB/LB, Blake Wolfard (6-4, 190) Jr. WR, Garrett Wilson (5-11, 175) So. RB/OLB, Cash Keene (5-11, 170) So. QB, Malik Aljack (6-1, 250) Sr. NG, Gilbert Vega (6-1, 210) Sr. DE

Season outlook: Entering his sixth season leading the program, Roberts believes the culture in the locker room is one of the Eagles’ biggest strengths.

“They know what we expect, and they show up ready to work,” he said.

Of course, he has positional concerns — any football coach who doesn’t is either blind or Nick Saban — but when asked about his biggest worry, Roberts offered the double-edged sword that is equal parts good and bad.

“In 3A football, you are always concerned about depth,” he said.

Which is fair, but it also is universal. And with a vast majority of his starters back across the offensive and defensive lines as well as returning the entire secondary, the search for depth for Roberts and Co.

will be eased by the knowledge of experience and talent among the No. 1 players in some of the most important spots on the field.

To that end, while Keene is relatively young as a sophomore quarterback, he did get valuable experience last season. Collectively, the returning starters, the buy-in from

the players in year six of Roberts’ tenure and the promising newcomers give Roberts understandable reason for optimism.

The offense will transition into more of an up-tempo style as Roberts said the Eagles have focused more on conditioning in order to wear on opponents.

“We aren’t real big overall, so we’d like to snap a new play every 15 seconds and take advantage of our guys being in better condition,” he explained. “But we also should be tougher up front, so when we need to slow it down and just run the ball, we want to be able to do that as we need to also.”