Over the last few years, Sachse’s offensive strength has been on the line of scrimmage.

This season, they have a few more questions than answers as the Mustangs just return one starter to the line of scrimmage from last season. As they’re working out some of the younger kids to see who can handle the varsity level, coach Mark Behrens knows it’ll take some work this fall for this group to compete.

“We have some young pups we’re looking to get on the field and just get some experience,” Behrens said. “We haven’t played this many young guys on the offensive line in a while and it’ll be an adjustment for those guys at first. They are talented players and we’re going to keep getting them bigger and coaching them up.”

Fortunately for the Mustangs, their returning starter is one of their best players from last season, center Austin Smith. A first-team all-district center for the Mustangs, Smith was named the team’s offensive most valuable player last season and brings plenty of experience to the Sachse middle.
He takes on a major leadership role for the entire Sachse offense, including calling out coverages for his younger teammates at the line of scrimmage.

“Austin is a great kid and great leader for us, he’s truly the quarterback of the offensive line,” Behrens said. “If he was a couple of inches taller and a couple of pounds heavier, every school in the country would be looking at him for college. He’s a very talented player and the kind of kid every coach wants in his program.”

Smith brings experience to the offensive line, and was working hard throughout the spring to get his teammates up to speed on the offense and what’s expected for next season. Among his teammates, Aidan Pierce slots into a starting tackle position as a junior from the junior varsity team, while juniors Devun Noudaranouvong and Jackson Schmidt at guards and senior Tristan Dobney at the other tackle spot, though he’s recovering from an injury.

While the team has an idea of who might start at those positions, the depth gets a little more difficult to pinpoint with several sophomores battling for time at the varsity level, including Brett Hough.

“We’ve got some guys on the defensive side of the ball that might have to fill in until those younger guys are ready, but it’s tough to pinpoint right now,” Behrens said. “We don’t have a lot of depth and we want our younger players to get some reps on the junior varsity team. We’ll have to get creative with some guys if they need to step up from the defensive side to help out in case of emergency.”

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