Battle football looks to fill voids on offense while improving on three-win season

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Battle football team is returning nine starters on defense and majority of the offense, but they're working to fill the voids this summer of quarterback Justin Goolsby and running back Ricky Dunn.

Head coach and former Mizzou football player Jonah Dubinski said he has already seen guys on his team step up into bigger roles in the early days of summer practices.

"Justin and Ricky were special players, so filling their roles is something that I don't think in the high school level, you know, what you get is what you have we don't get to go recruit," Dubinski said. "Ricky's an incredible runner, well the O-line needs to block a little bit better because we don't have Ricky Dunn. Kee'on Marshall's done a good job at running back, Tyler Maze has done a good job, Alex Fernandez has stepped in at the quarterback position, he played tight end last year."

Watch the full interview with Coach Dubinski in the player below.

 Leading into Dubinski's second year at Battle, he was looking for consistency. Now in year three, he stands by that statement.

"I think it's a big part of success anywhere," Dubinski said. "Consistency has been building. Our kids are more consistent in the classroom, in the weight room on the field, so hopefully we continue to build on that."

Although the start of the season is over two months away, Dubinski said starting the consistency now is something that is critical to having a successful season.

"The teams who have everybody here, who get in good work, they're going to be farther on install, their offense is going to have more depth, their defense gonna have more depth, fundamentals are going to be better," Dubinski said. "It is beyond critical to our program and right now we've done a really good job with attendance and practicing. We've got to have 20 great practices this summer."

Battle is set to kick off the 2023 season on Aug. 25 at Park Hill at 7 p.m.