Written by: Marlowe Hereford
Madison began a new era last season with Chandler Rhoads taking over as head coach following the retirement of Mitch Buck.
A former assistant coach to Buck, Rhoads guided the Bobcats to their first winning record since the 2018 season and the first round of the 5A state playoffs. Among those wins was a 31-28 victory over rival Rigby in the regular season finale, the lone loss in 2021 for Rigby en route to the 5A state championship.
All four of Madison's losses came to teams which reached the state playoffs, including eventual 4A state champion Skyline, 5A state runner-up Highland and Meridian, which reached the 5A state semifinals.
While wide receivers Cam Porter and Logan Crane graduated from last year's team, the Bobcats do return quarterback Ben Dredge and linemen Caden Cottle, Andrew Walsh and Klarke Mckaine, all of whom are seniors.
Rhoads said the Bobcats aspire to have a balanced, spread offense this fall and are striving to be more physical.
Defensively, the goals are similar.
"(We) hope to continue to develop physicality," Rhoads said.
He added that the Bobcats are looking to develop depth defensively.
The biggest key factor for success in 2022, Rhoads said, is to stay healthy.
The Bobcats begin the season August 19 with a nonconference contest at second-year program Owyhee. The regular season will end with conference contests versus the defending 5A state runner-up and 5A state champion in consecutive weeks: an Oct. 14 home game versus Highland and an Oct. 21 game at rival Rigby.