New rules and QBs: 8 questions heading into the start of high school football practice

Seven points.

That’s not a touchdown. You can get there with a kick, unless you try for two.

Seven here represents the number of key questions heading into the high school football season in the Daily News area. Massachusetts (along with Connecticut) is one of the last states in the country to begin playing games, kicking off after Labor Day. (The first game in the US was in Utah on Aug. 10 while Alaska, Hawaii and California began the following day).

When we reach the end zone, see below if we go for one or two points.

1. Will the weather allow football practices to begin Friday, which is the first day Mass. schools are allowed to start?

The forecast calls for a likely chance of thunderstorms and gusty winds. The first two days are mandated as “conditioning only.” Helmets are worn but no contact is allowed. Some coaches may opt to move indoors or pivot to another part of the day: Medway and Ashland start as early as 8 a.m. while Marlborough and Algonquin don’t begin until 5:30 p.m.

The chance for storms is listed at 80% for Framingham on Friday. Saturday appears to be the driest day of the week, meaning that day could become the opener for some teams. Sunday is a mandated day off.

2. What are this year’s new rules?

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Football Rules Committee made seven revisions at its January meeting in Indianapolis. Two of them are notable.

The first is that penalties that occur behind the line of scrimmage will no longer be marked off at the spot of the foul, but rather the previous line of scrimmage. No more first-and-25 plays.

“That just never made sense to me,” said Franklin coach Eian Bain of the previous rule. “I never understood the rule; I’m glad that it changed back.”

Current penalties for illegal kicking, batting and participation fouls, as well as provisions for offensive fouls occurring in the end zone that may result in a safety, remain intact, according to the NFHS.

Another rule change concerns identifying defenseless receivers who incur unnecessary contact.

“You can no longer drop a shoulder into a defenseless player, even if you have both feet on the ground,” said Milford coach Dale Olson. “You can wrap with your arms. You now have to allow the receiver to come down, land and take a step; then you can drop a shoulder.”

Bain says the new rule “doesn’t de-incentivize the offense at all. I’ve always thought that the quarterback that makes that throw should face a penalty as well. You can’t put your guy in harm’s way. I think in some ways, it rewards poor offensive execution.

“I’m not talking about dirty hits and cheap shots, but if you just float a ball up over the middle, how is that receiver not going to be defenseless?”

3. Can new coach Zac Attaway and son Jake take Hudson another step toward a state championship?

The ‘20s have been a good decade for the Hawks. After a 3-7 season in 2019, Hudson has won 17 games in its two full seasons since, losing just one league game (Oakmont in 2021). Hudson has reached the Division 5 state quarterfinals in each of the past two seasons, and with new coach Zac Attaway and one of the state’s most talented quarterbacks – his son Jake – under center, could this be the year the Hawks creep closer to a Super Bowl bid?

The coach believes the seeds have already been planted.

“A big first step was our off-season commitment from our players,” Zac Attaway said. “A lot of kids did some extra work on their own, meeting down at the field every couple of days to get some throwing in and some running in. But those off-season workouts, we were averaging 50 kids a day. It was good to see the buy-in and the kids wanting to make that next step and get that extra playoff win and make a big run in the playoffs.”

4. Can coach David Wright lead Framingham to a winning season?

The Flyers’ COVID season in March/April of 2021 consisted of just four games, but they earned more wins (2) than in all of last fall (1). Framingham’s last winning season was 2011, when Greg Finley led the Flyers to a 7-4 record, including the team’s third Thanksgiving win over Natick in four years.

A 6-6 season in 2018 was Framingham’s best over the past dozen years.

This year begins with a difficult opening two weeks. East Longmeadow (8-2 last season) visits to open the season before the Flyers travel to Milton, which reached the Division 3 Super Bowl in ‘22.

5. How will Franklin and Milford replace two of the Hockomock League’s top QBs?

Franklin’s Jase Lyons (31 passing/rushing TDs) is off to continue his football career at Bryant University while Evan Cornelius will switch to baseball at Rollins College. Franklin junior Justin Bianchetto, a backup to Lyons last season, “is in position to get the first crack at it,” Bain said. Will Tyrell, also a junior, is part of the competition as well.

More: 'Definitely no easy game.' Hudson, Holliston, Natick, BVT have tough football schedules

Milford has an “open competition,” according to Olson, between senior lefty Owen Callahan, who was Cornelius’ backup, and junior Jack Buckley.

“Owen (6-feet, 165 pounds) is a long, athletic kid,” Olson said. “He runs pretty well, throws the ball pretty well on the move.”

Buckley stands 6-1, weighs 215 pounds and is “more like a pocket quarterback who has a smooth delivery and sees the field pretty well,” Olson said.

6. Will any local teams play on the state’s most well-known baseball fields?

Fenway Park hosted high school football games as far back at the stadium’s inaugural season in 1912. But after 1935, it was another 80 years before they returned, including Needham’s win over Wellesley in 2015. The last time locals played there was in ‘21 when Blackstone Valley Tech defeated Nipmuc, 47-19.

No announcements will be made until well into the fall, but a local team (or two) is due to line up at Fenway.

Assabet and Worcester Tech were the first public high schools to play football at Polar Park last October (Tech won 20-19). Hannah Butler, vice president of special events with the WooSox, said in an email to the Daily News that there will be football played at Polar on Oct. 1, but no announcement on teams has been made.

More: Lincoln-Sudbury two-sport star Jake Haarde commits to Penn State University for baseball

7. Will any locals finish their seasons at Gillette Stadium?

The last time area teams played for Super Bowl titles was 2019, when Ashland won the Division 6 crown at the home of the Patriots. Lincoln-Sudbury also made it that far, falling to Mansfield in Division 2.

The answer will not be known until November.

8. (We decided to go for 2!) What is the status on field projects at Blackstone Valley Tech and Algonquin?

BVT’s Postma Field is being resodded (with plenty of help from Mother Nature), forcing the Beavers to play two games in Grafton before the planned first home game on Oct. 21 against Assabet.

Two new turf fields are part of a large project – known as the Gonkplex - at Algonquin, which means the Titans will work out on the baseball field when practice opens Friday. The original plan had completion the first week of October.

According to coach Mark Allen, no announcement has been made on where Algonquin will play home games in the interim.

“Still a work in progress,” he said in a text. “(To be determined) right now but we’re trying to finalize that sooner rather than later.”

Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: 8 questions heading into the start of high school football practice