ROBERTSDALE, Ala. – The Spanish Fort Toros will be young and inexperienced this season, but head coach Mark Freeman isn’t going to let the defending 5A state champions make excuses because of it.

The Toros finished 14-1 and beat McAdory in the 5A championship game in Auburn in December behind a big, talented senior class and a two-year starter at quarterback. Those guys aren’t coming back, but Freeman expects nothing but the best from the team he has.

“We always expect good things,” Freeman said. “We aren’t going to make any excuses about how young we are or who we lost from last year. We are going to go to work every day to win the games we are supposed to win. If we win all the right games we will be in the playoffs. And when the playoffs get here we have to be the best team we can be. I don’t know if that will happen but I do know that when it is game time our kids always compete.

“We aren’t going to lay on the ‘we are young’ thing. We are going to put the best team on the field with no excuses.”

Spanish Fort’s players refuse to rest, too. Many of them don’t wear their championship rings and last year isn’t on their minds heading into fall practice Aug. 2.

“I never wear mine,” returning lineback Chasson Milner said. “I put it up. It is great to look at but I want to focus on getting another one.”

Milner is part of a Toro defense that Freeman is counting on to be good with five returning starters.

“I can’t say enough about where the defense is or how much they have progressed from being so good last year,” Freeman said. The Toro defense was especially good in the playoffs, surrendering just 12 points per game while the offense averaged 37 points in the post season.

“We have the potential to be better this year on defense,” senior linebacker Matt Hall said. “I know that our defense wasn’t the strong point at the beginning last year, but we got stronger at the end. This year we are going to have to help out our offense until they can get going.”

Spanish Fort will replace two-year starting quarterback Joel Poe with sophomore Tyler Johnston, who Freeman looks forward to having in his pass-oriented system for three years.

“We feel like we’ll be able to get three really good years out of him,” Freeman said. “Tyler has a very strong arm. The thing about him is that he is a fun kid to coach. He is a learner. He is with me every day, and that means he has a tough road because I am super hard on my quarterbacks. They have to be our coach on the field on Friday nights. That kid is a tremendous competitor.”

Johnston will have a reliable receiver back in Sammy Harris, Spanish Fort’s top returning pass catcher.

“I think we are going to be good this year,” Harris said. “Tyler has to learn the offense just like Joel did. He is doing well in 7-on-7. We took second place in the Tuscaloosa competition. He does more with his feet. He’s just a playmaker. I don’t think we’ll have much drop off from last year.”

The Toros open the season on the road against Class 6A Daphne, who they beat in last year’s season opener.

“We don’t hate Daphne, we respect Daphne,” Freeman said. “We respect what they’ve done and what they are doing. We respect them as a program. We try to get our kids the toughest schedule we can every year. We want to play the best teams. We were ready for the championship game last year because we had played big games before that.”