U-Hi Titans ready for battle

There’s an old saying that goes: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Alternately, it reads “When the teacher is ready, the student appears.”

Either reading applies this season at University High School, where Year Two of the Bill Diedrick Era kicked off its Greater Spokane League football season last night at home against Ferris.

With a list of a dozen former quarterbacking pupils playing or having played in the National Football League, Diedrick has long been considered one of the top offensive minds in football, posting a long career in both the major college ranks and the Canadian Football League.

So there’s little wonder students will find their way to him.

This year Diedrick entered the spring figuring he’d need to find a starting quarterback.

And then appeared a pair of qualified applicants.

First, senior Jeff Moe transferred from Central Valley. Next, former Gonzaga Prep junior Connor Johnson transferred to U-Hi. Together they’ve battled neck-and-neck for the team’s starting job at quarterback.

“Those two young men have both done a fine job and are competing well,” the coach said. “We went from having to find a starting quarterback to having some quality depth at the position.”

Going into last night’s opener, Moe had the nod as the starter, as much for the fact that he’s the senior as anything else, Diedrick said.

“I think you’ll see them playing about the same amount of time,” Diedrick said. “Jeff has been here a little bit longer and I think that’s given him a little bit of an edge. And you always like to give the nod to the senior when you can.”

Last year’s starting quarterback, Tony Tabish, was an All-GSL first-team selection after completing 137 of 238 passes, good for 1,848 yards with 14 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

“What was difficult for Tony was the change in terminology,” Diedrick said. “He may have been looking at the same thing, but what we call it as opposed to what they’d called it the year before was different. What we called ‘Montana,’ for example, could have been called ‘Idaho” before. For a while there, he was translating. But he got the hang of it as the season wore on.

“This year I think everyone is a little ahead of the curve. Our coaches, especially our freshmen coaches, struggled with the same thing. This year everyone is more familiar with it and I think that will make a big difference.”

With the most returning starters of any team in the GSL (15), familiarity becomes a big factor.

A year ago Diedrick spent the summer analyzing just how good his players were before launching into a season that saw the Titans reach a three-game mini-playoff with Gonzaga Prep and Ferris for a playoff seed – falling to the Saxons, 10-0 in an eight-minute mini-game for that berth.

This year, the coach and his staff have been focused on helping his players be the best players they can be.

“That’s a big difference,” the coach said. “I’ve been very pleased with the work our kids have put in over the summer and very pleased with the results. You can see that the kids who were dedicated and did the work are faster and stronger.

“It gives you the chance to see who is truly committed to the program and who is willing to do the work to make themselves better.”

Diedrick won’t have to wait long to see the fruits of his team’s summer work.

In addition to last night’s opener against Ferris, the Titans will face three more Class 4A opponents: Lewis and Clark comes to U-Hi on Friday before the team hits the road for games at Gonzaga Prep and Central Valley.

“You have to play them all sometime,” Diedrick said. “I don’t mind playing tough games to start the season.”