Guilford is the most experienced team in NIC-10 football, with 16 returning starters.

The Vikings are also still relatively young, with 14 sophomores starting at least one game last year and quarterback Greyson Weber joining Belvidere’s Troy Vandenbroek, who did it in 2009, as the only conference freshman to ever lead his team in passing.

“We have a lot of kids with experience eager to go through the challenge of another NIC-10 season,” Guilford coach Tony Capriotti said.

The Vikings open Friday against a Belvidere North team that has gone 7-2 in the NIC-10 four years in a row and is hoping to win its first outright conference football title in school history. Guilford, 3-6 last year, hasn’t won the conference since its undefeated state championship season 42 years ago. But the Vikings knocked Belvidere North out of a share of the title with a 14-7 win in the season finale two years ago and could contend this year — if it can beat North in the biggest Rockford-area game of the opening week of the 2024 high school football season.

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“When you play a bunch of young kids, you expect a lot when those kids come back,” Belvidere North coach Jeff Beck said of Guilford’s youthful experience. “I’ve always told our kids, when they are juniors and they played on varsity as sophomores, we expect them to be seniors. It’s their second year of varsity football. I expect those kids to be experienced, to be a year better, to be a year more intelligent in their schemes.”

That starts with Weber, who shared time at QB last year but has the position to himself this season, a year after throwing for 637 yards on only 78 attempts, averaging 8.2 yards per throw.

“He made some nice plays against us last year as a freshman,” North’s Beck said. “The moment didn’t seem too big for him then.”

“He’s one of the best at knowing where to go with the football,” Capriotti said. “What I like best about Grayson is he is a team player who is going to make the right read and do what is the best decision for us to win. His cool under fire really helps everybody stay calm on that side of the ball.”

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Guilford has struggled on offense in recent years. Two years ago, when it went 7-2 in the league, was the only time in th elast decade the Vikings had a 1,000-yard rusher. It was also one of only two seasons in the last 10 that they had a 1,000-yard passer. They could again have both, with Weber and leading rusher Messiah Tilson returning.

“We talk to our kids about this all the time,” Capriotti said of being a threat to both run and pass. “It’s very much like basketball: Your run game is how you get to the rim and dunk the ball and you force defenses to stop it. And your pass game is the corner 3. You make them defend every corner of the field and they play off each other. We don’t worry about passing for X amount of yards, but rather see what the defense is going to take away and then have enough answers to attack the other areas of the game.”

If Guilford can do that, the Vikings could have their best season in 40 years. But Belvidere North could have its best season. Ever. The Blue Thunder last year reached the Class 6A quarterfinals for only the second time, where it suffered a narrow 14-10 loss. They also have a veteran team. With a host of experienced runners to fuel their option attack.

“But they are bigger than us,” North’s Beck said. “Is our pad level going to be good enough to maintain the line of scrimmage and get the ball fed to our guys? Their defense is going to give us a variety of different looks. We have to be ready to attack what the defense isn’t. Then for our defense, we have to limit the big play. I always sound like a broken record, but if we limit the big play, we will give ourselves a chance to be successful on defense.”

Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Can Guilford's young veterans grow up fast enough to tackle North?