(KMAland) — The KMAland Summer Football Preview series continues today with the ACGC Chargers.

Coach Cody Matthewson and his Chargers have created a standard with a total of 36 wins over the past four seasons, including back-to-back 10-1 records.

“The kids continue to work hard,” Coach Matthewson told KMA Sports. “I think the kind of buzzword that we really use a lot is tradition doesn’t graduate. That’s something that can connect with the kids. At the end of the day, when we use that term, we’ve talked about year in and year out how we’re gonna graduate guys and have graduated guys, and I think those years speak for themselves.”

That creed will be put to the test again this season as they look to replace star quarterback Jathan South, who never lost a regular season game during his two years of starting.

“We got a couple guys who are gonna battle for (starting quarterback), but we went into 2023 with no quarterback at all,” Matthewson said. “Played both of them and rotated them at the Gatorade scrimmage. And Jathan South never lost a regular season game in his career, so I think that kind of sets the tradition doesn’t graduate type mentality and understanding the importance to it. We’re gonna plug in, we’re gonna get you ready and we’re gonna put guys in the best position to be successful. It’s the next man up mentality. I think our guys really buy into that.”

Along with South’s loss, another 1,000-yard rusher — Mike Fuller — has graduated. However, senior-to-be Joe Crawford went for 991 yards and classmate Brexton Schneider had 343 yards on the ground for the vaunted ACGC rushing attack.

Further, the offense may have some time to find their way with their new faces, as the defense returns star senior-to-be Xander Harwood, who had 11.5 tackles for loss among his team-best 70.5 tackles on his way to earning the district’s top defensive player award.

“He’s not gonna be a guy who’s gonna scare you when you walk off the bus,” Matthews said, “but it’s a kid that flies around and has a knack for the football. We use the phrase of playing with your hair on fire, and he sure as heck does that.”

Senior Carter Richter is another star defensive player, as he has earned back-to-back First Team All-State honors along the defensive line.

“(Richter) is a huge piece,” Matthewson said. “Jack Sheeder is going to be getting more reps on the defensive line, as he was just kind of an offense only guy and rotated in. (Schneider) was a guy who was a headhunter for us last year. We might move him around a little bit at our monster position. (Crawford and Tommy Skram) are two defensive backs that started every game for us last year. Both of them are back, and then you’ve got a lot of guys that rotated in and really stepped up.”

The Chargers are slated to play in Class A District 7 this cycle, and they are joined by AHSTW, Central Decatur, Mount Ayr, Nodaway Valley, Riverside and Southwest Valley. Their non-district games are at home with Panorama and at Madrid.

Check out much more with Coach Matthewson in the full interview below.

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