By RICK SOLEM
rick@580wkty.com
He’s 6-foot-7, 300 pounds. He’s going to the University of Wisconsin next year to play football.
He’s led Monona Grove High School to a game from the state championship, plowing the way for three backs with a combined 2,498-yards rushing and 35 touchdowns this season.
His name is Jaden Gault and Logan High School isn’t intimidated.
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The Rangers take on Gault and Monona Grove at 7 p.m. tonight at Baraboo High School in the WIAA Division 3 semifinals. Pregame starts at 6:45 p.m. with Mike Kearns and Scott Erickson on AM 580. Click the link to the left to watch or listen to live streaming of the game.
“With our scheme right now, it’s not like we’re trying to put somebody over the top and try and overpower him,” said Logan coach Casey Knoble, whose team has never been this deep into the playoffs.
Gault is big. Everyone knows that. The Rangers are well aware and probably sick of hearing about it. But this is nothing new for them, being outsized.
“We certainly haven’t walked onto the field one time this year and thought we were bigger than anybody,” Knoble said. “We try to offset our size differential.”
Logan does that with schemes. And speed. Speed helps.
“If we can’t contain that type of speed,” Monona Grove coach Michael Stassi said, “we have to shut that down or it’s going to be a long night for us.”
The Rangers have the kryptonite for a big, overpowering offensive line. It’s called speed. You can’t overpower an opponent against whom you can’t maintain a block.
“We’re going to do what we’ve been doing all year long, (using) our quickness and shooting people in and out to try and confuse that offensive line,” Knoble said.
Gault will, of course, be troublesome for the Rangers, but only on one side of the ball. The future Badger only plays offense.
“He’s just one of those great big kids. He’s has good dimensions, good feet. They’re obviously drafting him for his body, size and feet. They’ll turn him into something.”