Football: Warren's skill set is ready for a big showing

Warren might not be the best show on its own field this season.

But the Blue Devils should still be pretty darn entertaining.

On Saturday, the Chicago Bears will stage a full practice on Warren's field in Gurnee as part of its efforts to connect with fans and local communities.

All the Blue Devils players and coaches will be in attendance, as will thousands of other Bears fans who snapped up the nearly 4,000 free tickets that were available.

When the Bears clear out, the Blue Devils will try to keep the excitement going with an offense that features two of the best wide receivers in the state of Illinois.

Warren head coach Bryan McNulty believes that senior Jalin Tolbert and junior Micah Jones will both be playing at the college level eventually. In fact, Jones has already gotten more than 10 offers from major programs such as Northwestern, Notre Dame, Iowa, Michigan State, Vanderbilt and Syracuse.

"We've got to get them the ball," McNulty said of Tolbert and Jones. "They are a quarterback's dream."

Speaking of quarterback, senior Luke Schmitt will try to get the ball in the air to Tolbert and Jones and Warren back to the playoffs in the process. The Blue Devils finished with a 6-5 record last season and a second round playoff appearance.

Schmitt opened the 2015 season as the starting quarterback and was tagged with back-to-back losses against two tough nonconference opponents. The coaching staff thought a change could help. Back-up quarterback Kyle Debevec got the nod and played so well that he stuck. He guided the Blue Devils to four straight wins and wins in five of their next six games.

But Schmitt kept his head up.

"It hardened him … in a good way," McNulty said of Schmitt and the quarterback switch. "The whole thing with what happened at quarterback was tough on Luke. He was a 16-year-old kid, and that was happening in public. But he handled it with grace and dignity and it drove him to work, work, work and it made him so tough. It's tough to rattle him now.

"He's got a quiet toughness to him and the kids really respond to him. He handled everything better than I could have ever imagined and now he's ready this year."

Also back on offense are linemen Lucas McNamara and Cameron Shaw and Melvin Pettis, who got starter reps last season at running back.

Romell Drake, Rashad Walker and Jason Dorsey, a basketball player who hasn't played football since eighth grade, will complement Pettis in the backfield and could all get between eight and 10 carries a game.

Defensively, Warren returns eight starters, including Jake Lange and Kale Bloomfield at safety and Scott Rogers, Kyle Vaughan, Shea Drew and Josh Wilson at linebacker.

"We've got a lot of speed on defense," McNulty said. "Our kids are long and they can run. It's a very cohesive unit."

McNulty says the Blue Devils worked on team cohesiveness from top to bottom, setting new expectations for behavior and attitude.

"We made it a point that we wanted to adjust the blueprint of our program," McNulty said. "It's a change in character for our program and with that change in mindset, I think we're going to see more wins."