Jim O'Connell has seen just about everything during his 19 years as an assistant football coach, but he's been scratching his head a little this week as he studies the Ankeny Hawks.

O'Connell is the defensive coordinator for the Xavier Saints, who will play No. 1 Ankeny Friday night for the Class 4A state title in a premier matchup of 13-0 clubs.

Ankeny does a little of everything on offense and the Hawks do it well. They use spin backs, an old-fashioned ploy from the 1930's, and they use a spread offense with four and five wide receivers, which is the hot offense some 80 years later.

They use double tight-end formations and they run the option. They've got a quarterback who has passed for 52 touchdowns in his career and run for another 38 TDs while amassing 8,349 yards of total offense.

O'Connell, 46, has seen complex playbooks before, but he's not sure he's seen anything quite like this. In fact, he's not sure "book" is the right word to describe what they do.

"They've got a novel we're trying to go through," he said Wednesday before practice. "There's a lot of stuff you have to prepare for."

Ankeny has scored 586 points and is averaging 45.1 per game. Xavier has allowed just 98 points, a defensive yield of just 7.5 per game.

These two prep football powers will collide in the UNI-Dome Friday night with the kickoff scheduled for 7:06 p.m.

O'Connell sat in the stands last Friday and watched Ankeny defeat Southeast Polk in the semifinals. To say he was impressed would be an understatement.

"They looked like a college team out there," he said.

The Hawks have offensive tackles who weigh 260 and 270 pounds. Their guards measure 225 and 230, and all told Xavier's defensive line will be giving away an average of 20 pounds per man.
The Hawks are big and they're fast. That's a deadly combination. They can run and they can throw.

"We're going to start just like we do every week and try to stop the run first and move on to the pass," O'Connell said. "Maybe this week it's try to slow them down a little."

The Saints need to keep a sharp eye on Ankeny quarterback Joel Lanning, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior. Lanning has passed for 2,188 yards and 22 touchdowns this season and he's run for 905 yards and 15 more scores. He's been intercepted only three times.

"It's unbelievable. He's a good ballplayer. Good athlete," O'Connell said. "He knows what he's doing out there. He's a vital part of that offense and you have to pay attention to what he's doing."

Lanning is a triple threat who can run, throw or pitch the ball to a running back. Ian Berg, Ankeny's top runner, has rushed for 1,112 yards and 14 touchdowns, so the Saints have to worry about him as well.

O'Connell has seen some tremendous teams in the Mississippi Valley Conference over the years, including special squads at Iowa City High, Cedar Falls and Iowa City West. He's equally impressed with Ankeny.

"They're right up there with them," he said. "They can run the ball, throw the ball. They have a solid defense. Special teams are solid. That's why they're where they're at."

O'Connell is working on a game plan to slow them down, but he does not plan a lot of gimmicks or tricks. Just good, tough, fundamentally sound football.

"I don't go to Tama or Riverside and gamble, so maybe that's how I can answer that," said O'Connell, a farmer when he's not coaching football.

Xavier has excelled on defense with seven juniors in the starting lineup. He did not anticipate having that many 11th graders on the field, but plays the best guys regardless of their grade in school.

O'Connell thought the Saints had a chance to be solid on defense, but wasn't sure how it would turn out.

"I kind of take the adage from the Forrest Gump movie: A box of chocolates, and you don't know what you're going to get until you get them opened up."

Seniors Craig Murtha, Trey Sampson, Emeliano Martinez and David Kirpes set the example for the juniors. Daniel Vega, Matt Nelson, Logan Clarahan, Sean Ickes, Wes Gardner, Quinton Scholer and Miles Sullivan follow their lead and do some leading of their own.

"This year has been a blast," O'Connell said. "The older I get, the more I appreciate these young kids.

"This group, they can't wait to go through that gate for practice. They love to go play football. They don't care; they'd go out in the parking lot and play.

"They don't care, because they want to get together and play football. As a coach, that's unbelievable. This group is phenomenal with that."

O'Connell won a pair of Class 2A state titles as a player at LaSalle High School in 1982 and 1983 under head coach Tom Kopatich. He helped the Saints win the Class 4A title in 2006 as an assistant coach and will be aiming for his second title as a coach Friday night.

He's worked with Xavier head coach Duane Schulte for 19 straight years, including four years at LaSalle and the past 15 at Xavier. The Saints have racked up a 99-56 record the last 15 years and No. 100 would mean another state crown.

"You do well when you have good athletes," O'Connell said, "and you don't do well when you don't."