I like Mike Schartz’s frankness. Campus was 1-8 last season and he makes no bones about his team needing to compete much better this season. Not just in districts, where one of three programs with recent struggles (Campus, North, South) gets into the 6A playoffs alongside Northwest. But also in the ultra-loaded first division of the AV-CTL. Derby, Hutchinson, Newton and the Salina schools make each non-district week an adventure for the Colts.

“Each week it’s a battle,” Schartz said. “We want to have that mentality like the TCUs and the Boise States, that we’re going to compete well against the best.”

Schartz thinks he has the players to begin to do that in 2012. He’s got big, strong, in-shape linemen to build around. Running back Kaden Ivy rushed for 595 yards last year as a sophomore, but he’ll have pressure taken off him with the addition of sophomore QB John Bradley Becker, who left the Haysville district for Carroll before his freshman year, then transferred back to Campus in the spring. Schartz said Becker won honors recently at an underclassmen quarterback camp in Florida.

Here’s a look at the Colts’ schedule. It’s a brutal September grind, but if Campus can cut down turnovers (31 last season) and stay healthy, October has potential.