Marques Council Jr. is not focusing on what might be missing.
The Aliquippa junior — now thrown into the pressure cooker of his first preseason as the Quips starting quarterback — has dealt with 16 players and a couple of high-profile Division I recruits graduating from a team that went 14-0 en route to earning their program’s record 20th WPIAL championship and fifth PIAA title a season ago.
Then just before players took to Aliquippa’s still freshly renovated Heinz Field to begin preparing for the 2024 season in July, coach Mike Warfield announced he was taking a “temporary” leave of absence. His protégé, Vashawn Patrick, was charged with leading the Quips in 2024.
“At first I did feel a little bit of pressure, but the more you’re out here, the more you realize that you’ve got a whole army behind you,” Council said. “There’s not really no need to feel pressure.”
Now Council, Patrick and Aliquippa’s seemingly traditional fresh crop of Division I talent are poised to lead the Quips back to Acrisure Stadium for a 17th consecutive season this fall.
“Nothing has changed at all,” Council said. “[Coach Patrick] knows what he’s doing, and we know the expectations here.”
While Patrick said Warfield has not maintained his usual daily physical presence around Aliquippa’s program, the coach who led the Quips to a 74-6 record with four WPIAL championships and three state titles over the past six seasons has remained as a resource this summer.
“He’s giving me my space to find my own way,” said Patrick, a 2000 Aliquippa graduate, who after his NCAA playing days at Kent State, served as a Quips assistant coach for the past 16 seasons. “I still reach out to him, we talk about certain situations, just being a first-year guy. He’s been a great mentor to me all this time.”
Aliquippa linebacker and running back Cleaster Longmire IV said the transfer of power at one of Pennsylvania’s premier football institutions has felt seamless so far.
“It’s the same Quips everybody has been seeing for the last decade, whatever,” he said. “It’s the same Quips. We never changed. Ever since we were little, we were undefeated all through. It’s the same people.
“People think because we lost some of our best stars, that we would go down,” he added. “We’re not going down that easy. Nah, it’s a challenge.”
That challenge has certainly been felt in replacing Warfield.
Aliquippa, though, has also had to make due without standout linebacker and running back Cam Lindsay, who is now a freshman at Pitt, while also contending with the loss of former wide receiver and defensive back Brandon Banks, now playing in the Ivy League at Yale.
Longmire said his teammates and coaching staff are taking the changes in stride.
“It doesn’t feel different at all,” he said. “It feels the same as the two years I’ve been here. It never changed. He was always under coach Mike. He learned everything from him, and he’s got everything to be a head coach. It’s no different at all.”
One thing that remains the same for the Quips is the presence of senior running back Tiqwai “Tikey” Hayes.
The Penn State recruit, a standout since his freshman season, rushed for 2,129 yards and 23 touchdowns last season. He will also be aided in the running game by Longmire and sophomore Sa’Nir Brooks, who has a scholarship offer from West Virginia.
“Tikey is just being Tikey,” Patrick said. “I’m just expecting him to be a leader and just everybody feed off of him.”
Patrick said Aliquippa’s offensive line should be formidable with the likes of Justus Starks, Mylez Green, Erick Raspberry and freshman Javon Cluckley leading the way in the ground game and in protecting Council.
“They’ve got some girth to them, but they can also run and move,” Patrick said. “We’re going to be a fast-paced offense.”
And that’s just fine with Council.
“It’s been going real good,” he said. “I’ve been here for two years now. So just being able to sit and learn and take in everything, I’m very confident going into this season.”
Council has been aided in replacing former Quips quarterback Quentin Goode — the first signal caller in school history to win three consecutive WPIAL championships — by a strong group of skill-position players.
Receivers Arison Walker, Larry Moon III, QaLil Goode and Josh Lay should provide plenty of trouble for opposing defensive backfields this season.
Moon is a transfer from Central Catholic and is one of the WPIAL’s most decorated recruits with a bevy of Power Five conference offers to his credit, including Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State and LSU.
“The offense is looking great,” Patrick said. “We’ve got a lot of key pieces here. Marques is doing a great job being a leader. Our line is just starting to come together and starting to jell. Skill guys in Aliquippa, you don’t have to worry about that.”
Patrick isn’t spending much time worrying about his defense, either.
Aliquippa’s front seven is led by Starks and Green, while Longmire, sophomore Shamar Underwood and West Virginia recruit Daiveon Taylor, a transfer from Bishop Canevin, anchor the Quips talented group of linebackers.
Hayes, Goode and Walker are again expected to excel in Aliquippa’s secondary with the addition of Moon adding a new wrinkle for opposing offenses to face.
“The whole defense, for real, they’re smart,” Longmire said. “We have chemistry and all that, we’ve been playing with each other for a long time and then reading the offense, we know what we’re doing. Everybody is just physical and smart.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.