With nine returning starters on each side of the ball, Brighton has high expectations in 2022.
Hunter Harding had no shortage of role models playing his position when he came into the Brighton football program.
“Having a lot of guys like Cole Riddle, Zach Pardonnet, Brendan Mercier, Tegan Kogler, I looked up to them when I was a freshman and even my sophomore year when I played with some of them,” said Harding, a senior linebacker.
Young linebackers coming into Brighton this season are just as fortunate as Harding and his peers were a few years back. The position is not only stacked once again, but this year’s linebacking crew could go down as the best ever in a program that is traditionally strong in that regard.
“Maybe the best collective we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Brian Lemons, entering his eighth season as Brighton’s head coach. “We’ve had some good dudes, right? As a whole, this group is probably as complete as they come.”
The corps of Harding and senior Luke Frisinger as outside linebackers and senior Griffin Bell in the middle represents everything Lemons is looking for at a position that requires players to be hard-nosed while still having a firm mental grasp of the game.
“The three of them are so intelligent and so hard-working and so locked-in to the game plan that it’s going to be very seldom that they’ll get fooled,” Lemons said. “All three of them are college-level athletes. All three of them spend every waking minute thinking about football. They’re great guys. They complete our football team.
“I can tell you this: If we had an injury in the offensive line, I can take any one of those guys and fill in. If we had an injury at running back, I can take any one of those guys and fill in.
