No. 4 Bearcats embrace lofty hype

In the days that followed a crushing 17-10 loss to Destrehan in the Division I Nonselect state championship in New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome, Ruston head coach Jerrod Baugh came to his team with a clear goal.

Come back and win a state championship.

Looking back on his declaration to his team, who was still raw with the hurt of a loss in the state title game, Baugh said he would have done it differently.

But one thing he won’t change is how the Bearcats handle pressure entering the 2023 season.

Expectations are high. And Ruston isn’t backing away.

“I set the bar for them the day after we got back to school after the Christmas break is, ‘There is nothing that is acceptable other than winning a state championship.’ And that’s a lot of pressure to put on kids, and I probably shouldn’t have gone about it that way if I had to do it over again,” Baugh said. “But I wanted them to understand the sense of urgency we needed to have during the offseason and the summer because you’re not going to catch anybody by surprise.

“Everybody is going to shoot for you week after week and if you don’t bring that level of intensity through the offseason and through the summer, it isn’t like it magically happens when the season starts,” he continued. “ I wanted them to recognize what I felt like I knew. I felt like they’re going to read on the internet and what they’re going to read on the newspaper, what things people are going to say to them in the community. I wanted them to know what they’re going to be hearing and that I’m going to hold them to that standard of work, which is what we’ve always done.”

Now in his seventh season as head coach of the Bearcats, coming off the heels of a historic 2022 campaign, Baugh knows Ruston is the hunted this fall.

Finishing 12-2 and coming seven points short of reclaiming the crown as the best in the state will do that to a team.

And opponents remember the domination Ruston displayed last season on its way to New Orleans. The Bearcats had and still have multiple Division I prospects on defense and plenty of juniors with college interest.

The offense averaged 35.6 points per game and outscored opponents 499-249. On defense, opponents averaged 17.8 points per game.

Bringing back almost all the talent from a team like that matters, and Baugh knows his team embraces the bar set by outsiders.

“This is what you want the situation to be,” Baugh said. “That means you’re doing some things right in your football program, and you’ve got some kids that are bought in on what we expect them to do and the things we need them to do to play well. You go into a year and there’s a lot of expectations for our team, and that means people think you’re supposed to be good, and that means you have been good and that you’ve got enough coming back where people warrant it’s a situation where they expect for you to play well. And that’s where we’re at in our football program. That’s a good place to be.”

Baugh and his team won’t sneak up on anybody with the pieces coming back and the external hype surrounding them. When everybody expects you to be good, he believes the only option for the good teams is to step up to the plate and meet it head on.

Running away from the work it takes to be great? Not an option for Baugh. Not after spending so much of his life trying to turn the Bearcats into a winner.

He admits the time has changed him, and for the better.

“It’s flown by,” Baugh said. “It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago whenever I was taking over for Brad Laird. It’s been a good time. I feel like my communication has gotten better with kids and parents. I’m probably not as quick to turn a kid away or cut a kid loose as I initially had been.

“I don’t know if that’s head coaching experience or getting older or a combination, but I feel like my job is to help as many kids go to Ruston High. I don’t look at my job as being the football coach or just the athletic director,” he added. “I feel like my job is to get as many kids involved in whatever it is to try and have a positive effect on what their high school career looks like.”

But remember, these are 16-to 18-year-old kids. Hearing all offseason how good you are and how good you can be is a real force that can’t be easily put on the backburner.

Baugh isn’t worried when it comes to complacency, however.

With 10 returning starters and even more with at least half a season under their belt, along with a coaching staff refusing less than the best, standards are high even after the fun in 2022.

The Bearcats’ mission is clear. And Baugh can see this year’s team wants it.

“This group seems really focused on they want to win a state championship for Ruston High School,” Baugh said. “ They have gone about their business that way and I think, again, that can be a turning point for our football program that kids are getting the opportunity to see guys that have had really good high school careers that want to finish it off the right way and win as many ball games as they can. They want to win a state championship.”

No. 4 Ruston opens the 2023 season against Class 4A No. 7 Warren Easton on Friday at 7 p.m.