Like any football coach, Plainfield East’s Brad Kunz likes a good game plan.

But in a spring season where just about every obstacle that could be placed in his program’s way was, Kunz made the decision that he couldn’t adhere to the rigid plans that he typically would.

“We had to throw a lot of things out, but we were happy with the spring that we had. We didn’t practice special teams a lot because we had to scale back somewhere. We onside kicked on almost every kickoff, we never punted, we always went for two,” Kunz said. “It was a spring where we were just trying to put the right pieces in place, and we didn’t have a lot of time to evaluate, but we had fun.”

That fun led to an awful lot of points scored and a lot of yardage stacked up, both for the Bengals and their opponents. They played the final game of their spring season with their entire planned defensive unit on quarantine. They also played the spring season without their offensive coordinator from the previous season, Adam O’Reel, as he didn’t want to risk having to be quarantined before heading into baseball season, where he is the program’s head coach. O’Reel led Plainfield East to the Class 4A state baseball title in mid-June.

“We were coming off a season having a lot of the same guys in track and baseball and in wrestling, but we needed to change gears and get them out here. We tried as much as we could to give them time off in June because we don’t want them burnt out come October,” Kunz said. “But it’s definitely good to get out and compete.”

The strange season afforded Kunz some things he hadn’t been afforded before, the luxury of doing unorthodox things such as the free-wheeling offensive attack that was often high risk but similar high reward.

“It was one of those seasons where as a coach you got the green light to do whatever you want because there’s no real repercussions,” Kunz said. “We onside kicked every time, and that’s something I didn’t think I would have ever done in my life, but we just went with it.”

The strange season also afforded Kunz the opportunity to think about where he might better focus his energies moving forward.

“The biggest thing is that it just puts things in perspective and kind of refocuses you as a coach about how much you have to care about your players and not just what you see on the field or at practice,” Kunz said. “We want to really take care of kids and make sure that we are coaching the whole kid and not just what we have out on the field.”

When they hit that field, the Bengals still plan to be in attack mode. The biggest challenge might come in filling the void at quarterback, as the big numbers posted by Brett Winiecki have graduated. Quinn Callaghan moves into the role, and although breakout wide receiver Jordan Knowles now is a preferred walk-on at the University of Illinois, returners Michael Morgan and David Afemikhe should be able to compensate for that loss.

Kunz, who was a lineman for the Miami Hurricanes, currently likes the makeup of his line. Kunz is confident that group, anchored by junior Michael Jimmar, who already holds an offer from Syracuse, and returning starter Jacob Selof (6-6, 300), will be ready to roll when the lights turn on for good.

“We’re really young, but we really like what we have,” Kunz said.

But the biggest challenge may come on defense. The Bengals gave up a truckload of points, surrendering almost 200 in the five games of the spring season. However, Kunz believes that actually being able to deploy defensive players in the positions that best suit them after being allowed proper evaluation time will make a world of difference.

“We have a lot of guys that could play anywhere, and they are all kind of the same, so it is just a matter of watching that and sorting it out to who our best are,” Kunz said. “Being able to put two separate groups out there on the field after the spring would be phenomenal.”