ACKLEY – They’re still playing football in Ackley this fall. They’ll just be three men short come Aug. 26.

But that’s on purpose, as the Cougars head into their 2016 campaign playing 8-man football for the first time in school history. First year head coach at AGWSR James Koop said regardless if there are 11 players on the field or eight, the Cougars are still going to be a force this fall.

“It’s football. We block, we tackle,” Koop said. “The reason in my opinion the scores are more elevated, is because on defense, you don’t have safeties. So if you get past the second level, it’s a long touchdown score. Tackling is important. Bottom line, it’s still football.”

The concept of 8-man football might be new to some, if not most of the Cougars this season. The 30-man roster tallies nine seniors, eight juniors, five sophomores and nine freshmen. But for Koop, it’s a trip down memory lane, in a way.

The mark of a new season as head coach of an 8-man team in fact marks the start of the sixth season he’ll be coaching 8-man football. Koop was a coach at Northeast Hamilton for five years, making the playoffs four times and winning one state championship.

Now, after being an assistant at AGWSR for seven years, Koop has dusted off the 8-man playbook, which might not look as shockingly different than some may believe.

“There was a four-year period where we went 40-5,” Koop said of his teams at Northeast Hamilton. “I’ve talked to coach [John] Seiser and some other coaches I’ve coached with at Northeast Hamilton. But we’ve also adapted the playbook that we used with Skip [Eckhardt]. Because I liked what we were running. You’re still going to see us run fullback trap and iso and power and stuff like that.”

The challenges and adjustments of moving from 11-man to 8-man football have been present as the early weeks of practice went on in Ackley, but Koop has been confident his players are understanding and learning more about the fine tuning they need to make in order to make the playoffs.

It’s a firm belief of Koop’s that teams need to have a playoff goal or mentality throughout the season. Otherwise, what’s the point?

“Any football coach should want to make the playoffs,” Koop said. “Whether you win the district or get runner-up, if you want to move your program in the right direction, that’s got to be one of your goals. And that’s going to be our goal here.”

Barring any terrific injuries or consistent shellacking throughout the season, the Cougars will play with postseason play in the front of their minds all year long.

Games against Colo-NESCO week one, Don Bosco in week four and Turkey Valley in week six will show Koop and Co., what holes and errors need to be filled and fixed before district competition starts. (The Cougars will play district opponent Riceville in week three before non-district play is over.)

The Cougars do have a healthy advantage in 12 returning letter-winners this season. Leading that group will be senior quarterback Nate Karsjens. The backfield will also look strong as fullback Mason Eilderts returns to help pound the running game. Koop said Eilderts could see time at receiver as well.

Despite having a handful of games last season where there were no pass attempts from the Cougars, Koop said there won’t be a single game this year where Karsjens – anyone else at the quarterback position – doesn’t attempt a pass.

Liam Stubbe will also find himself in the backfield as well – another returning letter-winner.

Adapting to multiple positions will be key this year for the Cougars, Koop said.

On defense, the Cougars won’t have to replace a key loss in graduate Michael Young, who played tackle. With the new 8-man format, the Cougars sacrifice one of their tackle positions on the line. Ethan Ubben and Sawyer Heitland have seen repetitions at the guard position, a place Koop feels both could see action this season. And Cody Lyons will continue in at the center positions, while Caleb Meinders holds true to kicking PATs for AGWSR.

But it’s not just the players who are trying to make the transition to seeing just 16 players on the field at a time. Koop said feedback from the community has been almost nothing but positive. It might take some learning, but football is football.

“To me, I’ve done both. It’s football,” Koop said. “It’s a way for somebody with 30 kids out to play a full JV schedule [and] not have to worry about injuries as much. People are interested to see what it looks like; I don’t know if they’re happy or not. But they understand.”