Ever the optimist, Tipp’s Matt Burgbacher seeks to reload and renew the Red Devils’ assault on one step closer to a state title in football in a revamped Division III. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Recruiting was the stated reason the Red Devils took the field at 8 a.m. on an overcast, windy day, but it just as much represented a chance for Press Pros to see if the Tipp football machine is still working at full capacity.
Tipp City, OH — May is not the best of times to be a football fan.
In fact, it’s arguably the worst.
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The Super Bowl was played three months ago.
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The last major college football game was a few weeks before that, and the Ohio high school season wrapped up five months ago.
The first game of the 2026 season is still more than three months away, so there is not really light at the end of that tunnel yet.
Even if you’re the type who gets into spring college football or the NFL Draft, well, those things are over, too.
This is truly one of the most desolate parts of the calendar for us junkies of the gridiron game.
Ah, but there were football activities Tuesday at City Park, and that was better than nothing at least.
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Only one spectator was spotted in the stands, but there were a dozen or more interested observers spread across the field.
College coaches turned out in every color of the rainbow: Brown and orange of Bowling Green, the red and blue of the University of Dayton, green for Wilmington College and many more, including Thomas More, Hocking College, Ohio Dominican, Otterbein and Ohio Northern among others.
At 5’11” and 190 pounds, Tipp’s Larkin Thomas may fall through a few cracks on the size chart, but there’s no mistaking his stats and impact on the field when the ball is snapped.
They all trekked to Miami County looking for the same thing: Future college football players.
“The biggest thing is letting these coaches see these guys perform in person,” Tippecanoe coach Matt Burgbacher said. “Because it’s all about the eye test. If you pass the eye test, then that recruiting process can start. So they’re here on the field, they’re talking to the kids. It’s all of those things. And they would much rather talk to a kid out here on the field than in the classroom.”
Recruiting was the stated reason the Red Devils took the field at 8 a.m. on an overcast, windy day, but it just as much represented a chance for Press Pros to see if the Tipp football machine is still working at full capacity.
The early returns were positive, at least as much can be discerned from football without pads.
Of course it helps to see the familiar No. 4 throwing passes.
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First-team All-Ohio quarterback Larkin Thomas was arguably the top attraction for those college coaches after leading Tippecanoe to a pair of undefeated regular seasons and Miami Valley League championships.
He has a couple of returning starters on the offensive line — 2.5 was the way head coach Matt Burgbacher described it after injuries jumbled the lineup at times last fall — but not much else.
Does that mean expectations will be lower this fall?
Of course not.
That’s what five straight seasons with double-digit wins will get you, but that also falls under the category of good problems to have.
Internal expectations are much more important than those from the outside, especially with impressionable youngsters still developing physically and mentally during those high school years.
Sometimes the best motivation is fear of being the team that breaks a streak of winning seasons.
“I found this out at the last two schools I was at (Fort Loramie and Troy): Nobody really wants to be a part of solving the problem. They want to be a part of when it’s going good,” Burgbacher said. “We’ve seen that our numbers have increased tremendously in the football program, and I always say you win with numbers.”
Not just numbers, but that’s a good start. There’s also the matter of working smarter, not harder.
“I just think too over the last five years these young guys, our freshmen, practice with our with our varsity. They see how they act in the weight room. They see how they act in the locker room, and then it’s their turn. And I have these offseason meetings with the guys, and we specifically talk about those things, but I think it all too goes back to the culture.”
Do players create culture, or does culture create players?
Big play specialist…Grant Titley returns to give Tipp more of the big-play threat they lost with graduated Will Strong (Illinois State) and Max Deckard (Miami).
It’s probably a little bit of both, but scanning the field revealed Burgbacher should again have plenty to work with.
Grant Titley (6-1, 185) was second in receptions and receiving yards last season behind Illinois State signee Will Strong, and 5-10, 159-pound Bentley Heckman looks like a candidate to have a bigger role as a junior this fall.
At running back, Xavier Melton (over 2,300 yards the last two seasons) is graduating this spring, leaving James Merry and Colston Artz (380 rushing yards combined last season) to compete for his carries while Cal Connors and Sam Adkins are back on the offensive line.
But the guy who stood out most Tuesday was not in uniform last fall.
Cade Havil missed the 2025 season with an injury, but the coaching staff still listed him as a potential Division I recruit on the sheet handed out to college coaches Tuesday, and and it was not hard to see why.
At 6-2, 229 pounds, Havil passed the look test with flying colors on a day designed just for that.
“He’s going to be our H-back, but then he’s also going to play some inside linebacker for us so it’s like we’re getting this new kid that’s a bonus kid because we didn’t have him last year,” said Burgbacher, who joked Havil and senior DL Ryan Kolb will be the first ones off the bus on roadtrips because of their imposing physiques.
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Defensively, Tipp has a lot to replace, starting with all-state linebacker Collin Isaac (161 tackles) and play-making safety/return man Max Deckard, who is headed to Miami University in Oxford.
As with running back, Burgbacher said a couple of players in the program could be ready to step into bigger roles on defense, but he also has an eye on Isaac’s younger brother, Wyatt, who is listed at 5-9, 195 as an eighth-grader.
“We got a couple eighth graders that are going to be freshmen that are going to push some of these older guys,” Burgbacher said. “This eighth grade classes is really good.”
Tippecanoe SR linemen Ryan Kolb (56) works against Cal Connors during the MVL Recruiting Showcase May 5, 2026, in Tipp City.
Of course, winning 10-plus games a year is not conducive to playing too many youngsters.
Or more accurately, playing many youngsters is not conducive to winning 10 plus games per year.
Part of being a developmental program means kids have to wait their turn to play. Not all are willing to do that, but getting the vast majority to buy in is the key to success and longevity at any program.
So is replacing good players with more good players, something Burgbacher is adept at doing.
“I haven’t lost any sleep this offseason if that tells you,” he said. “Now, going into the 2022, season, we had three starters coming back: quarterback, inside linebacker and a kicker. I lost a lot of sleep that offseason, right? And we ended up making the state semifinal run, so I learned here at Tipp, we know what kind of program we are. We are a developmental program, and we’re not getting transfers coming in and all that stuff. So these kids know they have a chance, and they’re going to continue to work and work and work.”
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“There’s a lot of our kids who just see it as opportunities, and they want to be that next guy, they’ve learned from the guys ahead of them, and that’s what’s great is they see how it’s done, and then that’s them. That’s the culture that we’ve built here. So we’ve still got a lot of work to do in that realm, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Oh, and what about the quarterback?
Thomas passes the look test, at least when it comes to playing the game.
Tough, accurate and more than a willing runner, ol’ No. 4 is a two-time All-MVL quarterback with more than 5,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing to his name.
He throws a pretty fade ball, is accurate throwing on the run, not afraid to put his head down to run over a defender when the situations calls for it and more than an afterthought in the Red Devils running game.
He’s listed at a solid 191 pounds but just 5-foot-11. Therein lies the rub where the next level is concerned — for now anyway.
“So, you know, these guys like these 6-foot, 6-foot-1, 6-foot-2 quarterbacks,” Burgbacher said. “So, hey, there’s nothing we can do about the 5-11. One thing you can control is what you do on the field. So control what you can control. I think some of those MAC schools, some Division II schools they would love to have him. So I think it’s wide open for him.”
He’s still Tipp’s quarterback for another year regardless.
“He knows our offense. He knows what’s expected. He’s developed as a leader — all of those things that you want to see in your quarterback, Larkin’s got it. And Larkin wants to be really good,” Burgbacher said.
“The best thing about Larkin is he’s working to be good. So it’s been great, and it’s been a great offseason.”
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