MIAMI — School spirit and honoring a former coach highlight the 7 p.m. regular football season opener Saturday as the Northeastern A&M College Golden Norsemen square off against the Chaparrals of the College of DuPage at Red Robertson Field.
"We are very excited about this season, and we would love to have all of the area high school teams and their fans here to support us," second year NEO head coach Ryan Held said. "A large crowd gives amazing energy to our players and us as coaches. We want to make this a great atmosphere."
All area high school students and their families that are wearing a school jersey or school t-shirt will be admitted free of charge.
During the break between the first and second quarters, a brief special ceremony honoring former Golden Norseman head coach Donnie Bigby who passed away in June will be conducted.
After 12 years as offensive line and offensive coordinator at NEO, Bigby served as head coach during the 2009-10 seasons. He also was head of the physical education department.
Last season in his inaugural campaign, Held directed the Golden Norsemen to a 5-6 overall record.
Fourth year head coach Matt Foster led the Chaparrals to a 6-4 season record. Located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, DuPage earned a 30-9 victory in last year's season opener in Glen Ellyn.
"We could not have played a worse football game than we did up there last year," Held said. "We turned it over five times, we were lackadaisical on a couple of their touchdown throws.
"After watching the film again, the crazy thing about it was that if we would have scored a couple of touchdowns in the third quarter, we would have given ourselves a chance to be in the game.
"Playing two other teams in scrimmages before this game is huge for us," Held said. "Because basically DuPage will be the third team in another colored jersey that our players will have gone against.
"So, the deer in the headlights look should be gone," Held said. "Obviously, it will be the first game under the lights and it's for keeps which makes it different.
"But, I think the initial shock for some of these guys will have worn off after two scrimmages," Held said. "Now, we just have to tighten the screws and go out and play."
 Much like a preparation for a chess match, Held and his coaching staff have aligned their starters on both sides of the football.
Returnee Zac Cater, from Durant, will start at quarterback with veteran Cameron Booty, from Jenks, starting in the tailback slot.
"Zac will start, but both Mack (Waldman) and true freshman Cordale Grundy will get some playing time," Held said. "We'll see how it all plays out to be honest.
"At the end of the day, these first two games (DuPage and Houston Texas Institute of A&T) are auditions before we start playing teams in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference," Held said. "When we go down to Blinn (Sept. 12) we want to have the guy, so there still could be some mixing and matching."
With sophomores Booty, Jesse Gregory, from Tuttle, and Bryton Washington, from Wewoka, sharing the running game responsibilities, Held thinks the key to the success on the ground will be the play of the offensive line.
"I think our running backs are one of the best position groups we have," Held said. "They're fast, their explosive and they can do a lot of things.
"We have an older, more mature offensive line than we did last year," Held said. "The biggest thing I want to see with our entire offense is that everybody is blocking who they are supposed to block.
"We had a couple of times in the scrimmages where, if everybody would have just blocked the right guy, we would have had a 20-yard gain instead of an eight-yard loss."
Defensively, Held understands that in today's football a team is going to gain yardage, he just doesn't want them in the endzone.
"People are looking to play fast, put athletes in space and trying to put the defense in a bind," Held said. "Our conference overall has struggled defensively and I'm not going to buy into the idea that you have to give up 800 yards a game.
"For us to be successful, we've got to play good defense," Held said. "We've made things simpler on defense by letting our guys be where they're supposed to be and not thinking and getting out of position."