North Dakota Preps

How does this year's Napoleon team compare to last year's State Championship team?   I haven't had a chance to see them yet this year, and was curious to see what Napoleon fans thought the differences might be, if any.

The Imperials are currently on an 18 game winning streak. 

Napoleon's last loss was to the eventual 2005 9-Man State Champion Richland Colts in the quarterfinal playoffs (42-16) on Oct. 29, 2005.  Napoleon finished 8-2 in 2005, with the only other loss to Ellendale on the road, (8-6),  in the final game of the regular season. They went 12-0 last year and are 6-0 again this year.  Impressive.  26-2 in their last 28 games.

i don't think they are as deep as last year's team...losing guys like dewald and grunefelder, i just don't think they have as many studs both offensively and defensively.

that said, they are using mccleary more and if the edgeley game was any indication, their offensive line can still open some good holes.

so my guess would be if they stay healthy, they are fine, where as last year when they had some injuries, they could plug in some other guys.

Personally, I don't think it even comes close.  The Napolean team of last year would've easiily handled EK by more than 14 points, no matter how much EK may have improved over one year.  In fact, Napolean last year had only 2 games that were remotely close, and those were in the playoffs (best teams in the state).

Don't get me wrong, Napolean is still a great team, but it doesn't quite match up to last year's.