Chapel Hill goes through football practice Tuesday morning, Aug. 3, 2021, at Bulldog Stadium.

NEW CHAPEL HILL — When Jeff Riordan was brought to Chapel Hill to be the head football coach in 2019, expectations for the program immediately elevated.

And most of the time when a new coach takes over a program that has had recent struggles, a growing process is anticipated.

After going 2-8 in 2019 — the Bulldogs’ fifth consecutive season with three wins or fewer — it was expected that there would be an improvement in year two with Riordan at the helm.

Chapel Hill opened the 2020 campaign with a 3-0 start, averaged 51.3 points per game. The record eventually evened to 4-4 before the Bulldogs won their final two games of the regular season and then took wins of 49-37 over Livingston and 40-14 over Stafford to advance to the third round of the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

“I do think we were way ahead of schedule last year,” Riordan said. “Getting to the third round and having the success we had last year was definitely a plus and definitely helps me sell what I’m doing. The third round, that’s the floor now. We did that last year, and we expect every year to be better, so third round and plus is our goal. But definitely a trip to Cowboys’ stadium and playing in the state championship would be big for us. That’s the ultimate goal. And Chapel Hill has done it before, and we will probably do It again, and what better time to do it than now.”

The pieces are in place for the Bulldogs to make another deep playoff run, especially at receiver with Solomon Macfoy, Deuce McGregor, Tyson Berry and Ahstin Watkins.

“If I had to pick a strength of our team right now, it would be the receiver corps,” Riordan said. “Every one of our starters from last year are coming back. We’ve got 2,500 yards and 25 touchdowns minimum coming back at those four sports. We’ve got three three-year starters — Tyson and Deuce have both been starting since they were freshmen, and Solomon has been starting since he was a sophomore. And then OZ (Watkins) came on strong at the end of last season.

“So having those core guys that are all playmakers and threats, it makes defenses guard the whole field. They can’t key on one guy. It spreads out the balls that are being thrown, and it makes it difficult for the defense. That leadership and experience coming back just makes our offense tick.”

McGregor had 1,266 yards and 10 touchdowns receiving in 2020, and Macfoy had 584 yards and four touchdowns.

“I feel like we’ve got the best receiving corps in East Texas,” Macfoy said. “It’s my last year playing with these boys, and we feel good about this year.”

Distributing the ball to the receivers will be junior Tyler Jones, who takes over following the graduation of Cameron Ford, who was 134 of 250 for 2,564 yards with 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and also ran for 1,515 yards and 19 touchdowns on 188 carries.

“We’re expecting a lot out of Tyler,” Riordan said. “He had a great 7-on-7 in the spring and summer. We expect Tyler to get better every day. He didn’t get a whole lot of playing time last year. We had to move him up from the JV to be our backup for Cam, but when he was on JV, he was a playmaker, running the ball, throwing the ball, kickoff returns. Whatever they asked him to do on the JV, he was the guy.

“When we had to steal him from the JV last year, it kind of hurt the JV, but he got some varsity game experience and got some reps. He was also our punter last year. We just look for him to improve. The more he learns and gets comfortable with the offense, the sky is the limit. He’s got all of the tools to be the next great quarterback at Chapel Hill.”

Jones is using the experience he gained last year to help him through his first season as the varsity starting quarterback.

“You just have to make sure you always keep your head up and always listen to the people that’s been there before you,” Jones said. “You just have to trust that they’re going to lead you in the right spots. We have a lot of great returners, so you just have to listen and work hard, and everything will go good.”

Chapel Hill is scheduled to open the season Aug. 27 at Greenville. The Bulldogs will then take on Livingston in a playoff rematch on Sept. 3 at Stephen F. Austin’s Homer Bryce Stadium in Nacogdoches.

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