It just feels normal ... again

For the first time in a long time it just felt …normal.

That was the consensus from Harrisburg's Matt Griffith and Eldorado's Joe Clark as the two led their respective football teams on the field Monday as Illinois kicked off the official start to fall camp.

While Griffith is in his first days as head coach for the Bulldogs and Clark is entering his fifth for the Eagles, the sentiment about football being played in the fall wasn't lost on either.

"It just feels a little more typical than last season, obviously," Clark said about when the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the fall season and was forced to move to the spring with an abbreviated schedule.

As camp kicks off with the first few days in only helmet and shoulder pads, both coaches are looking intently at what developments players made over the summers during workouts.

"The first couple of days we're kind of looking to get an idea of who is actually coming out, what kind of talent, where we can place them and to get the ground running on what the season will look like," Griffith said.

"We know we have all kinds of talent. Now it's placing it to where they're going to help the team and see what kind of depth we have. That's been the big question. What depth will look like this year."

Each school's roster boast about 40-plus players on its roster. Those numbers are encouraging for Clark.

"We feel good about our personnel and our plan," he said. "It seems like it's been the same for a long time and a formula that has worked. We've had our fair share of mistakes, but we've also done a lot of really good things, so we're trying to clean things up and compete Week 1."

Both squads will open up the season at home on August 27 as Harrisburg welcomes in Cerro Gordo, a town east of Decatur in central Illinois. Eldorado will kick off the Black Diamond Conference slate against Fairfield at Boz Adams Field.

Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois LOCAL Media Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.