Over the last decade-plus, Kinder has become accustomed to success until their first season in Class 3A — which was an eye-opening experience.

But in turn, they learned what they needed to do to get back on the right path.

“What we have learned is that we have to be a lot better,” Kinder head coach Justin Reed said. “We have to work harder.

“A lot of those programs in our district have been successful programs for a long time. They are not going to come down and meet us. We are going to have to go meet them where they are. Hopefully, that has lit a fire under our guys coming into this year.”

Reed, who was the Yellow Jackets’ offensive coordinator last season, is making adjustments across the board in his first year as head coach after Kinder went 2-7 last year.

“We have had to overhaul our defense,” Reed said. “We have adjusted our offense some.

“We overhauled our offseason program. Really from top to bottom, we have made some adjustments to hopefully get us to take the next step and meet some of those quality programs in our district.”

Offensively, Kinder is moving to the pistol option after running the flexbone.

“It is going to be very similar to the offense we ran in the past, but it is just not going to be under center,” Reed said. “I have a background in the spread, and I played in the spread.

“I coached it for seven years at Sulphur. I just feel like this style of offense marries the aspects of the spread that I know along with the option game that I have learned since I have been back over here.”

Four offensive linemen return in Ty Sonnier, Cam Bellow, Guy Hayes and Hunter Sonnier, which should help smooth out the transition.

Also back is slot backs Donte Botley and Noah Romero and fullback Ben Fontenot.

Junior Landon Rice will make his third position change after playing wide receiver and safety. Reed has plenty of confidence in his new quarterback.

“Landon is a smart kid,” Reed said. “He is a very coachable kid, and he has played a lot of big games.

“He has been starting for two years for us. He started at wide receiver as a freshman and strong safety as a sophomore. He played baseball all over the country this summer. He has been in a lot of big-time situations against high-quality opponents no matter what the sport is. That is something that gives us confidence going into this year.

“We feel like he is not going to be wide-eyed on Friday nights. He is going to be someone that we trust to give us information back on the sidelines about what is happening on the field.”

Five of the Yellow Jackets’ returners on the defensive side are seniors in linemen Erick Lavan and Cam Bellow, linebacker Ben Fontenot and Botley at free safety. They will lead the change from a 4-2-5 to a 4-3 scheme.

“We are looking for simplicity,” Reed said. “No. 1, I feel like in order for us to be a good defense, it has to be simple.

“We have to have a set of rules that we follow. Hopefully, that will allow our kids to play a little faster. Last year, we were kind of tinkering with some things and schemes.

“Mentally, it kind of overloaded our kids at times, and we weren’t able to play fast. The scheme that we are switching to is a very simple scheme, nothing too complex. Hopefully that allows us to play faster and have a little success.”

Fontenot led Kinder with 74 tackles last season.

“He has been starting for three years,” Reed said. “He is definitely the leader of our football team. It is a cliche to say it, but it really is true. He is like having another coach out there on the field.

“He understands exactly to a ‘T’ what the coaches are wanting to accomplish each play. He is a very mature kid. He has a lot of excellent leadership qualities that a lot of these guys in the locker room tend to follow. We are looking forward to see him take charge of that defense.”