After almost three weeks of preseason practice and scrimmages, not to mention summer activities, 7-on-7 drills and team camps, the 2026 high school football regular season has arrived.
The majority of teams in central Ohio and statewide kick off Aug. 21, beginning a 16-week march to the state finals in Canton.
Here are five things to watch in Week 1:
Hilliard Bradley prepares for loaded Big Walnut
Sporting something of a new look on offense with third-year starting quarterback Declan O’Neil, Bradley gets one of the area’s toughest opening assignments with a visit to Division II title contender and two-time defending Region 7 champion Big Walnut.
Senior running back Nolan Buirley and senior quarterback Eli Stumpf, who have committed to Northwestern and Michigan State, respectively, headline an offense
that averaged almost 40 points a year ago. Bradley hopes to continue a rebound that saw it finish 6-6 a year ago, three games better than its 2024 mark.
Bradley coach Mike LoParo said his team is returning to more of a wide-open look on offense with O’Neil, who has been the Jaguars’ primary starter since a Division I state semifinal in 2023.
“Buirley is the real deal, Stumpf is the real deal and I really like their linemen,” LoParo said. “They do a great job with their scheme and formations. … It’s hard [to tell what they want to do] based on two scrimmages. They’re not showing everything and we haven’t shown much. We scrimmaged two really good teams in Gahanna and DeSales, which I think helped us because we are young in some areas.
“This opener is still hard because you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re there. But what we do know is very easy to gather, that they are a really talented football team.”
Maturing Upper Arlington heads to Olentangy
UA returns six starters on offense and three on defense from last year’s Division I, Region 3 semifinalist team – the third straight Golden Bears team to win 10 games – and coach Justin Buttermore said the Bears’ play in the preseason sometimes reflected that.
And in one of the more followed quarterback competitions in central Ohio, Buttermore said the Bears enter their season opener at Olentangy unsure whether junior Charlie Hunt or classmate Reign St. Clair will eventually be the team’s full-time starter.
The younger brother of Ohio State backup quarterback Tavien St. Clair passed for 1,999 yards last fall at Bellefontaine.
“We’ve had our moments and have seen some good things, but we have to get a lot better if we are going to be the type of team we want to be later in the year,” Buttermore said. “[Hunt and St. Clair] have been pretty much even throughout. I would like to say we’ve made a total decision, but there hasn’t been enough separation to know for sure. There is a good chance you’ll see both of them [Week 1] and see where we are. We thought we might have a clear-cut decision at this point, but there really hasn’t been.”
Buttermore said Olentangy, whose top players include senior receiver Mike Alexander and junior safety Ty Gebhardt, leaned toward the pass in scrimmages. The Braves won eight games each of the past two seasons.
New-look New Albany heads to powerful London
Last year’s opener between New Albany and London featured a combined 436 rushing yards and 17 through the air – 15 of those coming on two completions for former New Albany quarterback Jate Hoovler.
If new Eagles coach Mark Solis has his way, current quarterback Drew Jackson will exceed that production on one play. Either way, New Albany will look considerably different from its earlier run-based iterations when it visits a London team that long has thrived with a strong ground game.
New Albany gave London by far its closest game of the 2025 regular season in a 14-11 loss.
“It’s not easy, I’m sure, especially for our seniors, but we have poured a lot into the kids and making sure it’s not about what we’re going to do, but how we are going to do things,” Solis said. “It’s been just getting used to new systems on both sides of the ball. The defensive system is completely new. The offensive system, pretty much everything is new, but the guys have been resilient. They’ve been adaptable. They are buying into what we want our program to be.”
Jackson, whose top targets likely will include versatile running back and Harvard commit Jett Jerwers, is a move-in from Rogers, Arkansas.
London did not play a game decided by fewer than 30 points after Week 1 last season until winning its first two playoff games by a combined seven points.
Defending champion Olentangy Orange faces district rival
Although Orange returns just four starters from last year’s Division I state championship team, coach Wes Schroeder remains confident entering what he considers a tough opening test at Olentangy Berlin.
“The two teams are very familiar with each other,” Schroeder said. “It should make for an exciting game. We feel both teams are physical and well coached. The team that makes the least mistakes will have the best chance in the end.”
The series is tied 3-3 after Orange won both meetings last year, 31-7 in the regular season and 43-14 in the playoffs.
Orange has a new quarterback in junior Colby Luling, a starter in the secondary last season who has taken over for 2026 graduate Levi Davis, now a freshman at Ohio University.
The other returning starters are senior Jake Luling (WR) and junior Jake Herndon (OL) on offense and senior Brennan Kesler (LB) on defense. Jake and Colby Luling are brothers.
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Hartley gets opening test against Division I foe
Looking to rebound from a 5-5 season in which it missed the playoffs for the first time since 2009, Hartley opens at home against Division I Dublin Coffman.
Coach Matt Melle, in his second season at Division III Hartley, believes it is a tough opening test. He is confident, however, that his team will improve this season.
“Coffman presents a lot of problems with a very talented quarterback (Jack Morris) and a physical offensive line,” Melle said. “Coach [Nick] McVay has done a great job of putting his stamp on the program entering his second year. Playing a Division I team, there are always depth concerns, but our guys have worked extremely hard all offseason to put them in a position to be successful Friday night.”
Hartley returns five starters on defense and four on offense. Senior Oden Mertz, formerly in the secondary, has taken over at quarterback.
Coffman returns six starters on offense and three on defense. The Shamrocks finished 2-8 last season, failing to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2008.
“Hartley is an incredibly respected program in Ohio – their history and success speak for itself – so this will be a great test for us,” McVay said.
High school sports reporters Frank DiRenna and Dave Purpura can be reached at sports@dispatch.com and at @DispatchPreps on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 things to watch in central Ohio high school football Week 1
