ALBANY — With only five offensive and four defensive starters back among just 13 lettermen, there will be a lot of fresh young faces in the Albany camp in 2026. And despite their being some promising young talent on hand, veteran coach Denney Faith isn’t making any assumptions heading into this season. 

Promising on paper doesn’t always translate to performance on the field, so the dean of Big Country football mentors is taking a wait-and-see approach while he and his staff work to find the best combinations — particularly on the offensive  line. 

“Anytime you lose some valuable seniors, they’re going to be hard to replace,” said Faith, who has been the varsity coach at Albany since 1987 with an overall record of 379-116-4. “We feel like we have a good core group coming back, especially at our skill positions. We think we can be good there if we can give them some protection from the offensive line. 
“That’s where (graduation) really hit us the most.”