"Our senior class," O'Neal said. "This is the first group of kids I've had for four years, they're a hard-working group and they're football smart. It's just a great group of seniors to have. They're putting everything together that we've worked on the last couple years, and it seems like it's all clicking this year.

"They play for each other as much as they do themselves --- there's definitely a team atmosphere and they've bought into what we're doing."

Besides the varsity team enjoying a 7-1 start, the JV is undefeated. In other words, O'Neal isn't just building a winner this year, he appears to be building a program for years to come.

"The kids kind of know what I expect now," O'Neal said. "It's starts with the senior class and their leadership, but it's trickled all the way down through all the classes."

In this case, trickle-down is working.

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WHILE NORTH CALLAWAY'S 10-PLAYER SENIOR CLASS is leading this charge, it's one senior in particular --- running back/safety Adam Reno --- who's driving the bus.

"We talked at the end of last year about how he needed to step up and be one of the leaders on this team, and he took that to heart," O'Neal said. "He's taken this team on his shoulders this year and done a great job. He's a special kid and a special running back.

"He's not a real vocal leader, but he leads by example every day in practice. He works his tail off and does things the right way."

Reno has been brilliant through eight games, rushing for 1,428 yards (9.8 avg.) and 14 touchdowns.

"He's a combination of a lot of things," O'Neal said. "He has great vision --- he's able to see a hole and hit it pretty quick --- and power --- very rarely does one tackler bring him down. Then when he gets in the open field, he has a little bit of game speed and he can break away from people, as well.

"You're not going to find anybody who works harder in practice. The success he's having this year isn't by accident."

On a senior-dominated team, it's a sophomore who's directing the show at quarterback. And it was this sophomore, Tully Thomsen, who threw the game-winning 43-yard touchdown pass to beat South Callaway.

He's only attempting eight passes a game, but he's still thrown for 772 yards and 14 touchdowns, compared to just three interceptions.

"He's done a great job for us," O'Neal said.

Reno and Thomsen work behind a veteran offensive line --- senior tackles Tyler Bondurant (6-2, 203) and Cameron Cochran (5-10, 245), senior guards Tanner Pezgold (6-1, 200) and Josh Hudson (5-10, 205), junior center Mark Isgrig and senior tight end Clark Zerr.

"The offensive line was a concern of mine at the beginning of the year," O'Neal said, "because we graduated a lot of guys last year. We challenged some guys to step up and they've done a great job of jelling into the offensive line that they've become."

The defense features several players two-way players, including Reno. But the leader of the defensive pack is senior Austin Edwards, a two-way player who was on the receiving end of Thomsen's toss to beat the Bulldogs.

Call Edwards the quarterback of the defense.

"He's one of the most intelligent football players I've ever coached," O'Neal said. "He studies film like nobody else and he gets our coverages where they need to be. He's like having another coach on the field."

Edwards is third on the team in total tackles (62) and tackles for loss (10), trailing only the talented linebacker tandem of junior Jordan Delashmutt (83 and 22) and Pezgold (67, 12).

"As good as our offense has been," O'Neal said, "our defense has been really solid. Those kids have definitely bought into that system, as well --- they probably play assignment football better than about any defense I've had, and that's saying something. They play as a unit, everybody does their job and nobody wants to be the superstar.

"That's as big a part of our success as anything else."

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O'NEAL IS PROOF THAT NOT ONLY CAN YOU come home again, but you can come home and be successful.

It was no accident that he ended up back in T-Bird country.

"It was kind of my goal," said O'Neal, 41, a 1994 graduate of North Callaway. "I wanted to come back and take the program over when coach (Mike) Emmons decided to retire. It's a program he built and I have a lot of respect for the things he did, and I want to make sure it continues in the right direction."

Emmons retired in 2013 after buidling a solid, competitive program at North Callaway. In 24 years, he led the T-birds to 157 wins, eight district titles and three trips to the quarterfinals.

"The biggest thing I learned from him was making sure we're teaching these young men how to live life the right way, not just playing football," O'Neal said. "The way you carry yourself off the field and in the classroom the right way, those are lessons I learned when I played for him, and those are the things I'm hopefully teaching my players, as well."

On the field, O'Neal's team has a good chance to win the school's first district championship in a decade. It will be anything but easy, however, as it's a district that includes up-and-coming Hallsville, Father Tolton (the team that ended North Cal's season last year), Brentwood (last year's district champ) and that "other" team from Callaway County, the one in Mokane.

"We want to wrap up the conference championship this week (at home vs. Montgomery County) and then focus in on district play," O'Neal said. "That's our No. 1 goal right now.

"I think we've got a pretty special group. After that South Callaway win, we talked a lot about how that's not our season. We need to make sure we stay focused on other goals.

"The sky's the limit if we continue to work hard and play hard, and I'm excited to see where we can go."

Rest assured, so are a whole bunch of other folks clad in green.