Training camp report: Monroe's new tackling machine to lead defense

MONROE – Tanner Collett was a tackling machine.

The linebacker logged more than 100 tackles in each of his four seasons for the Monroe High football team, including a Monroe County Region-best 113 last fall.

The Trojans could always count on Collett making a play.

That security blanket is gone now.

More: 2026 schedules for all 14 Monroe County Region football teams

But Monroe does have his understudy back for 2026.

Landon Loveland, who made 95 stops last season, looks to fill Collett’s sizeable shoes.

“We look for him to lead our defense,” Monroe coach Kyle Reed said as his team held its first official practice on Monday, Aug. 10. “He had a great offseason. He worked hard and got bigger and stronger.”

And he had a good teacher.

“I am sure Tanner’s type of play rubbed off on him,” Reed said. “He plays the physical and mental game.”

Loveland isn’t promising to surpass what Collett did on the football field.

“He was an incredible player,” Loveland said. “He was a great leader and a great player. It felt like I had a true brother playing alongside me.”

Loveland will try to pass along things he learned from Collett.

“I’ll have someone new next to me,” he said. “I’ll just try to teach them what I learned.”

Loveland also is a good baseball player, but says this might be his final year of competitive athletics.

“I don’t know if I will play any sport in college,” he said. “I have a lot of academic goals. I want to go to a big school, a big university.”

Loveland is one of seven returning starters on defense, including a trio of strong linemen in Zyshonne Reid, Mykeah Hyden and Josh Gray.

That unit might be called upon to carry a heavy load early in the season as the Trojans fine tune their offense.

“I feel it’s that way a lot of seasons,” Reed said. “Those guys can just peel their ears back and go.”

Offensively, Monroe will have junior Dalen Cosby at the controls.

He started last season on the junior varsity, but was called up midway through the campaign because of a quarterback injury.

“Last year I expected to develop and grow on the JV team,” he said. “I didn’t expect (to be the varsity quarterback). Things got sped up.”

The game is moving a little slower for Cosby this fall.

“Now that I have last year under my belt, I am a lot more confident,” he said.

Reed expects Cosby to have a good year.

“Hey’s a tough kid and smart,” the coach said. “He got a few games last year. He’s not like a true junior coming in this year.”

Youth was part of the reason Monroe finished with a 1-8 record last year.

“We had a number of guys who earned varsity time as sophomores last year,” Reed said.

Senior Julian Espinoza started last season at receiver and defensive back.

“This year we’re going to work hard in practice and take it day by day,” he said. “We’re all here working hard.”

Reed says Monroe’s overall numbers are good this season, but the sophomore class is very small. There were just 12 freshmen in the program last season and only seven of them are back this fall.

That deficiency will be offset by a big group of 40 freshmen, but the Trojans may not field a junior varsity team.

Monroe’s eighth-grade team will have a special weapon.

Kyle Reed’s father, Dave Reed, was coaxed into returning for another year of coaching offensive linemen.

“Tony Daniel, our eighth-grade head coach asked me if my dad would coach the linemen for him,” Kyle said. “I told him, ‘He’ll probably tell me no, but he might say yes to you.’”

That’s exactly what happened.

The elder Reed says he has been coaching for nearly four decades.

“I’ve retired three times,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Training camp report: Monroe's new tackling machine to lead defense

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