All Three Dublin Football Programs Sit at 1-2 as Early-Season Struggles Test Community Patience

Dublin Coffman got blown out. Dublin Scioto couldn't sustain its fight. Dublin Jerome needed a rivalry win just to claw back to respectability. After three weeks, all three Dublin high school football programs stand at 1-2 — a collective record that has unsettled a community where competitive excellence on Friday nights is treated as a given.

The convergence came into focus on Sept. 4, when Jerome beat Coffman 45-28 at Coffman and New Albany routed Scioto 56-7 at Dublin Scioto High School. The results capped an early stretch that has raised pointed questions about program direction at all three schools.

Coffman: From 51 Points to Two Straight Blowouts

The Shamrocks opened the 2026 season with a 51-27 win over Bishop Hartley on Aug. 21, a night that suggested head coach Nick McVay's program had found some offensive punch. One week later, Big Walnut erased that optimism. Playing at Sunbury on Aug. 28, Coffman managed just 134 total yards in a 39-7 loss. Big Walnut running back Nolan Buirley, a Northwestern commit, gashed the Shamrocks for 248 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries.

The 32-point margin was jarring for a team that had scored 51 points seven days earlier. Then came the Sept. 4 rivalry game, where Jerome dealt Coffman a 45-28 defeat — its second consecutive lopsided loss.

The consecutive blowouts extend a troubling multi-year slide under McVay. Coffman went 10-4 in 2023, dropped to 4-9 in 2024, finished 2-8 in 2025, and now sits at 1-2.

Scioto: Close Calls Give Way to a 49-Point Rout

Dublin Scioto's first two games told the story of a team willing to scrap. The Irish fell 30-28 to Thomas Worthington on Aug. 21, then edged Briggs 42-36 on Aug. 28 in a high-scoring non-conference affair. Both contests were decided by a possession or less.

That competitive profile vanished on Sept. 4. New Albany, carrying a 2-1 record, dismantled Scioto 56-7 in a 49-point rout that dwarfed anything the Irish had faced in their opening weeks.

For head coach Alex Place, the gap between Scioto's gritty early results and the New Albany collapse is the central problem. This is a program that reached the Division II state championship game in 2023, losing 27-7 to Toledo Central Catholic, and won the Division II state title in 1995. A 5-5 finish in 2024 and now a 1-2 start suggest the Irish are still searching for the identity that carried them to that title game three seasons ago.

Jerome: A Rivalry Win, but Questions Remain

Jerome entered the Coffman game needing a bounce-back after a 42-31 loss to Reynoldsburg on Aug. 28. The Celtics got it, beating their crosstown rival 45-28 to improve to 1-2.

Head coach Mark Crabtree's program has been inconsistent across recent seasons — 6-5 in 2023, 4-7 in 2024, and now 1-2 despite the rivalry victory. A win over Coffman is meaningful for crosstown bragging rights, but the Celtics' overall trajectory remains uneven.

What It Means for Dublin

In a city where families, alumni, and boosters view high school football as a reflection of community identity, the fact that all three programs sit at 1-2 simultaneously is hard to dismiss. Coffman's three-year decline from a 10-win playoff team to a program on pace for another losing season demands answers. Scioto's inability to build on a state championship appearance — sliding to.500 in 2024 and absorbing a 49-point home loss this year — has tested the patience of a fan base that remembers 1995. Jerome's multi-year swings between modest progress and regression leave all three coaching staffs facing the same question.

The coming weeks will show whether McVay, Place, and Crabtree can shore up the defensive breakdowns and deliver the level of play Dublin has always demanded from its schools. Right now, none of the three programs has given this community a reason to believe it's coming.