New leadership brings higher expectations in 2022 for River Ridge (FL) football team

Greg Miller comes over from Lake Brantley to lead the Royal Knights

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL – What the River Ridge Royal Knights football team has been accustomed to over the last decade is winning football games.

That’s something the Royal Knights really were not used to in prior years when the program had a history of losing seasons, including back to back winless campaigns in 2005 and 2006. Alum Ryan Benjamin came to the program as the head coach and turned things around in the early 2010’s as River Ridge’s perspective changed to winning and making the playoffs.

River Ridge had back to back 10-win seasons in 2014 and 2015, but Benjamin stepped down as the team’s head coach after the 2021 campaign and the Royal Knights went in search of a new leader to guide the program to the next level. Enter Greg Miller, who was previously the defensive coordinator at Lake Brantley High School.

Miller brings a level of confidence and swagger to the Royal Knights that the team got used to in the spring and now head into the 2022 season with high expectations with their new head coach. River Ridge looks to be a favorite to win a district championship in the new Class 3-Suburban, District 6 with teams like Lecanto, Gulf, Citrus and Fivay.

River Ridge, of all the teams, is the program with the most recent history of winning a district championship, but Miller has plenty of talented players to backup the swagger. One player Miller has been very high on is quarterback Logan Howard, who played primarily wide receiver last season for River Ridge.

Miller points to Howard as someone he feels could have probably started recently, but now will get his shot in 2022. Howard last season caught 50 passes for 536 yards and two touchdowns. Now Howard will be throwing to receivers and he’s got some good targets around him, including projected two-way talent Braden Cook. Cook last season for the Royal Knights caught 18 passes for 195 yards and made 68 tackles on defense.

It will be a tough 2022 slate of games during the regular season for River Ridge, with the Royal Knights kicking off against Land O’ Lakes before facing Countryside and then the ‘Battle Royale’ versus rival Mitchell on Sep. 9.

Games against perennial area powers like Nature Coast and Wiregrass Ranch will be good measuring stick match-ups for River Ridge. Expectations are not being lowered with Miller at the helm, however, as he’s expecting to raise the bar and continue to build on winning at a high level.

Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andyvillamarzo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Villamarzo.