Shawnee Mission North spread the field and, with quarterback Mack Brown at the controls, riddled Free State in high school football last year.

Will turnabout be fair play?

Brown, who threw for 252 yards in the Indians’ 35-13 victory, now is at Colorado University, and Free State is the team operating out of the spread.

“Assignment-wise, we’re getting better every day,” Firebirds coach Bob Lisher said of his new offense. “Overall, I’ve been fairly pleased.”

Lisher will put that new offense to the test for the first time tonight against the Indians.

Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. at Haskell Stadium.

What kind of offense SM North will run is anybody’s guess because the Indians have a new coach in Ryan Majors, a 25-year-old former Pittsburg State graduate assistant who was hired in June when Sam Brown bolted for Excelsior Springs, Mo.

Majors is vague about his plans, other than to say: “We’re trying to go with a more physical approach.”

This much is certain: Majors has had to do some rebuilding. QB Brown is gone, and so are the ’04 running backs. Also, SM North has only one starting lineman back.

“It was a senior-heavy class,” Majors said, “so we’re basically starting from ground zero.”

That also means Lisher is at ground zero about what to expect from a first-year coach who has a bunch of new players.

“I don’t know that they’ll spread like they did last year,” Lisher said, “but they might. For this game, it will come down to making adjustments.”

Meanwhile, SM North’s coaches can look at last year’s Free State film and see plenty of familiar numbers. Lisher has a large returning contingent from a team that opened with five straight losses, but then won three of its last five. Both of the late losses were in overtime.

“We were pretty good the last five games,” Lisher said. “We weren’t great, but we do have some of those guys back.”

Most of them won’t spend much time on the sidelines. Lisher plans to start 10 players on offense and defense. He’ll pull senior offensive tackle Jesse Hardy when the Firebirds go on defense and replace him with Andy Petz, a junior who will play inside linebacker.

Of the 12 Firebirds who figure to log the most minutes, seven are juniors, and five are seniors.

Lisher installed a spread offense in order to take advantage of the skills of twin brothers Ryan Murphy and Brian Murphy. Ryan will be the quarterback, and Brian will play tailback.

Senior Brett Lisher, the coach’s son, will be the H-back, meaning he will be used primarily as a receiver. Lisher also plays free safety, where he earned All-Sunflower League honors last season.

The Firebirds’ next home game will be Sept. 22 against Shawnee Mission West. Free State’s next two games will be on the road – Olathe East Sept. 9 and SM Northwest Sept. 16.