Makin’ Some Toast

July 17, 2006

 

 

How do we make 2006 even more successful than 2005? How do we get another 24 TD’s in 3 games? How do we take a division title and sectional championship?

 

Well, we could find a waterboy like Adam Sandler. Probably not a great idea. We could take a cue from “Little Giants” and have one of our big linemen pass gas on the defense. Could work. My best idea would be to go the “Married With Children” route and hire NFL players to pose as our team.

 

My guess is that with guys like Hood, the Rockefellers, Daye, and a host of others returning, not to mention a brilliant coach, somewhat more traditional means may get us where we want to go. From the armchair quarterback’s LazyBoy, I’ll just give a few of my thoughts on what could make us extremely successful this coming season….

 

1.     Pass, pass, pass, pass (and I’m not talking about gas either). We’ve got 4 kids coming back who have caught passes at the varsity level, and this is after a season of emphasis on the run. The parts are there to have a pretty decent passing game. It’s not a passing game that itself would win a state title or even a sectional title. But it could win games, and it could be the knockout blow at times. My suggestion? For games 1 and 2 (Sully West and TriValley), pass on at least half of the downs in the first half. Push that passing game hard. Live by it for short periods of time, so it can work under pressure. Throw on some 4^th and 3 plays. Push it for a half, then do what we need to do to win or close the game out. Walton bottled up our first down ability last year. But Walton cannot defend the pass (other than getting sacks). A legitimate passing game ALONG WITH a stellar running game is what it takes to get by the pumpkins. If we pass at least 30 times in the first two weeks, I double our chances of beating Walton.

 

2.     Make use of Hood in games where it’s all on the line. I don’t think Hood should be out there every down, but if we are in a situation like we were with Sidney last year, we should not only be handing him the ball, but we should be throwing it his way and letting him return kicks. He was rarely caught when he had a little bit of space – so build the space into the play by throwing to him or having him catch a kick. Don’t do it when we’re up by a few TD’s; do it in a close game when we need a quick score to blow the game open. He blew a few open last year. He just needs some more ways to blow more of them open.

 

3.     Here is my total speculation pick. Get Davionne Price involved. I watched this kid some on JV, as well as a couple times running track. He looked like a diamond in the rough to me. He needs some works on reading blocks and reading the field, but he has outstanding speed. He’s not all that big, but looks like there is some muscle there. He won’t be a primary guy yet by any means, but he’ll still burn a few people deep this season I think. By the end of the season, when we’re up against the wall against Oxford or Walton or in a state playoff game against Randolph, let them bottle up Hood and Nate Rockefeller, and watch Price be the dam-breaker.

 

Just 4 more weeks till practice starts. Is anyone anxious but me?