10B — The Newnan Times-Herald | Wednesday, August 20, 2014
X’s & O’s Continued from page 1B
Last week’s 23-7 scrimmage effort over LaGrange saw the Cougars using three and four-receiver sets as they did during a 2013 season when they averaged under 24 points a game and struggled down the stretch. “Every summer we throw a lot of stuff, but it seems to be different almost every year because every quarterback and every receiving group have different things they excel at,” Morris said. “So what you have to do is narrow that down to what they feel comfortable in doing and what the receivers feel comfortable doing and put that together. You can’t be hard-headed. You’ve got to adjust to a group of kids.” Senior quarterback Bailey Bryant, entering his third year as a starter, didn’t seem to mind the switch, throwing a 70-yard touchdown on his first completion of the year in a preseason debut where the Cougars had 107 yards rushing and 136 passing at halftime. “I like the pro style,” Bryant said. “Lining up with a tight end with his hand on the ground and being in the I formation really help establish the run game.” Many experiments have become permanent. A few have been mere stop-gaps. Last year, The Heritage School’s offensive struggles while using 16 freshmen and sophomores in the lineup, forced the Hawks to put quarterback Brad Macke in the shotgun while getting away from of its traditional wing-T option attack. Unlike college, where athletes are recruited to what best fits a particular scheme, there’s no guarantee that one high school class will be similar to the next in factors including size and experience. Yet with most coaches and coordinators, the reasoning in any choice takes in consideration one central theme. Which is creating an environment that fits their players best. “I try to design what’s gonna put our young athletes in the best possible position to succeed,” Hanson said, who will be calling offensive plays for the Lions for the first time in his career this fall. “It’s going to be as much a learning curve for me during games, calling for the plays and thinking about the next one. But I’m looking forward to it.”
At Northgate, the Delaware wing-T remains prominent in the Vikings’ offense. East Coweta and Trinity Christian will also run its versions of the wing-T this fall. “AS OLD SCHOOL AS YOU CAN GET” Trinity will be among three teams with offenses based out of the wingT, which much like the simple workings of a combustion engine, hasn’t had to adapt nearly as much as other aspects of high school football. For a veteran head coach like Tommy Walburn at Northgate, the mantra doesn’t fall far from ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ After attending what was then known as West Georgia College around the same time Danny Cronic was the Braves’ offensive coordinator in a NCAA Division III powerhouse, Walburn installed the Delaware Wing-T and kept it during coaching stops at Troup County and Crisp County before arriving at Northgate in 2010. While in use for over 50 years, the motion and misdirection off the option-oriented offense has found
more consistent success at the highschool level, where defensive players are more prone to be undisciplined with their assignments. The end result when it’s done well, can result in six quick points. “Tommy Walburn is about as old school as you can get,” he said jokingly in the third-person while now entering his 18th year as a head coach. “We are going to run the Delaware Wing-T.” The success can be measured in win-loss records, not only Walburn’s mark of 87-58, but around the state. Walburn is a protege of both Cronic, now head coach at Reinhardt, and Mike Earwood, who enters his fifth season at Our Lady of Mercy, whom Walburn called “two of the best in the business,” and have identical win-percentages of .660 with over 200 wins to each’s credit. The two also worked together as assistants at West
Georgia. “We will get in the shotgun and change things up a little bit,” Walburn said. “But when all else fails we go to the old-fashion guard trap, or the buck sweep.” Both are plays that equally became second-nature for Steve Pardue and David Pleasants during state championship years at LaGrange High, where the Grangers went 161-45 with three championships from 1994-2010. This year, the two will base East Coweta’s offense out of the wingT, much as it did under Cronic’s head coaching tenure from 19902007. While expecting to be equally multi-faced, the origins remain the same. “We try and sell our kids on it,” Pardue said of the buck sweep. “It is a hard-nosed play. A lot of teams don’t run it anymore, but we are going to run it 52 weeks a year. It
starts with our offense with that one play. That sets up everything else.” The same theory applies whether it’s 11 or 8 men in the starting lineup. While traditional 7-on-7 camps in the summer are geared to improve the passing game, 8-man football still has roots in power running games. “When I started last year it was all about installing the I-formation,” said Central Christian 8-man head coach Paul Frantz. “For me, I would run straight up the middle every play. If you want to take the wind out of a team’s sails on defense, you keep running the ball through the tackles, and I can’t do nothing about it.” Frantz, who was the school’s longtime defensive coordinator before being promoted to head coach last year, feels that a running game remains essential to avoid becoming one dimensional. “That sets up everything,” he said. NUMBERS ON A STEADY CLIMB UPWARD Nearly every Coweta program defines its schemes with the term “multiple,” especially as the game has evolved. The NFL has gone from “three yards and a cloud of dust” to a quarterback dominated league, and the trends have continued to trickle down to college and now varsity play, where the wideopen spread has become the dominant offense. Scores are also skyrocketing, both locally and nationally. In a study of data from 5,700 high school programs released last May by MaxPreps, passing yards per year over a 10-year span had risen from 1,168.4 to 1,330.2 while rushing yards jumped from 111.4 to 122.3. Also up were passing touchdowns (11.3 to 13.8) as well as rushing touchdowns (23.2-25.7) per season. Closer to home, the trend in points allowed has shifted upward. Among Coweta’s three GHSA schools and two GISA schools over the past three seasons, the number of games yielding 28 points or more has jumped from 15 in 2011 to 25 in 2013. As much of the growth in offense comes from taking a play and running its out of several formations while trying to force defenses out of a rhythm.
See NUMBERS, Page 11B
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