Lane Epperson

LANGFORD TO BE ISABELLA’S NEW LEADER IN THE TRENCHES

Written by ZACHARY SEIFTER Photos by BRANDON SUMRALL

The saying in football is that games are often won and lost in the trenches.

A great offensive or defensive line has the ability to take over a game, making life very uncomfortable for an opponent.

This is especially true on the offensive side of the ball. If a team has a great offensive line, running backs can have wide open lanes to run through and quarterbacks can have plenty of time to throw.

This has been a big part of Isabella High School’s game in recent years. A season ago, stud offensive tackle Brett Johnson led a ferocious group that helped Isabella go 9-1 in the regular season before the team went on a deep playoff run.

With Johnson now graduated and headed to South Alabama to play college football, a new lineman has taken the reigns. His name is Skylar Langford.

Langford, a senior, is the Mustangs’ starting left guard. He has been starting for Isabella for the last couple of years, and will try to help the team pick up where it left off last season.

It will not be easy. Replicating the success of a 9-1 season is hard enough, but going on another deep playoff run like Isabella did, winning two playoff games, will

THE LINEUP

1 DreVon Lee 2 Eli Kendrick 3 Braxden Giles 9 Garrett Price 11 Connor Patterson 12 Ray Boston 14 Zac Chapman 15 Landon Horton 19 Tyler Mims 20 Braxden Mims 21 Brayan Dominguez 23 Austin Porter 33 Garrett Traywick 35 Dawson Edwards 40 Noah McMinn 45 Phillip Williams 50 Lane Mims 51 Lucca Biancalana 53 Caleb Washington 54 Brodie Leonard 55 Luke Simmons 57 Connor Bright 58 Darius Mollett 59 Aidan Gray 60 Tristan Mitchell 62 Skylar Langford 64 Bucky Smith 70 Bryce Massonne 75 Colton Conway 77 Logan Littleton 78 Owen Littleton 80 Ethan Taylor

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be even more difficult. Langford, however, feels that he and the team are up for the challenge. “(We’re trying to) go all the way, trying to get a ring,” Langford said.

Of course, most players on most teams will tell you their ultimate goal is to win a state championship. For some, that goal is more realistic than it is for others. For Isabella, it’s a goal that is definitely within reach.

However, the Mustangs will have to get through a tough 2021 schedule to get back to the playoffs. They kick off the season with a rematch against Fyffe High School, a team that not only slaughtered Isabella in 2020 by a score of 48-0, but has the longest winning streak in the state of Alabama, having won 45 straight games. They have won three straight state championships as well.

“Last year, everybody knows that Fyffe, they put a whooping on us,” Langford said. “But I think this year it will be different. We know what we’re looking at, and we’ll go at it harder.”

Following the opener, Isabella will be faced with another tough task when they play Maplesville. That rivalry game has been very competitive the last few years, and 2021 should be no different.

Despite the difficult schedule, there is plenty of optimism among the Isabella roster, especially Langford. He knows that no matter who the Mustangs face, so long as his unit does its job, the offense will be able to keep Isabella in any game.

“Summer’s been good, we’ve been getting a lot of conditioning done, working out,” Langford said. “I think we’re all going to be pretty good. We’ve got some players that are stepping up and just really getting after it.”

Once again, Isabella will rely on its guys in the trenches to get things done. It has been a great recipe for success in the past, and should be in the future.

For Langford, he has inherited the leadership role of a talented group, and he will try to get the team back to where it was last year and beyond.