By Rob Patrick
One of the questions on the Senior Profiles that run on BryantDaily.com has to do with the player’s favorite things about football. More often than not, the answer is something like: “I get to hit people.”
If such is the case, then the Bryant Hornets’ game tonight against the Cabot Panthers should be one of their favorites because there will be some contact.
“Same Cabot,” acknowledged Hornets defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “Big, strong offensive line, hard-running running backs — it just seems like they’re the same kids year after year after year. They’ve thrown the ball a little bit more this year which is a little bit unusual and adds to your preparation time to try to make sure you’re prepared for the threat of the pass as well as they’re traditional, hardcore, smash-mouth football.”[more]
The Panthers run the old dead-T and they’d just as soon pick up 3 yards every play and take four downs to get a new set, shorten the game, keep the other team’s offense on the sideline and pound their opponent’s defense into submission. Those passes invariably come either when they absolutely have to or when you least expect them. There may not be more than a half a dozen of them.
“It’s been hard for me,” said Bryant head coach Paul Calley regarding practice in preparation for the game. “I’ve cut the running game down from 100 plays to 60 plays, now to 50 plays, and before (Friday), it’ll be down to 40 because we’re going to have limited possessions. I think, on average, we only run 40 to 46 plays a game versus Cabot, which is not very many. So, we’ve got to make sure we maximize our play potential. We can’t run something just for the sake of hoping it works. We’ve got to know it works up front. Opportunities are limited.”
Making the most of every opportunity was what the Hornets did in 2009 when they stunned the unbeaten Panthers 35-7 in the mud at Bryant Stadium. This year, they’ll be playing on the Panther Stadium artificial surface and it’s Bryant that comes in atop the league after a double overtime win over Conway. Cabot, which lost to Conway in one of those Murphy’s Law games (everything that could go wrong did), is now tied with the Wampus Cats for second place in the 7A/6A-Central Conference. No doubt, they'd love to turn the tables on the Hornets.
“Bryant did us a big favor beating Conway,” acknowledged Panthers head coach Mike Malham. “That put us back in it. If we can play well and we’re lucky enough to get a win then we’re back in a share of the lead. Of course, if we lose, we’ll be two games behind but, boy, Conway put it on us.
“We’re not as good as we were last year but we’ve been surviving the last three weeks,” continued the Cabot coach. “We got by North Little Rock in overtime, got by Catholic with four lead changes in the second half and played a little better last week against Central. Hopefully, we’re getting a lot better. We’re playing a lot of seniors that hadn’t ever played before. They’ve paid their dues, been in the program.
“We were making a lot of mistakes early in the season with turnovers and penalties,” Malham explained. “We’ve kind of stayed away from the turnovers and penalties the last couple of games and it has definitely made a difference.”
Bryant has handled Cabot pretty well at Hornets Stadium but Panthers Stadium has been a different story. Two years ago, the Hornets lost 14-0 when quarterback Jimi Easterling got hurt in the opening minutes of the game. That was the last time Bryant was shut out. Four years ago, the Hornets survived at Cabot, 7-0.
“Hopefully, we can make it a good game,” Malham stated. “Bryant’s awful good. You know, I’ve always said Calley and his staff do a great job. They’re not playing with a lot of D-I’s or anything like that. They’ve just got good kids that’ll play hard and are well coached. That’s why they scare me. They just do a great job of coaching and they play hard.
“It’s going to be a hard-fought game and, hopefully, if we don’t make a lot of mistakes, we’ll be in the game in the fourth quarter.”
The Hornets come into the game banged up. Junior running back Karon Dismuke broke his wrist in the Conway game and corner Dylan Blasi suffered a foot injury. It’ll be game time before it’s known if either can play.
“Because of injuries, we’re having to play people on both sides of the ball,” Calley said. “We split practice up (on Tuesday) and had an offensive practice and a defensive practice and did our kicking game in the middle.
“Karon has a cast on his hand which is going to make it difficult for him to carry the ball,” he added. “We’re going to see and, if he can’t play offense, he’s going to play defense somewhere.”
Of his defense, Malham said, “Riley Hawkins, one of our linebackers is back from last year. He’s doing a good job. Jared Dumais, one of our defensive tackles back from last year, is doing a good job. A couple of kids that really didn’t play much last year in the secondary, Zach Brown and Greg Phelps, are doing a real good job. But they’ve had to make too many tackles. When you’re secondary’s making a lot of tackles, that’s not good, but they’ve done a good job.”
“They’re going to play their 5-2 defense and mostly man coverage,” Calley said. “They’re big and physical. They’re sound. They’re always around the football, all 11 of them. It’s going to be difficult to move the ball. We have got to be able to throw it. In the running game, we’ve got some things we think we can do. We did some things last year to hurt them. Of course, field conditions played a role in that but we’ve got to be able to throw the football.”
Turning to the offense, Malham said, “David Young at center is back from last year and Nathan Cash at guard — those two have been doing a good job for us on the line. And, really, we’ve been using a lot of different running backs.
“We don’t have any superstars out there,” he added. “When we play hard and don’t make mistakes, we can be pretty decent. But we definitely can’t afford to help the other team, that’s for sure.”
Calley noted that Bryant has had as much success at slowing down the Cabot freight train offense as anyone.
“Coach Griff always devises a great game play to stop their offense,” he stated.
“We’ve had good practices,” Griffith mentioned. “Hopefully we’ll go up there and give them our best shot. We’ve played well against them in the past and the kids have kind of a sense of pride, I think, that they can line up against a tough, physical football team and play well. We’ve challenged them to meet that again and hopefully we will.
“We’ve got a few guys bunged up but with what Cabot does, we’re actually in a position to use some outside linebackers where, normally, a d-back might be used,” he related. “So, if there’s a week to have a d-back or two bunged up this is probably the week that we can compensate for it.”
7A/6A-CENTRAL
2010 Standings
Conf. Ovl.
BRYANT 4-0 6-1
Conway 3-1 6-1
Van Buren 3-1 6-1
Cabot 3-1 5-2
No. Little Rock 2-2 3-4
LR Central 1-3 1-6
LR Catholic 0-4 1-6
Russellville 0-4 1-6
Friday, Oct. 15
Bryant 34, Conway 30, 2OT
Cabot 54, LR Central 20
North Little Rock 47, LR Catholic 21
Van Buren 54, Russellville 14
Friday, Oct. 22
Bryant at Cabot
Van Buren at Conway
Russellville at LR Catholic
LR Central at North Little Rock
Friday, Oct. 29
North Little Rock at Bryant
Cabot at Van Buren
Conway at Russellville
LR Central at LR Catholic
Thursday, Nov. 4
Bryant at LR Central
Russellville at Cabot
LR Catholic at Conway
Friday, Nov. 5
Van Buren at North Little Rock
