By Rob Patrick
When you’ve just dispatched two of your rivals by a combined score of 87-10, it’s easy to be feeling pretty good about yourself.
But, with all due respect to the Benton Panthers and the Sheridan Yellowjackets, it’s going to get much tougher on the Bryant Hornets and, according to head coach Paul Calley, real soon.
In fact, this Friday, the Hornets host a proud Texarkana Razorbacks team that has been backed into a corner after opening losses to North Little Rock and Texarkana, Texas. The Hogs apparently found themselves after trailing 24-0 early in the second quarter of the battle with their crosstown rivals and nearly pulled off a victory, falling 34-28.
And, of course, a week after that comes the start of conference play and an early showdown with the Catholic High Rockets who are off to an even more impressive start than the Hornets.[more]
“We made mistakes,” Calley said of his team’s play against Sheridan. “But nothing that’s not correctible. Things that we can’t do against good football teams, we’re still doing. We’re going to find out Friday.”[more]
Asked to elaborate, the coach explained, “Missed blocking assignments on offense, not reading our keys on defense, being in the wrong place.
“We’re not taking care of our gap responsibility,” he continued regarding the defense. “When we stunt, we’ve got two people going to the same place. A couple of times (Sheridan) popped runs outside, we had linebackers and ends going to the same gap. We can’t do that against Texarkana or they’re going to score.
“When our safety came up to run support, with the ends and linebackers going through the same gap, they just caved us down. We just can’t do that.”
Of the offense, he added, “We messed up some really, really elementary blocking schemes and, if we don’t have 21 (running back Chris Rycraw), we don’t make any yardage.”
Rycraw, who rushed for a school record 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns last year has already piled up 385 yards and six touchdowns on just 21 carries.
“He makes up for some of the mistakes,” Calley said. “If you look at our offense and think we’re doing great, well, we’re not doing great but, at times, he makes us look great. A lot of times (against Sheridan), when he had long runs, he didn’t hit the hole on the side we would go with because we didn’t make one. He just found a crease.”
Those creases figure to get harder and harder to find.
“The positive side is, we’re playing hard,” the coach noted. “And even if we do block the wrong person, we’re blocking until the whistle blows which gives us a chance, if he does break it.
“We’re doing the same thing on defense, playing hard until the whistle blows which can make up for some missed assignments if we’ve got somebody there hustling to cover,” he continued. “But as the schedule starts to get tougher, they’re going to expose those things we’re doing wrong; Texarkana’s going to expose them if we don’t get them corrected. They’ve got great speed as usual.”
The game will be the Hornets’ home debut with kickoff at 7 p.m. At halftime, the 1999 Hornets will be honored on the 10th anniversary of their 11-1 season.
Calley verified that junior linebacker Collin Chapdelaine had broken his tibia in Friday’s game. “It broke right where the patella tendon connects to the tibia and I think all that came unraveled,” he related.
