If Kenny Horn and his assistants aren’t sure about how physical the players on the 2014 Bryant Hornets freshman team are, they’ll find out tonight when they take on the Cabot South Panthers to open the season at Bryant Stadium.
The Panthers at the freshman level are just like the Panthers throughout the Cabot program. In their dead-T offense, they line up tight with a pair of tight ends and a full-house backfield, prepared to pound a defense one play after another until it stands up or gives out. On defense, they’ll muscle up as well.
“Right now, we’re worried about them being physical enough,” allowed Horn, who’s entering his seventh year as the freshman head coach with a record of 50-10 overall and 36-10 in Central Arkansas Junior High Conference games.
“We’re anxious to get going,” Horn stated. “Anxious to see what’s going to happen but we’ve got to start out with Cabot. It’s never easy.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate,” he added. “We’ve generally been in the hunt and I think, most of the time, winning the conference goes through us. We feel like we have a pretty good chance at it. We’ll line up and see what happens.”
Bryant and Cabot South play twice this year. Tonight’s game will be considered a non-conference contest. They’ll play a league game at Cabot on Oct. 23.
Every year, Horn starts the season with concerns about his offensive line. In seventh and eighth grades, the coaches only have time to concentrate their instruction of the linemen on getting them to the right place and blocking the right guy — where to go. When they become freshman, there’s a new threshold to reach as the opposition becomes more skilled, bigger and tougher. The key becomes not only getting to the right place but knowing how to block the right way to be effective, learning the proper technique and how to execute properly after you’ve moved to the correct spot.
“I think that’s always a question mark for our program,” Horn acknowledged. “What are the linemen going to do? We always seem to have good skill guys, for the most part. Linemen are always the question mark.
“You know, kids grow at different rates,” he related. “Some kids are big and we’re fortunate this year that we’re going to average probably around 215 or 210 across the front. We’re going to be big. We’re not nimble guys, they’re big guys.
“Our zone (blocking) scheme, it’s not a big deal,” the coach continued. “It’s not like a stretch or anything. We’re just kind of zoning up and trying to cut people off. We think we can do that as of right now. We’re going to build off of it with our counter stuff and mix in throwing the ball a little bit, like we always have in the past.”
How quickly the offensive line develops is always a key for any team, of course.
Horn will be counting on Kobi Riffe at left tackle, Bryce Thomas at left guard, Preston Kyzer at center, Zak Kemp at right guard and Joe Wyllia at right tackle. Brooks Ellis will play the inside slot and help at tight end when needed.
“Brooks is not extraordinarily fast but he’s got the frame to put his hand down and the ability to work out in space,” Horn said. “That helps us out a lot. That way we don’t have to change personnel. We like to try to go up-tempo without having to change people out a lot. That’s the kind of guy you need.”
The Hornets played their pre-season scrimmage against Pine Bluff Robey without starting quarterback, Michael Jones.
“We feel like he can run it and throw it a little bit,” Horn said. “That’s the kind of guy you want. A guy like that a defense has got to account for, especially this type of offense we’re going to be able to do this year. We’ve always been big zone-read, counter-read and he is the guy that can do that.”
At running back, the Hornets have ability with Diante Woodson, James Polite and Antonio Fuller.
“Those guys aren’t real big but their nimble guys and they’ve got a little bit of speed,” Horn said. “We might not have a guy that can flat-out break away from you but we’ve got some guys that can make some moves and get somewhere in a hurry.”
Primary wide receivers are Tristan Calhoun, Luke Curtis, Austin Vail, Matt Sandidge and Jakalon Pittman. Vail is the backup to Jones at quarterback as well.
“We’ve got a handful of guys that we think they can do some stuff,” Horn said. “They can catch the ball, make some plays. Again, I don’t know if we have that big threat guy that we’ve had in the past but you never know. One may get out.”
Defensively, the Hornets will continue to deploy in a 4-3 look with an occasion three-man front.
“We’re pretty solid with a four-front,” Horn said.
Across the front will be Antonio Todd and Johnny Wallace at the ends. In the middle, the starters will be a pair of move-ins James McClendon and Ray Davis.
“There’s a couple of other guys mixing in there at end,” Horn said. “Inside, Ray goes about 275 and James goes about 225, 230. So we’ve got some big kids. We’re going to have a little rotation there in the middle with Howard Hunter and Ryan Harris and Jonathan Santos. Hopefully, we can keep a fresh defensive line running in there, move around a little bit.”
Ellis and Johnny Smith are the outside linebackers with Nick Smith in the middle.
“We’ve got a slew of guys that can back them up that are very viable guys,” Horn mentioned.
Vail, Calhoun, Pittman, Polite and Fuller will play in the secondary.
