Photo by Rick Nation
In the BryantDaily.com write-up after the Bryant Hornets defeated the Little Rock Central Tigers, 28-10, last week, 22 Hornet players were mentioned but not one of them was Zach McConnell, Devon Waite, Brycen Waddle, Caleb McElyea, Cameron Davis, Ben Seale, Austin Fisher, Demaja Price or Drew Alpe.
But without those guys, the Hornets would not have been successful, would not have compiled 341 yards of offense, would not have rushed for 275 yards, would not have won.
Those were the blockers, the tackles, guards, tight ends, fullbacks and center.
“They did a very good job staying focused on the guys that we schemed up for them to block,” commented Hornets offensive coordinator Lance Parker. “We give them a lot of blocking assignments and we had very few busts. We might have missed a technique here or a technique there but, as far as going to the right guys, they did a very, very good job.”
Of course, that’s a key in every game. No less so by any means tonight when Bryant hosts the Russellville Cyclones in the first 7A/6A-Central Conference game for each team. Russellville head coach pointed to his defense as one of his team’s greatest strengths, pointing to that and special teams as keys to the game.
“They look pretty physical,” Parker said. “It’s pretty much the same scheme we saw last week. They’re a 4-2-5 team. They’re probably a little more aggressive than Central. Central would just kind of wait back and try to find their way through. Russellville’s pretty downhill. They’ll be a concern physically for us so we’ll have to make sure we stay on our blocks and we run through tackles, because they’re going to get through there some.”
Bryant is the fourth opponent in as many games this year for Russellville that has been primarily a run offense. The previous three teams have accumulated just 11 yards passing. The Hornets lead the league with a team total of 790 yards rushing this season.
On offense, the Cyclones are balanced. They have the second-leading rusher in the league in Kentrell Scott (49 carries, 279 yards). Their passing game includes Tony Jones with eight catches for 128 yards and Co-Chese Temple-Laws with nine grabs for 169 yards in three games.
“Jeff Holt’s always done a good job at Russellville,” said Bryant defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “We’ve played them over the years a number of times. I don’t think he’s got the athletes overall that he’s had in some years but he’s got a couple of guys that are very capable. Jones and Scott are outstanding athletes. I know they’re being looked at by several universities and they’ve got the ability to go the distance any time they touch the football.
“They’re going to come out and try to attack you with a power running game, which is a little different for Coach Holt, and a big screen game,” Griffith reported. “They really like a variety of different screens. We’ve got to be prepared for a variety of formations they’ll try to screen out of and make sure we’re in proper position plus the power running game they’ll get into.
“Physically, their offensive line, they’ve got a couple of big tackles,” he continued. “The center, the guards are decent size. They’re not as big as Little Rock Central but they’re a very, very capable football team. We know that Coach Holt’s going to have them well prepared. He always does.”
Griffith acknowledged that he was pleased with the Bryant defense’s work against the Tigers last week.
“We eliminated some of our alignment issues,” he said. “We’ve still got to work on our keys. We had a couple of missed keys that led to some big plays on Central’s part. And we continue to want to work on just the mentality that we’ve got to keep the opposing team pinned to give our offense a short field. We were a little disappointed with the fact that we let them off their end of the field.
“But anytime you hold Central to 10 points, you don’t give up second half points, you’re very excited about that,” Griffith added. “We’ve just tried to talk to the guys this week about the fact that we did some good things. We held a quality football team to 10 points but we can be a lot better. That’s our goal for each week, to get better than we were the week before.”
Holt said his team is still trying to find its identity. He expects the game to be emotional at first and his team needs to weather that, use its special teams to create a field position advantage and play tough defense.
The Cyclones are coming off an emotional rivalry game against Pottsville in which they trailed most of the way. But their defense forced a pair of turnovers by the dead-T offense of Pottsville and Russellville was able to rally for a 35-28 win.
