Photo by Rick Nation
For those who may not be aware how great the Greenwood Bulldogs’ football program has been or those that knew about it but perhaps didn’t realize just how successful it has been, consider this:
The Bulldogs have won seven State championships since 2000 including three in row from 2010 to 2012. The Bulldogs’ loss to Fort Smith Northside on Sept. 19 of this year was their first regular-season loss since 2010 — 40 in a row. Their loss to Conway last week was the program’s first conference loss since 2010 — 29 in a row. That includes two unbeaten runs through a 7A/6A-Central Conference as a Class 6A team that included wins over Class 7A member schools Northside, Fort Smith Southside and Conway. Greenwood’s 37-34 loss to Pine Bluff in the semifinals of the 2013 Class 6A State playoffs snapped a streak of 15 playoff wins in a row. They’ve lost just three games in the past four seasons.
Tonight, Greenwood (4-2) brings its vaunted program to Bryant for Homecoming 2014, the first time the two schools have met on the gridiron. The Hornets, 5-0-1, will be aiming for their sixth straight win this season.
Both teams are ranked in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s overall Top 10 (Greenwood 7, Bryant 8). To go with their losses to Northside and Conway, the Bulldogs have defeated Fort Smith Southside, 15-10, and Springdale (56-28) of the 7A-West Conference.
Their only common opponent is Russellville. Greenwood beat the Cyclones 40-0 a week after Bryant beat them 34-6.
“They’re the best football team, offensively, that we’ve seen this year,” stated Bryant defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “They do an outstanding job zone blocking. They have a good offensive line. Their zone blocking schemes and execution are very good. Their running back (Jordan Green) does a very, very good job running the football.
“The quarterback (Reid Wheeler) is a good hand,” he continued. “They have some of the best blocking receivers that I think I’ve seen and, with that, they really like to run the screens.
“There’s a good reason that they’ve only lost a couple of regular season games over the last few years,” the coach related. “You can tell they’re well coached, well-disciplined. They’ll be a great challenge for us.”
Regarding the Greenwood defense, Bryant offensive coordinator Lance Parker reported, “They are a 3-4 team. They have a lot of guys that go both ways and play on offense but they’re really, really good football players and they can tackle well and they’re around the ball. They’ve probably got some of the best defensive linemen we’ve played so far. They come off the ball and that’s what you’d expect from Greenwood. That’s why they’ve had all that success. They’re all around good football players. They’re probably not going to be the biggest or the fastest but they’re very good football players.”
The Bulldogs have a balanced offense, rushing or 1,150 yards and passing for 1,337 this season. Defensively, they have allowed 1,086 yards on the ground and 951 through the air.
Bryant leads the league in rushing with 1,625, far more than Conway’s 1,388 (second most in the Central). Last week, the Wampus Cats gashed the Bulldogs for 498 yards on the ground including 369 on 29 carries by bruising fullback Kevin Chamarro. The Hornets hope they can approach that production.
Bryant is coming off a 24-14 win over Alma in a game interrupted by lightning midway through the second quarter. Since picking up 208 yards on the ground in their opener against Benton, the Hornets have rushed for no less than last week’s 259 yards in a game.
Bryant has three runners in the top nine in yardage in the Central Conference led by senior running back Kylon Boyle’s 441 yards on 62 carries. That’s fourth best in the league. Senior quarterback Brandan Warner is fifth with 381 yards on 62 rushes.
And though Warner has attempted the fewest passes of the starters in the conference, he’d second only to Wheeler with a 67.5 completion percentage.
“(Alma) came out and played a different defense than they’ve played all year,” noted Parker, mentioning something that several other coaches had told the Bryant staff that the Airedales never do. “It was not a defense we hadn’t seen. They brought in an extra defensive lineman and covered our center and our guards so it kind of negated some of the plans we had for their original (4-3) defense.
“So we had to do some stuff to try to force them to get that defensive lineman out of the game,” he continued. “The only way to do that was running some empty packages where we ran the quarterback (Warner). And he did a good job (rushing for a team-high 127 yards and a touchdown). When we had chances to make some plays, he made some plays.
“Our guys did a great job of adjusting,” the coach added. “That’s happened to us several times. It was a game where we had to adjust on the fly. I think the lightning delay helped a little bit just because we were able to get them regrouped and talk about what (the Airedales) were doing. I’m really proud of the way they adjusted.”
Asked if he thinks Greenwood might change what it does on defense for the game, Parker said, “When you’ve only lost just three games in however many years, it’d be hard to believe that they would feel like they would need to not do what they do because it’s been so successful. But our offense contrasts what everybody does. You just never know what somebody else is thinking. We’ll be ready for anything they can throw at us. If they do decide to come out and do something different, we’ll have a plan. We’ll be ready to go.”
Despite Chamarro’s big day last week, Greenwood’s Jordan Green is still the top ground gainer in the conference with 707 yards and eight touchdowns on 132 carries. No one else on the team has more than 40 carries. Quarterback Reid Wheeler is third in the league in passing yards with 1,245 with 11 touchdowns. He has completed a conference-best 69.4 percent of his passes (100 of 144 with just three interceptions). His top target, Kevin Jones has 32 receptions this season, second only to Van Buren’s Jaylyn Dye (37).
“They push the pace so you have to really be ready,” Griffith mentioned. “From the time the ball’s in until the next snap you’ve got about 15, 18 seconds between plays. So you really have to get back on the ball, be focused on getting your calls and then getting ready to play.”
The Hornets’ defense is tops in the conference in least total yardage allowed (1,591) including 624 yards on the ground (104 per game). They’ve allowed a league low 72 points.
Bryant held a 13-0 lead when the lightning caused the delay against Alma. When play resumed, the Airedales surged to a 14-13 lead but the Hornets shut them out the rest of the way, laying the groundwork for the offense to rally for the win.
“I thought we came out and played well early,” Griffith commented. “After the break, we lost our intensity a little bit. We caught our breath and we got it back and we played well to finish up the ballgame.
“We probably didn’t play with the emotion that we’d done the week before,” he added, referring to a 7A showdown with Little Rock Catholic that Bryant won 34-7. “We’ve talked to them this week that this is a game you bring it. You come with your ‘A’ game. Starters, key reserves, have all got to be ready. Because of their pace, our back-ups are going to play a big role this week. When they get on the field, we can’t have a letdown. That’s something we’ve got to be prepared for.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” he asserted.
Another big factor could once again be Bryant kicker Alex Denker who now has converted all five of his field goal attempts, four of them from 41 yards or more.
Actually, both teams have bigger games next week as, with the conference set up as it is, only games against conference foes in your classification (Bryant 7A, Greenwood 6A) count toward qualifying and seeding for the playoffs. The Hornets head to 7A Van Buren. Greenwood heads to 6A Siloam Springs.
