The 2013 high school football season finally gets underway Friday night with two old rivals battling it out for county bragging rights. The Blytheville Chickasaws head to Osceola to take on the Seminoles.
Blytheville is coming off its worst record (3-7) in 2012 since going 1-9 in 2003. The Seminoles, however, are coming off another winning season. Osceola finished second to Rivercrest in the tough 3-3A conference with a 6-1 record. They lost to Greenland, 28-14, in the second round of the state playoffs.
Both teams will look a lot different then they were last year. Osceola lost three all-staters in Korliss Marshall, Jamal Jackson and Anfernee Jones. The Chicks lost a host of seniors including all-state running back Carlton Lee.
"Our offense is going to look a lot different," said second year Blytheville head coach Vince McCrosky. The Chicks will look to spread things out more to take advantage of their overall team speed especially since they lost some big linemen to graduation a year ago.
After the Chicks rough, 54-20, loss to West Helena last Friday, McCrosky knows that his squad still has a long way to go.
"We have to get tougher," he said. "Especially mentally tough. We have to cut down on mistakes. That's the key. The kids are working hard and doing everything we ask but we're not translating that onto the field."
McCrosky noted a couple of long offensive drives against West Helena that were stalled because of penalties and fumbles.
"We've shown we can move the ball but we end up stopping ourselves."
Bailey Cason takes over at quarterback for the Chicks in their new style offense.
"He really has a good grasp of the offense," said McCrosky. "He's an accurate thrower especially on some of our shorter and quicker throws."
McCrosky said DeMadre Clark, who took most of the snaps under center a year ago, may come in on "Wildcat" offensive situations.
Defensively, the Chicks will look to seniors Datronell Amerson (tackle) and Malik Walker (linebacker) to help lead the middle of the field and all-conference junior Jonathan Dougan-Banks to lead an athletic secondary.
The Seminoles had a rough opening scrimmage this year as well losing to 5A-East Nettleton, 34-6. Osceola hasn't beaten Blytheville since defeating them, 40-6, in 2005. Since then, they are 0-6-1 against Blytheville including last year's 36-24 loss.
Without the game-breaking talents of Marshall and Jackson in the backfield, head coach Russell Leggett's team will look at a running back by committee approach starting with senior Quintavious Hendrix.
Head coach Russell Leggett called Hendrix his "most consistent back."
Hendrix leads a three-back offense along with junior Tevin James and transfer senior Ashton Nalls.
"We're young this year," said Leggett. "We have a young line and that's really never a good thing. So, we're going to try to keep things simple. These kids are learning so we don't want to make things too complicated. We struggled in our scrimmage game. We made too many mistakes."
Taking snaps under center this year for the Seminoles is junior quarterback Harold Weedon.
"He's probably the best athlete on the field," said McCrosky. "He's got a big arm but they're going to try to beat you with their legs. We have to keep him (Weedon) at bay if we want to win."
Defensively, McCrosky said the Seminoles like to line up in a 50-front formation. While they may not have one dominant force on defense, McCrosky said their overall team speed makes it hard for teams to get out into space and pick up big yardage.
For McCrosky, he said the key to Friday's game may not be anything Osceola does or doesn't do but rather what his team does or doesn't do.
"What will hurt us is us," he said. "We can't keep putting drives together and then hurt ourselves and turn the ball over. We're still trying to figure things out and find out who we are. At times, we show what we can do but it's still a learning process for us."
NOTE: Running back Fred Smith probably will not play in Friday's game because of injury.
afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com @CN_AaronF