The Bradwell Institute Tigers expect to get a heavy dose of Matt Fuller on Thursday night.
Fuller, the 6-foot, 215-pound running back and safety who has committed to South Carolina, leads the Wayne County Yellow Jackets. In Jaybo Shaw’s first year with the Jackets, Wayne County went from winless to the third round of the Class AAAA playoffs.
Fuller was a prime reason why, amassing 1,757 yards rushing and 22 touchdowns.
“They want to give him the ball. He’s the bell cow,” Tigers coach DeShon Brock said of Fuller. “He’s a great football player at that. We have to contain him and make somebody else beat us.”
Junior linebacker Tavion Wallace, a preseason Class AAAA all-state choice, heads up a defense that held opponents to 10 points or fewer six times while going 10-3.
“Wayne has a very good team,” Brock said. “Coach Shaw has done a tremendous job turning that program around. We have our work cut out for us. It will be a great measuring stick to see where we are.”
The Tigers, though, demonstrated big-play and quick strike potential in their scrimmage with Windsor Forest. Zay Thomas went 64 yards for a score, Christopher Garrett connected with Tyon Jones for a 66-yard scoring strike and with less than a minute left in the half, the Tigers went more than 85 yards for a touchdown, with Garrett hitting Bryant Thomas on a 45-yard TD one play after a big hookup with Zay Thomas.
“As long as we don’t get in our own way, I feel we’ll be fine offensively,” Brock said. “That’s how I like to play, up tempo. If there’s time on the clock, we can score. We have the opportunity to score from anywhere on the field. It’s can we execute. Now, the kids believe any time we touch the ball, we can score, and I love that.”
One other feature of this year’s team Brock welcomes is the players’ willingness to play hard.
“It is very important,” he said. “We have a thing we talk about this year about being all in. If you’re halfway in, you can’t do it. To have those kids sell out and buy into the program and see that on Friday night, it means a lot. It means we’re heading in the right direction. We’re getting to where we want to be.”