Last Friday, the Bradwell Institute Tigers scrimmaged at Toombs County, with neither team able to get into the end zone.
That spoke volumes to BI’s first-year head coach Greg Hill.
“I was impressed … as long as a team can’t score, they can’t win,” he said. “We were able to stop a pretty good offense that had a good fullback, and that says a lot about our defense and the things we are able to do. The only thing now is that we have to score.”
Hill also noted that the defense made the stops without senior linebacker Isiah Barnes. He was held out of the scrimmage to heal after tweaking his knee in practice two weeks ago. The coach said it was better to let him sit and watch than take a chance of making things worse.
Barnes is expected to be ready for next week’s opener against crosstown rival Liberty County at Olvey Field.
Other than Barnes sitting out, the Tigers escaped the scrimmage unscathed on the injury front.
“We came out of the game in good shape, so we were fortunate in that aspect,” Hill said.
Hill said the scrimmage allowed them to evaluate the players and help pick the Tigers’ potential starting quarterback for week one.
“Right now, Duane Johnson is the leader at quarterback,” Hill said. “We will continue to work the other guys and continue to push them … in the type of offense we run, you are going to need to have more than one quarterback ready.”
The coach acknowledged there is much work to be done before they host the Panthers.
“We made a lot of mistakes … not to take anything away from Toombs County … but going into the game, I told them we were going to focus on ourselves and concentrate (on executing the plays) going to where we need to be and at the right times,” he said. “… we have a lot footage to look at and, hopefully, have time to correct those mistakes before game time.”