Cleaning up: Charles Henderson looks to limit the mistakes against the 7A Enterprise Wildcats
Published 8:36 pm Wednesday, August 29, 2018
- Chance Pollard runs the ball for Charles Henderson in their game against Pike County last Friday.
With Charles Henderson’s scrimmage now in the books, the Trojans turn their attention to their season opener on Friday against Enterprise.
The Trojans pulled out a 10-6 win over the rival Bulldogs, but the game had all the looks of a scrimmage. The Trojans struggled to get much of anything going offensively, and when they did, penalties and mistakes seemed to outweigh many of the positives throughout the contest.
“It certainly looked like a preseason game, at least from our standpoint,” said head coach Brad McCoy. “We had a lot of unforced errors and a lot of things that we could control that we did not handle the right way. We had a lot of penalties and incorrect formations.”
The Trojans also turned the ball over three times.
“When I say that it looked like a preseason game, that’s what I mean,” McCoy said. “We really didn’t look ready to play at a high level. Going into this week, we certainly addressed those mistakes and I think we did a better job this week at practice of limiting those types of mishaps.”
This week, in order to correct those mishaps from last week, coach McCoy and the rest of the coaching staff has worked on holding the players accountable for their mistakes last Friday night.
“You hold them accountable,” McCoy said. “You of course teach, just like anything else; if a kid messes up in class, you go over it and correct it verbally. The accountability in class is a poor score on a test. Accountability in football practice is you go get on the hill and run 15 hills. You try to get their focus to where the situation presents itself. You make them think ‘Do I want those 15 hills or do I need to lock in and concentrate?’”
The Trojans will have to hold their concentration Friday night when they travel an hour to Enterprise to take on the 7A Wildcats.
Despite being two classes smaller than the Wildcats, McCoy believes his Trojans match up well with Enterprise and he believes his team will not be intimated by the larger setting.
“We tell our guys that it’s still football,” McCoy said. “They have 11 and we have 11. They don’t get to put more guys on the field. We have to execute. It’s going to be a challenge any time you play; it’s more of a challenge when you make a bunch of mistakes. I don’t feel like we are outmatched in any given spot on the field. We have the same resources they got. I just think we have to convince our kids to get over there and play football and make the most out of every situation.”
In last week’s scrimmage, the Trojans found clarity in their few position battles and they feel like it will be status quo this time around.
“We have made very little, if any, changes in the starting lineups,” McCoy said. “We are going to move forward to week number one with those same guys.”
The Wildcats put up 44 points last week during their 44-21 win over Dothan. The two teams haven’t played since the 2011 season when the Wildcats got the best of Charles Henderson 24-17.
“They have a really good quarterback in Joe Thornton,” McCoy said. “They are very talented. They are young up front with the offensive line. Defensively, they are just very athletic. They run an odd front, which sometimes puts a strain on the center. They can run at linebacker. They can run in the secondary and they can cover. They give you a lot of different looks, a lot of multiple looks.”
Kickoff between the Trojans and Wildcats is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Wildcat Stadium in Enterprise.