O-line a pillar for younger Bryant
For a football team with as much success as Bryant has had in the past three years, it looks incredibly different on both sides of the ball this season.
The contrast was so stark that Coach Buck James said before the season that he wasn’t expecting the Hornets to dominate, due in part to lack of experience.
On defense, the Hornets return one starter in senior lineman Brandon Jones. On offense, they have five starters who started “a game or two” last year, according to James.
Bryant and its 16 new starters came out and dominated Saturday’s Salt Bowl, beating Benton 42-3. Carson Burnett, who took the mantle of starting quarterback this year from Austin Ledbetter, threw for 227 yards and 2 scores while rushing for another 42 yards and a touchdown. First-year starting running back Chris Gannaway rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns.
In total, the fresh-faced offense amassed 550 yards.
But the newcomers were led by an experienced push up front as left tackle Will Diggins, left guard Jason Shifflet and right tackle Brooks Edmonson have started the previous two seasons on the Bryant offensive line. Now seniors, the trio brings a combined 78 games of starting experience to the Hornets in a year where that’s uncommon on either side of the ball.
“They’re dudes, those three guys right there,” James said after Saturday’s game. “They’re bell cows, they’re leaders and they’re guys that do it the right way. If you’re going to be experienced anywhere, your offensive line is the best place because it gives young kids a chance to be successful, and I think that’s what these guys have done. It gives us confidence.”
Diggins, Edmonson and Shifflet have a tight bond, Diggins said. The left tackle said he’s known Edmonson since the eighth grade when the two would compete against each other in basketball. He and Shifflet have played on the same side of the offensive line since they were freshmen.
In 2019, their first year as starters, the trio grew on the practice field as much as they did in-game, going up against what Diggins said was one of the best defenses in the state that year in Bryant, which included former Arkansas commitment Catrell Wallace and current Memphis defensive tackle Kajuan Robinson.
Diggins also said the three — who spend most of their time off the field going out to eat together or helping each other in the classroom — have reached a point where they fully understand how they work as players.
“We know how each other thinks, what we like to do,” Diggins said. “We don’t even have to talk in the game no more, we just look at each other. That’s what I really feel like is our biggest thing.”
Dylan Waddle and Hayden Walsh, the first-year starters on the line, also have benefited from their more experienced counterparts. Waddle in particular noted how much he’s learned from Edmonson, whom he lines up beside at right guard.
“It’s really a lot of technique stuff that they’re able to teach,” Waddle said. “It’s little things that kind of go unnoticed, but they know things you can’t really coach, [it’s] just experience from being on the field.”
Waddle and Walsh represent how some of the Hornets’ new starters improved without varsity starting experience.
Bryant’s past dominance has allowed second-string guys to see the field often in blowouts. Waddle estimated that last year, with seven of the Hornets’ 13 victories coming at the hands of the mercy rule, he played in about 10 quarters. He said that’s helped a great deal as he transitions into a starting role.
“You can see what you need to work on and really focus on that during the offseason,” Waddle said.
Waddle estimated that, on both sides of the ball, about 10 Hornets have been playing football together since peewee league. He also said he’s played alongside Edmonson and Walsh since the first grade.
“Even though it’s some of our first years playing together, I still feel like we know each other,” Waddle said. “We’re on the same page and we really feel like we know what we’re doing out there.”