Cleveland’s Kellye Cawood chosen area player of week

With players like Keegan Jones and Micaleous Elder, some quarterbacks might be expected to fill a lesser role.

“A lot of times with guys like those you might tell your quarterback, ‘Don’t screw things up; just get them the ball,’” Cleveland coach Scott Cummings said Monday after he’d reviewed the Blue Raiders’ 47-34 victory over Maryville Heritage.

Jones ran for 253 yards and Elder had 156 receiving yards, but there still is room in the Blue Raiders’ offense for stardom from junior quarterback Kellye Cawood. He earned the Times Free Press area honor of Waffle House All-Star player of the week by passing for 248 yards and three touchdowns and running for 66 yards and another score.

“He’s really strongarmed,” Cummings said. “If he went out and ran a 40-yard dash he isn’t going to impress people, but when he gets on the field he doesn’t mind putting his foot down and going.”

The 5-foot-10, 170pound Cawood is the trigger for the Raiders’ triple-option offense and the cannon behind their passing game.

“He’s not a real big guy, but he throws like a kid that’s 6-foot-4 — gets a lot of rotation on the ball,” Cummings said. “But we run so much option that he’s more than just a distributor.

He’s a crucial piece to the whole puzzle.”

The 66 rushing yardage was net, which includes the yards lost due to sacks.

“Part of that is him holding the ball a little too long looking downfield, and sometimes he likes to fit things in where he shouldn’t. He likes to flash that arm strength, and sometimes he pulls it off, and I guess if I had a receiver like Micaleous I might hold it a little longer, too,” Cummings added.

As much as Cawood has targeted Elder, obviously a big-play receiver, he completed passes to seven receivers last Friday.

“He’s a good student academically, which in some cases doesn’t translate to football, but fortunately for us it does,” Cummings said. “He’s done a good job running the triple-option — a lot of pitching and a lot of keeping — and when defensive backs begin edging up in run support he’s done a good job getting the ball downfield.”

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Cleveland quarterback Kellye Cawood takes off on a run against Knox Catholic earlier this year. Cawood was named the area player of the week for his performance against Maryville Heritage.