Tigers ready to advance in Simmons’ second year
LINDEN, Texas—LindenKildare brought back 18 lettermen for head coach Derek Simmons’ second year in charge of the Tiger program.
Early on in fall camp there were noticeable differences in the players.
“I think we’re going the right direction,” Simmons said. “I told the coaches, the biggest difference I see (after the first week) is our energy level is so much higher. We’re another year into it, but the way the kids have come out is a testament to the kids who are back. Last year we had so many without varsity experience, and they didn’t know what to expect.
“It was a long year for them, and now with a year under their belts, you can instantly tell a difference with the way they’re working and practicing.”
The season prior to Simmons taking over (the 2015 season) graduated 18 of the 23 lettermen.
“We only had five kids with varsity experience at this point last year,” the Tigers coach said. “We moved every sophomore but one up to the varsity last year, and every one of them played to a certain extent. We started a freshman on offense, started a freshman on defense, and at times starting as many as five or six sophomores.
“It was a totally new experience, getting used to the speed of the game, as well as playing against guys who were bigger, stronger and faster.”
With so much experience, albeit young in many positions, L-K looks to turn a corner after going 4-6 last fall.
“While we’re not having to learn much offensively, we’re learning a whole new system defensively,” Simmons said. “It’s not the same defensive of old for L-K, and it’s a challenge for those guys. They’ve really stepped up and grasped what we’re trying to do with it. They understand it and are having fun doing it, and that’s the main thing.
“It was pretty obvious the kids retained a lot from last year and through our spring and summer workouts. From
an offensive standpoint, we were light years ahead of where we were last year at the same point.” We’ve seen more leadership than we had last year, and the kids look up to it and the kids respond to it, if we continue to do it in a positive manner.”
Marty Johnson (6-1, 170) is back at quarterback for his senior year. Johnson did not play his sophomore year but came back out last fall.
“That’s an advantage because he is a year older, has been in the system a year and he’s a smart kid who picks up on things real well,” Simmons said of Johnson. “The thing that’s helping him this year is that we have a pretty good quarterback battle going on. Marty started all 10 games last year, but we had a young kid move in from Dublin, who is a really good quarterback. Both of them are pushing each other, and we feel comfortable with either one of them in there.”
Jacob Owen (5-10, 177) is the transfer competing for the QB job as a junior.
“He knows the position well,” Simmons said of Owen. “Obviously, Marty has the upper hand because he knows our terminology and has the experience in our system, but that’s been probably our best position battle. If you coach long enough you know, you can never have too many quarterbacks, and you can never have too many quarterbacks who are also good athletes. We’re going to find a place for both of them play.”
Sophomore Ladavian Johnson (5-5, 143) will start at running back after being a part of the varsity his freshman year. Johnson also started all 10 games on defense and will also play both ways this fall.
“We don’t have the depth at running back like we did last year,” Simmons said. “His two backups are also sophomores. We’ve been working Ja’Kevian (Rose) a little at running back, so we can slip him in there occasionally. His deal is getting open on the outside. Ladavian is overly strong for his size; probably pound for pound the strongest kid we have.
“He’s a good runner and sees the hole well.”
The Tigers return both fullbacks with junior Caleb Cunningham (5-10, 185) and senior Traccer Henry (5-7, 153). Both are also full-time starters on defense.
“We’re rotating those two guys, and we feel good about our fullback position,” Simmons said. “They catch the ball well out of the backfield and block well. We lost our starting center, John Randall Fitts, he’s out for the year. He’s helping us every day in practice and doing what a senior needs to do.”
Junior Draydon Delese (5-9, 193) has moved to center from the left guard. Nic Kunze (5-11, 197) is back at left tackle after starting every game as a freshman, and senior Dre’Shawn Williams (5-11, 252) returns at right tackle.
Juniors Jaylen Lee (5-7, 244) and Jeremy Hankins (5-9, 229) and sophomore Caleb Taylor (5-9, 236) are rotating at the guard positions.
“We don’t have a whole lot of depth on our offensive line,” Simmons said. “The ones we have in there, we fell pretty good about. District-wise one of our biggest uphill battles last year was we weren’t overly big, we weren’t overly strong. And everybody we played had some bigger kids, and it showed drastically because we were getting pushed around just about every week. We had a good offseason, and they kids bought into our offseason and got after it in the weight room. We had a fairly decent summer program with a bunch of our older kids.”
One of the biggest weapons for Linden-Kildare will be Ja’Kevian Rose (5-10, 158). Rose had 17 touchdowns as a junior, returning a kickoff for a score, rushing for four more, catching 25 balls for 594 yards and nine TDs and 84 tackles and seven interceptions, taking three back for scores.
Joining Rose in the receiving corps. are junior Ty Patterson (6-0, 172), and sophomores Davion Tyson (5-8, 134), Deanery Samuel (5-7, 142) and Da’Vion Tyson (5-8, 134).
Despite new schemes on the defensive side, Linden-Kildare is expected to make improvements on that side in 2017.
“What I’ve seen so far on defense is that we have all four guys back on our defensive line,” Simmons said. “We look totally different, not just from a scheme standpoint, but we’re just stronger up front. We’re able to do some things we couldn’t do before.”
Cunningham and Kunze will play the defensive ends, and Williams and Hankins both return at tackle.
“Our biggest surprise so far has been moving Draydon Delese, one of our tackles last year, to middle linebacker,” the coach said. “He’s taken that spot and run with it, which has allowed us to slide Ty Patterson to strong-side linebacker. That position is tailor made for him; he’s a good sized kid, runs well and we;re able to do some different things with him out there.”
Henry transitioned from outside linebacker to inside.
“Those seven guys have looked really well, taken to the defense and are having fun with it,” Simmons said. “We do a lot of moving around, stunting, blitzing and things like that. Through the first week of practice our secondary was better than the secondary we had last year.”
Rose will man one corner position, and Ladavian Johnson has moved from linebacker to corner. Junior Marquise Jones (6-2, 155) returns to the secondary after he recovers from injury this summer, and Owen will start at free safety.
“We’re excited because we’ve got kids back there who can run, cover, come up and tackle and are communicating,” Simmons said. “A lot of little things we didn’t have last year, we’re already getting that on defense.”
Henry will again handle punting duties, Cunningham will kick off and Marty Johnson handles extra-points.
“We’re still young; our roster shows that we’re still extremely young,” Simmons said. “But at least now, we’re young with experience, and that’s got to mean something. And it has. We’re a year further along in our offense, and the kids know it inside and out. We’re not having to do as much teaching on that side of the ball; we’re able to just go out and execute, and that’s been a huge plus.
“We’ve made a lot of changes defensively, and that’s got the kids excited as well.”