Mustangs will be trusting young players in key roles
HUGHES SPRINGS, Texas— With good, experienced leaders on the field, the development of young players in key roles will be pivitol for Hughes Springs this football season.
The Mustangs return 11 lettermen with six offensive starters back and five on defense.
“We’re not going to look down the road,” veteran head coach Chris Edwards said. “We’re not looking ahead of us, not looking behind us, we’re just going to take it one game at a time. Our last two years, we’ve got caught up in who we’re playing next week or what happened last week. Each week, we’re going to prepare for that game, play that game, hopefully, compete at the highest level we can, and be done with it on Monday and move on to the next week.”
Edwards has been pleased with the effort from his players early on, and hopes to continue building on that enthusiasm.
“We’ve had a great attitude in preseason; we’re getting after it,” the coach said. “We’ve got some young guys in key spots who will have to develop and step up, but our senior class is doing as well as you could ask them to, as far as leading by example and showing them how it’s done.
“It’s hard to say what the strength will be early; we don’t stand out in one area. We’re kinda thin, don’t have a lot of depth, but we’re fairly athletic across the board. We have the ability to play a fast defense, but we’re not very big, size-wise.”
Zach Pilgrim (5-11, 210), Hunter Brabham (6-3, 225), Daulton Hall (6-2, 180) and Harrison Reagan (5-10, 180) will start up front on the offensive line from tight end to center. Edwards also relies on those four, and Tra Craver (6-3, 190), for senior leadership.
“Tra is our vocal leader when we’re out there,” Edwards said. “He shows to be completely healed from the injury that kept him out of the second half (of the year). Those guys are strong leaders. We want Tra to be the bell cow; he can get the tough yards when he needs to, and if he breaks a tackle and gets a crease, he can go to the house, too.”
Sophomore Isiah Bolden (5-9, 170) will back up Craver. Junior Bryce Johnston (5-9, 170) adds depth to the running back position.
“Bolden is probably not as fast or as strong, but he has great vision and a knack for making the right cut,” Edwards said. “Johnston is sneaky fast, makes good cuts and very smart, so he doesn’t make mistakes.”
Sophomore Jakobie Craver (5-8, 160) and senior Ty Menefee (5-9, 150) are the slotbacks for Hughes Springs.
“They’re fast and are physical kids, even though they’re smaller,” Edwards said. “They run with their shoulders down. We’re fighting for 4 or 5 yards, and anything past that is gravy.”
Andrew Gaul (5-10, 170) is competing with fellow sophomore Cooper Perry (5-10, 160) for the starting quarterback job.
“Andrew has the nod, but there isn’t a clear front-runner,” Edwards said. “We may end up platooning them. The competition is raising their level of play, but it works against you sometimes because they play to not make a mistake instead of letting it all hang out. If one of them had it sewn up, he wouldn’t realize his full potential either.”
Senior Colton Duck (5-11, 200) is working at the other tackle position, and sophomore Jace Ratley (5-9, 190) is practicing at guard.
Chandler King and Tristen Hickey are juniors and line up at slot receivers.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a little because we went to the spread last year and we’re going back to our Slot-T offense,” Edwards said. “So we missed a year of that development. We’re going back to have to reteach a little bit, but the response has been great. It’s going to take a little while for everything to mesh and start clicking, but we’re definitely headed in the right direction.”
Johnston and Craver will man the outside linebacker positions for Hughes Springs. Brabham will move to an end position after collecting 87 tackles last year, and Pilgrim returns at inside backer with 93 tackles his junior season. Hall is manning the other inside linebacker spot.
“We’re expecting our defense to lead us, especially early,” Edwards said. “It will take a while to develop our offense, and we want those guys to get the ball back as much as possible. We’re in a 3-4 defense because we want our outside linebackers to run the football.”
In the secondary, Gaul will start at safety. Jakobie Craver will help in the secondary, and Menefee and King also are returning starters in the defensive backfield. Hickey also is expected to see significant playing time, as well.
Adding depth in the secondary are Perry and Brandon Taylor.
Bolden will handle kickoff duties, Gaul will punt and Carter Lindsey will be the placekicker.