5 things to watch
LR McClellan at Hot Springs
After three consecutive losses to start the season, the Hot Springs Trojans are looking at one of their toughest opponents yet as the Little Rock McClellan Crimson Lions come to Tommy J. Holt Field at Joe C. Reese Stadium.
The Crimson Lions (3-0) enter tonight’s game on the heels of a 52-0 decimation of the Little Rock Fair War Eagles (1-2), while the Trojans (0-3) were on the other side of a lopsided loss, falling to Lake Hamilton (3-0), 42-7, last week.
Here are five things to watch in the matchup:
Mental recovery
Coming off last week’s big loss to Lake Hamilton, the Trojans got their heads down, and head coach Darrell Burnett decided to do more than just focus on what went wrong.
“We’ve been doing some team-bonding stuff,” he said. “We took them out to the movies just to give them a restart, a fresher mind, just making sure the guys understand they know what they’re doing and lining up right.”
Burnett said there were plenty of mistakes made, leading to the loss, but he made sure the team did not focus on the negatives.
“A lot of stuff that played into that loss, but you can’t let that Friday loss dictate how you’re going to do this coming Friday,” he said. “We’ve got a good team coming in. We don’t have time to try to lick our wounds and feeling sorry for ourselves because they aren’t going to do it. It’s a championship ballclub coming in here.”
Tough team
Last season ended with the Crimson Lions falling, 37-36, to Pulaski Academy in the Class 5A state final as a member of the 5A-Central confer-
ence. While the team is not a familiar foe for the Trojans, Burnett knows McClellan brings back a strong offense.
“They’re explosive,” he said. “They’re more of a right-at-you team. They’re going to try to run it down the middle. They’ve got a good full back. Their quarterback has got some decent speed. Coach (Maurice) Moody does a good job.”
The coaching staff went back to the drawing board to try to fill some holes and improve the Trojans’ defense after last week’s loss.
“We’ve just got to toughen up,” Burnett said. “We’ve got to toughen up, get down in those trenches. We moved some guys around. We’re doing some things different on defense to try to take the thinking away from guys and more attacking.
“When we blitzed the first two games, we did really, really good. Last week, we went against a Wing-T, so we didn’t really blitz at all and had some guys sitting back on their heels. When you’re playing that type of offense, you can’t sit back on your heels because they’re going to come at you. We’re going to try to do more moving and attacking than we did last week to try to help our kids out. It’s not just on them; it’s on us, too.”
Ready to score
Despite having its roughest defensive performance to date against Lake Hamilton, the Trojans managed to pick up their first touchdown of the season last week. Burnett said a few small changes could have seen the Trojans with three more touchdowns.
“We’ve always got a chance,” he said. “Just watching that Lake Hamilton film, from the outside looking in, everybody probably said the offensive line (fell apart), but if we get a couple of blocks here and there from the inside receivers or if the running back makes a certain cut, that was easily three touchdowns that counted.”
Burnett said the offense must make sure everyone is working together to be successful
“Everything has got to play in hand; everything has got to be synced up together,” he said. “We’ve just got to do our job. We’ve got to do our job when we get close to the end zone and have got to score.”
Big up front
A key to McClellan’s game rests on its strong offensive line.
“It all starts in the front,” he said. “Their offensive line is going to get them moving. That’s the biggest key — their offensive line against our front three, front five, front four.”
The Trojans are also tasked with shutting down McClellan’s two main playmakers, quarterback Dionte Hutchinson and fullback Derrick Lloyd.
“(Stopping) the fullback and making sure to tackle the quarterback in space,” Burnett said. “They’ve got a big, tall receiver that’s really, really tall. They like to throw slant routes, too, but it starts up front.
“Stop the run, stop the fullback. Everything else will give us a chance to be successful, but if we don’t stop their fullback and let the quarterback run free, it could be a bad night. We’re trying to get some positives going here at Hot Springs.”
Running it out
McClellan is another “ground-andpound” team, Burnett said, similar to Lake Hamilton.
With a similar offense coming to Reese Stadium this week, changes were made to correct the mistakes from a week ago. The Crimson Lions offense is similar to that of the Wolves, but it is not the same as McClellan forces it up the middle.
“They like to keep it on the ground,” Burnett said. “You’re going to see a lot of old-school fullback dives, just running right at you. They like to keep it on the ground, and they’ll come back and run some options and toss-sweeps. And they can spread it out and throw it, too, a little bit, but they’re more ground-and-pound.
“It’s almost identical to Lake Hamilton except Lake Hamilton attacked on the perimeter a lot, but McClellan’s just going to run right in the middle. We get to see what our linebackers — guys like Ramello (Cason) — can do, as well as our defensive backs attacking in space.”
Stopping the offense comes down to keeping the Crimson Lions to short plays.
“Just making them drive the ball,” Burnett said. “We can’t give up all the big plays. Make them drive the ball.”
Week 4
Other matchups this week include El Dorado (1-2) at Lake Hamilton (3-0), Lakeside (1-2) at Camden Fairview (1-2), Fountain Lake (3-0) at Joe T. Robinson (3-1), Bauxite (3-0) at Malvern (0-3), Jessieville
(2-1) at Perryville (1-2), Mineral Springs
(3-0) at Mount Ida (3-0), Bismarck (1-2) at Camden Harmony Grove (2-1), Smackover
(2-1) at Centerpoint (2-1), Mountain Pine (12) at Cutter Morning Star (1-2) and England
(0-3) at Magnet Cove (1-2).