Hurricanes out to match defensive mark
After stellar year for stop troops in 2014, Hightower hopes for more
There isn’t much free time during the football season for Padriac McGinnis, but when he does find a few minutes here and there he loves to turn on his X-Box.
Normally, when people play simulated football they can manipulate the players so well they pile up gaudy statistics and lopsided scorelines. There is one thing, however, McGinnis has not been able to mimic with an X-Box controller, the statistics his Hightower football team put up on the real field last season.
The Hurricanes gave up fewer than 17 points per game and allowed 66 passing yards per game in 2014. To this day it impresses McGinnis.
“In a day in age when everybody wants to throw the ball?” McGinnis said. “Those are numbers I couldn’t put up on a video game.”
Hightower’s opponents may not want to count on high scores again this season because six starters return, including four bound for Division I schools.
It begins with senior linebacker Clifton Lewis, the younger brother of former Hightower star Shaun Lewis who went on to earn all-Big 12 honors at Oklahoma State.
McGinnis said Clifton is on par with how good his brother was when he was a high school senior. Clifton, a TCU pledge, has a knack for getting around blocks. He can get through the smallest of creases as if nobody blocked him.
Lewis will be fronted by a star-studded line that includes tackle Darius Anderson and end Michael Johnson, the reigning Defensive MVP of District 236A. Johnson is a University of Houston pledge, and Anderson likely will field a few Big 12 offers by the end of the season. The line also includes tackle Darian Wilson, who gives the Hurricanes two players in the middle who weigh 300 pounds.
No defense would be complete without a strong presence in the secondary. Julian Chandler provides that with his superb length bringing him big recruiting interest. He has pledged to Louisiana Tech.
The key to this season, McGinnis said, will be for the Hurricanes to avoid resting on their laurels from last season.
“We have to move on,” he said. “We have a lot of starters coming back, but we have to make our identity this year.”
McGinnis has to look no further than his team’s loss in the first round of the playoffs last season. Hightower lost to Friendswood, 35-29, in overtime despite Friendswood being a largely one-dimensional team after losing its starting quarterback to injury midway through the season.
The Hurricanes still allowed Friendswood to churn up 307 rushing yards.
Running up big numbers is nice in video games and in the regular season, but the playoffs are where it really matters. That’s where Hightower hopes to have its defense firing on all cylinders in 2015.
“If we were that good a defense why didn’t we shut down Friendwood like we should have?” McGinnis said. “We were the No. 1 defense in the district, but what has that gotten us? Nothing. You have to bring it every day.”