Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington’s Brackett Buster
FARMINGTON — When Farmington head football coach Mike Adams wanted to extend the field and break down a defense, he had a bracketbuster readily available.
“If we’re going to take a shot deep, he’s the guy we were going to throw to,” Adams said.
Matt Brackett has made big plays in his athletic career as a Cardinal and the Farmington senior added spectacular football scores to his already impressive resume in his senior season.
Not that his numbers haven’t been good. In 2011, Brackett gained 409 yards receiving and came up with a huge touchdown catch after time had expired in the first half in a 26-23 quarterfinal playoff win at McGehee.
The play began a Farmington rally after the Cardinals faced a 16-0 deficit and was part of the 2011 Cardinal playoff run, which messed up the 4A football bracket with Farmington upsetting Heber Springs, 28-12; and McGehee, both of which held home-field advantage.
In the regular season 2011 basketball finale against arch rival, Prairie Grove, Brackett singed the nets by stuffing the ball through with a pair of high-percentage slam dunk shots. He also competed in baseball and track and field as a junior and dunked on the Tigers in their first meeting this year.
In his senior football season, Brackett threw for a touchdown on a flea-flicker against Prairie Grove, rushed 5 times for 82 yards and a touchdown and caught 39 passes for 556 yards and 6 scores.
“It ’s my senior year. Last year, I had fun with Jared [Martin] and Deon [ Clay] and all them last year,” Brackett said. “I didn’t want my junior year to outshine my senior year.”
Brackett does all he can to try and win. In the Cardinals’ Sept. 28, 27-21, football loss to Prairie Grove, Brackett looked like he was on the verge of having a break-out season. Every time he touched the ball, Brackett looked like he was auditioning for the role of “the Flash,” whether catching passes, running back punts or taking an interception down the sideline while maintaining his balance.
“He’s a talented athlete, he’s very aggressive in everything he does,” Adams said. “He had a big interception for us against Prairie Grove he returned for a score but unfortunately it was called back.”
Both Adams and Farmington defensive coordinator, Jay Harper, referred to Brackett as their lockdown guy.
“You always put him on the guy you want covered and you never worry about it,” Harper said. “He did a tremendous job for us this year.”
Brackett was one of few Cardinals going both ways. He played cornerback on defense and wide receiver on offense and returned punts. On Sept. 28, he pounced on a Prairie Grove fumble and on Oct. 5 again recovered a fumble to keep a drive alive deep in Berryville territory late in the third stanza.
Against the Bobcats, Brackett’s appearance was even more frightening as a tall speedster decked out
Brackett in scarlet.
“He scored an 83- yard touchdown. It was a simple, little screen and he broke a few tackles and took it in,” Adams said. “He’s a big-play threat. We felt like against Berryville with our receivers if we’d get them out in space and they could do some damage and they did.”
Farmington held a 26-0 lead at halftime and had the ball to start the second half. Adams kept the Berryville defense off-balance with his play-calling. Spencer Boudrey ran for 11 yards on first down, then Michael Ingram picked up 14 on second down and Keaton Austin got 7 more and crossed into Bobcat territory on a quarterback keeper. Adams then called a very similar play on second and 7 from the Berryville 48 with Brackett in at quarterback to run the option right.
Brackett sold a play fake, freezing the defense momentarily by pretending to hand off to Boudrey, then tucked the ball in and raced for a touchdown.
Adams said the play was something the Cardinals worked on since week one and felt that was the time to break it out. Adams said Brackett did a good job and the way he looked had the Cardinals thinking of using the option a lot more.
Later in the game as Farmington faced third and 6 at their own 42, Adams went back to Brackett, who replaced Austin at quarterback for one play and gained 16 yards on another option run, which led to another touchdown.
Adams said Brackett’s havefun mentality helps to loosen up his teammates during practice.
“He has fun at
practice,” Adams said. “You don’t always get that in football but he’s always out there yelling and screaming. You need guys like that.”
“It’s a game, it’s all about having fun,” Brackett said.
“When it’s time to work, he’s going to work but he’s always going to have fun at what he’s doing,” Adams said.