Wolves Discover New Identity

SENIOR QUARTERBACK MENTORS PLAYERS IN NEW POSITIONS

LINCOLN — The success of switching Caleb Lloyd (6-0, 225) from tailback to quarterback last year opens up new doors of opportunity for other Lincoln athletes to move around the backfield.

Still, some fans who watched Lloyd run the football as starting tailback during his freshman and sophomore seasons thought he should switch back this year.

Not that they didn’t think he can play quarterback. Lloyd proved that last season when Lincoln head coach Don Harrison asked him to take over signal caller duties.

“He’s a runningback,” one fan protested. “He should run the ball.”

These voices tended to be fans of Arkansas high school football in general, while familiar with competing against Lincoln, they’re not intimately acquainted with the inner working of Lloyd’s influence on the senior Wolves as a field general.

Lincoln, one of the smallest schools in 4A, depends heavily this season on an outstanding sophomore class to fill several starting roles on varsity. Lloyd plays out his hand as an on-thefield mentor.

Lincoln sophomore Noe Avellanda (5-8, 180) switched from tailback to slot receiver this year.

“Slot, it was a big challenge, it was really difficult to learn all the plays,” Avellanda said. “I’ve been running the ball for three years since seventh grade to ninth and now they want me to play receiver and I was just like, ‘OK,’ but at first it was a little challenging learning all the plays.”

Through the first two games, Avellanda was tied for the most receptions on the team with 99 yards averaging 12.4-yards-per-catch with a touchdown. Lloyd helped him make the transition.

“Shout out to Caleb, Caleb Lloyd our quarterback this year, he’s really been inspirational to the whole team,” Avellanda said. “He leads the team in everything. He’s the guy that you want to go ask for advice. He’s the guy to go to for advice. He picks everybody up when somebody’s down. So I got my respects for Caleb Lloyd.”

With Lloyd returning for his senior season as the Wolves’ signal caller, Lincoln filled the tailback slot by moving a pair of wide receivers, Cam Brown and Christian Sellers, to tailback and senior lineman, Bradley Drain, to fullback. Brown was injured in the first half of Lincoln’s season-opening 48-6 win over Westville, Okla., on Aug. 31 and is out a few weeks so Sellers (6-1, 175), a junior, who put himself on the coaches’ radar as a scout team running back last season, has shouldered the load along with Christian Crittenden. Sellers has rushed for 240 yards on 35 carries highlighted by a 51-yard romp against Keys, Okla.

“It was a little hard at first, I was used to being receiver most of the time,” Sellers said. “This is my first time being running back, this is something I’ve always wanted to be.”

Lloyd was there helping Sellers with the learning curve, figuring out responsibilities and assignments of a tailback in a short timeframe.

Drain (5-10, 240) did not expect to be running the football this season. He thought he would be a lineman, yet accepted the new role and has run for short yardage scores in each of the first three victories.

Wright (6-4, 245), now playing his second season at tight end after switching from the offensive line as a freshman, calls Lloyd one of his biggest influences in football.

“Caleb Lloyd, he gives me the drive every day,” Wright said. “He’s got the hype, he’s got the juice. He’s got it. I think we all look up to him as a leader.”

As for the quarterback/ receiver connection Wright says it’s good.

“We’ve hung out during the summer and I feel we got closer toward the beginning of the season and I think it’s helped out now that some of our receivers are down,” Wright said. “He’s got another target to throw to that he knows will go up and get the ball. I feel like we have a really good relationship.”

After three games Wright averages 12.6-yards-per-reception on 9 catches for 113 yards including touchdowns of 6 and 2 yards in Lincoln’s convincing 40-7 road win at Keys, Okla., in week two. He caught a 36-yard pass last week.

Lloyd has guided Lincoln to its first 3-0 start since 2013. In the first three games, Lloyd completed 49 of 81 passes for 613 yards with 8 touchdowns and no interceptions. His completion percentage ranks high at 60 percent coming into week four in large part to the offensive line making his job easier by giving him time to survey the field without having to throw in a hurry.

Senior Sterling Morphis leads Lincoln with 12 catches for 179 yards, averaging 14.9-yards-per-reception with 4 touchdowns.

Lincoln sophomore Kris Martinez (5-8, 255) sees most of his action playing nose guard on defense, yet can spell an offensive lineman if needed. Martinez said the line is motivated to provide blocking protection for Lloyd at quarterback.

“That’s our motivation. It’s like we have a little brother in the backfield, you want to protect him from the bullies, Martinez said. “You don’t want to let him get hit or get roughed up, you got to always protect him so he don’t get hurt.”

Lloyd