By T. Scott Boatright
Ruston High School head football coach Jerrod Baugh had one mission for his Bearcats as they scrimmaged at Byrd on Friday evening — to compete with the Yellow Jackets and their nowadays somewhat unique offense.
Baugh came away feeling that mission was accomplished.
“I thought the competition level was really good,” Baugh said. “I was pleased with how they went out there and got after Byrd. That’s what I wanted to see. I knew there would be mistakes with it being the first scrimmage of the year and all that. But I was pleased with the way we competed.”
Byrd relies on a Wing-T/Multiple-T offense not seen very often anymore, and Baugh liked what he saw from his defense against the Yellow Jackets.
“To be honest, that was probably the best I’ve seen us handle that “T” formation offense since I’ve been here,” Baugh said. “We gave up a long score on a pass, but they don’t throw the ball very much and that just kind of caught us off guard.
“Usually Byrd is pretty methodical about what they do running the football. But other than that long throw they weren’t able to sustain any drives, so I was especially pleased with the play of our defense, especially considering that was a formation they don’t get a chance to see very often.”
Ruston’s first-stringers saw plenty of action in the scrimmage.
“They played quite a bit, because I really wanted to see what kind of condition we were in and they kind of thing, so we got quite a few snaps,” said Baugh. “We went 24 snaps with the first group before we ever started the timed portion (of the scrimmage).
“And then we saw probably 40-plus snaps during the timed part, so our first-team got probably in 2/3s of a game’s worth of action out there. That was really good to see where we landed as far as being in game shape.”
Quarterback Jaden Osborne showed what two years worth of starting experience provides him heading into his senior season.
“He showed that maturity and experience that we wanted to see,” Baugh said. “I think he’s probably more particular about where he throws the ball as compared to last year. He made a bad decision on an interception he threw. But I thought for the most part he looked pretty good with his decision making.
“He continues to improve,” Baugh said, “We put a lot of pressure on him as far as what the quarterback is required to do. He runs some options from under center and option things form the shotgun.”
RHS tight end Zhy Scott sat out the scrimmage due to injury.
“He has a foot injury so we held him out even though I would have really liked to see what he might be able to bring to help us offensively,” Baugh said. “But he was having trouble getting around on (the ankle) on Wednesday and Thursday, so we decided to hold him out.
But Baugh did get to see what receiver Aaron Jackson can add to the Bearcats offense after playing at RHS as a freshman and sophomore, transferring to Neville as a junior and then returning to Ruston for his senior year.
“Jackson made a good catch,” Baugh said. “Jaden made a good throw to him on a slant route and Jackson was able to accelerate and turn it into a long score. Hopefully we’ll get more of that from him as the season progresses.
“It’s good to have a big-play receiver. And I think we’ve got that in Aaron.”
Defensively, Baugh liked seeing the way his Bearcats swarmed to the ball against the Yellow Jackets.
“We had defensive lineman making plays out wide whenever they tried to throw the ball or run outside,” Baugh said. “Byrd runs this little toss sweep to the outside and we were able to get off blocks and get to the football. So there were quite a few plays made out wide by our defensive linemen and that was good to see.
“And we had some really big hits where the free safeties -— Ray Owens and Jacorian Crowe — were filling in downhill. They made some big hits at the line of scrimmage, which is something we like to see against that option stuff. Overall as a unit I was really pleased to see the way we ran to the football.”
