By T. Scott Boatright
Lincoln Preparatory School football coach Glen Hall liked a lot of what he saw from his Panthers as they held a intrasquad scrimmage Thursday at the LPS football field.
Granted, because of team numbers (42 players dressed) the Panthers had and scrimmage being intrasquad, Hall only played his No. 1 offense against his No. 2 defense and vice versa. But that didn’t take away from Hall’s pleasure from how the team responded, especially with its run game.
“I wasn’t disappointed at all,” Hall said. “Maybe even surprised — in a good way. We broke six or seven runs of more than 40 or 50 yards. Our offensive line blocked well — or at least our interior line. We’ve got to do better with our edge blocking with our two big freshmen I have starting at our tackle spots (Kegarrian Johnson and Nicholas Nelson).
“So we did well on inside traps, leads, and we did some tosses where we were able to get to the outside because our fullback did a great job of taking out that edge defender. That extra blocking helped break off some good runs.”
Sophomore Jaylin Huntley provided the bulk of the offense for the Panthers, breaking free on multiple long runs for big gains.
“Huntley did an extremely good job running the ball,” Hall said. “He ran extremely well and is going to be a big part of our offense this season as long as we can keep him healthy.
D’Tavion Wright added a pair of scampers that went for 60-plus yards, scoring on one and getting tackled right at the goal line on the other after running out of gas before hitting paydirt.
The Panthers’ No. 3 running back, Lamarion Burton, made sure not to waste his chances toting the rock.
“Lamar had some big runs — tough runs on the inside,” Hall said. “I mean, he ran the ball well. He did a really good job for us and gives us some depth at that position, which is a great thing to have.You can never have too much depth.”
At quarterback, Jordan Brown looked to be distancing himself in the race over Michael Lewis in the race for the starting role.
“Brown played the best and right now at this point has pulled away,” Hall said. “He’s running better right now, too. He had three big runs off the bootleg today. He had a big run on a sprint out. He hit a couple of good passes, and we dropped a couple of big passes that would have gone for touchdowns. Cenario Wilson and (Joseph) Spann both dropped big passes. I told them, when they get those opportunities on the outside, they’ve got to catch the ball and score.
“Michael Lewis needs more work. He doesn’t have as much poise as Brown right now. Sometimes he tries to throw the ball too fast instead of waiting a second or two to let things develop more. He has talent and will come into his own eventually, but he needs to work his way out of the seven-on-seven mode and move into the 11-on-11 mode.
Despite his drop, Wilson still had a big day catching the ball.
“Cenario had a few big catches,” Hall said. “He finished with six catches for about 80 yards.”
Hall feels his first-string defense will be the strength of the team.
“Our No. 2 offense had trouble moving the ball at all,” Hall said. “They just couldn’t run the ball on that first-team defense. Our defense was swarming and flying around like crazy. This might be the best defense, or at least one of the better defenses, that we’ve had.
“If we stay healthy, that’s one of the best defenses I’ve had since my first two or three years here.”
Hall said the team will come in today and hold what a workout like it normally would on a Monday after a game. We’ll come out in our shimmers and shorts and go over the game plan and go over the mistakes that we saw we made,” Hall said. “We’re just going to try to correct them and go into the jamboree with a whole new attitude.
Lincoln Prep will play in the Glenbrook Jamboree next Friday, competing with the host-Apaches and Ringgold.
