It’s Time For Friday Night Football
DES student and avid Blue Devil fan T.J. Willingham joins the cheerleaders in welcoming fans during last Friday’s Meet The Blue Devils and scrimmage game. The Blue Devils will open regular season play Friday night at Eupora. – Photo by Leslie Brooks
It’s Time For Friday Night Football
By Mack Gordon
Sports Reporter
WATER VALLEY – The Blue Devil season gets underway Friday night with a road game against the 2A Eupora Eagles and ninth-year head coach Brad Embry reports his squad includes some key returning players alongside a number of first-time starters.
“We have a lot of kids with potential, who are very athletic, but they are starting for the first time,” Embry told the Herald. The group includes freshman, sophomores and juniors who will start, in addition to a number of first-time seniors.
“Some of them are just coming out for football and, for others, this is the first playing time they have earned,” Embry also said about the seniors.
Returning starters include junior quarterback Ty Varner, who completed 89 passes out of 184 attempts for 1,340 yards and seven touchdown passes. Embry said the quarterback had to step up last year as a sophomore because of injury situations the team faced.
‘“Now he is an experienced junior, that will help him this year,” Embry added.
The Blue Devils will also be returning their two leading rushers from the 2015 campaign, seniors Taghee James and Julian Williams. James had a team high 571 rushing yards on 95 carries with 10 touchdowns during the 2015 season. Williams had 558 rushing yards on a team high 154 carries with two touchdowns last year.
The Blue Devils also return their third leading receiver from 2015, junior Jayvon Morgan. Morgan had 22 receptions for 289 yards with one touchdown in 2015. The Blue Devils return experience at the tight end/H-back position with senior Hartley Camp, who had five receptions for 103 yards and a touchdown in 2015.
“Taghee played a lot for us last year, Camp played a lot before he was injured, Williams played a lot,” Embry said.
“On the offensive line, we have only two kids returning who played last year,” Embry said, pointing to Rob Mitchell and Jake Rotenberry.
“Experience on the offensive line, getting in the game situation, that is where it is at. You can coach and practice all you want, but they need to get out there see live bullets. It’s going to take them a few games to gel,” Embry said about his offensive line.
“Wide receiver might be our strength, I think we have some talented young receivers,” Embry added. “Two sophomores that played a lot the other night. One freshman that is going to play a lot, plus a junior and senior.”
A Look At
The Defense
Key returning players on the defensive side of the ball include junior defensive end Jeremiah Ray, who led the team in sacks and tackles for loss last season with six sacks and 18 tackles for loss in the 2015 season. James also brings experience at the linebacker position with 73 tackles last season. Senior defensive linemen, Payden Surrette and Rob Mitchell, bring experience to the Blue Devils Defensive line. Surrette had 52 tackles with 9.5 tackles for loss in 2015, and Mitchell had 44 tackles with 10 tackles for loss.
“Defensively I like our front seven, I like our d-line, I like our linebackers,” Embry added. “On the secondary, there are four new starters back there, after we had four graduate last year. But again, I think they have a lot of ability,” Embry continued.
Scrimmage Game
The squad got their first playing time last Friday in a scrimmage against the 4A Ripley Tigers at Bobby Clark Field. The Blue Devils offense couldn’t get clicking on all cylinders during the contest, dealing with rain in much of the first quarter. They had three turnovers in the wet conditions.
The Blue Devil defense did a good job of containing the Tigers for most of the night, but gave up two big plays, a 70-yard touchdown run and a 47-yard touchdown pass that allowed the Tigers to pull away and earn the win.
“We put the ball on the ground some and did a few of the fundamental things wrong, but that is why you have a scrimmage… you can’t simulate a real game in practice,” Embry said.
“I called them, that is the kind of team you want to tangle with because we are going to go to Eupora Friday night and face a strong team with an impressive history of winning seasons.”
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
