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Patriots placed in Wildcat crosshairs for zero week
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com
When the Plano Senior football team takes the field at Clark Stadium today at 7:30 p.m., the Wildcats may notice a few similar shades on the opposing sideline.
A team laden in youth, returning only four starters on each side of the ball and amid working in a bevy of fresh, new faces, hungry to prove itself against a worthy opponent.
Sound familiar?
And with every team in the area operating on a clean slate, Plano head coach Jaydon McCullough believes it’s a squad not meant to be taken lightly.
“People can sit here and say that Plano better kill Lakeview Centennial,” he said. “But I tell our kids all the time that you better have that competitive spirit because if you have your A game, you’ve got to believe you’re going to win. But if you don’t have your A game and they do, you’re going to lose.”
With underestimation not an option for McCullough and his squad, the Wildcats capped their offseason last Friday in a scrimmage opposite Mesquite for the latest pulse on where Plano stands entering the fall.
There, Plano came away with a 21-14 victory as McCullough lauded the team’s ability to move the ball on the ground; an asset that will be put to the test against a Centennial defensive front poised to stack the box.
“Every team we watched [Lakeview] play, the other team had trouble running the ball,” McCullough said. “I feel like we’ve got to do a good job not just running the ball, protecting it as well.”
Those duties will fall atop the shoulders of juniors Kevin Merrill and Rakeem Crawford, plus senior Murat Kuzu as the Wildcats’ multi-faceted running contingent will jockey up against a defensive front that had trouble keeping opponents off the scoreboard last season.
Outscored, 206-42, in District 10-5A play last year – a stretch that netted the Patriots an 0-6 record – Lakeview will be faced with the task of buckling down Plano’s running game while applying pressure to the Wildcats’ untested receiving corps.
“[Lakeview] has a lot of confidence in their two corners,” McCullough said. “They’ll just put them out there on an island and play man … But we’re going to have to be good route runners to create separation from that coverage.”
On the other side of the ball, a Plano defense that returns six starters will be handed the lofty task of containing dual-threat Lakeview quarterback Davonte Black.
Passing for 1,274 yards and nine touchdowns last season, Black had 544 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground as well. A player that could stylistically compare to McKinney Boyd’s speedy signal caller Jonovan Griffin, McCullough said he’s taken notice of the Patriots’ offensive anchor.
“To me, [Black] is the key,” McCullough said. “That guy is a stud. He likes to run the football and that’s the big question: Can the Plano Wildcats stop their quarterback? If we do, we’ve got a good chance to win; but if not, it’s going to be a long night.”
Aiming to take any pressure off Black will be rusher Paul Hogg Jr., a back whose 2009 campaign included more than 1,100 rushing yards.
Black and Hogg serve as just two returnees for a Centennial team laden in youth and inexperience. It’s a situation McCullough and the Wildcats trudged through for two-thirds of the 2009 season before the growing pains bred experience and the results were there.
Tonight marks the first hurdle in taking that continuity and running with it. And more than anything, McCullough is just glad that chance is finally here.
“It’s like chicken and biscuits,” he said. “I’m excited. Last year was one of those years that was very rewarding at the end of it, but it was very taxing and had a lot of growing pains. I’m just really excited about our opportunity and the chance to play someone besides ourselves.
“Zero week, football in Texas; it just doesn’t get any better than this.”
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