The Greene County football team traveled to Al Reaves Field last Friday to take on Putnam County in the Tigers’ fall scrimmage.
Both teams played their starters in the first half and gave the rest of their depth charts experience in the second half.
Through the first two quarters, both defenses were putting their talents on full display. Second-year head coach Terrance Banks acknowledged that playing physical teams like Putnam County will benefit them during the regular season.
“I think that under coach Harvin, Putnam is going to be a hard-nosed, downhill, physical football team,” Banks said. “For us, to beat the teams we’ll need to beat, to end up where we want to end up, we’ll need to be able to play in physical games against physical teams.”
Greene County’s offense definitely had some nerves to start the contest, as the Tigers turned the ball over on their first possession of the game.
Putnam County responded with a 40-yard field goal after only gaining a total of three yards over three plays on the ensuing drive. A few drives later, Tigers’ kicker Christian Reyes missed a 48-yard field goal that would have tied the game at 3-3.
Banks emphasized that special teams will be a big part of the season and that he’s confident in the guys he has in place.
“We have extreme confidence in our field goal kicker. He went two-for-three and hit one over 35 yards, and I don’t like to use the term ‘stealing points,’ but at the [Class 1A] level, having a kicker that can go out and get you three, six, or nine points is huge,” Banks said. “He was also consistently putting it inside the 10-, five-yard line on kickoffs, and field position is important. I’m a math guy by trade, so I love the analytics and where your starting field position is can be crucial to your success.”
Greene County’s defense matched Putnam County’s intensity up front and held the War Eagles on multiple drives to keep it a low-scoring game. Kevin Wynn and Dayshaun Copeland made multiple tackles at the line of scrimmage while players behind them such as Justin Hill and Chris Lowe cleaned up.
The starting offense struggled to make plays deep down the field. Tigers’ quarterback Steve Miller almost found BJ Mullens on a long pass down the middle of the field, but it was dropped.
Other than that, Banks’ offense found its success through short runs. Greene County was able to outlast Putnam’s defense and drove down the field toward the end of the first half, which resulted in a touchdown run by Miller.
Overall, Banks believes his defense will be solid, and that his offense has a way to go but the potential to be great.
“I thought defensively, we played well, for the most part. Saw some things we need to work on, but I was very impressed as a whole with our defense,” Banks said. “Offensively, we got better as they played more and got the jitterbugs out. You could see the P-word everybody hates to talk about: the potential. We have the potential to be explosive, we just have to start making those plays.”