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Plano not resting on Laures
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com
After two weeks of enduring the protocol and preparations for Friday night football, Plano Senior has had to make a couple adjustments this week.
In crafting his team’s mindset for today’s 7 p.m. scrap against Mansfield Legacy, Plano head coach Jaydon McCullough has had to shift gears from the past two games that confined the Wildcats to the familiar setting and schedule for a matchup at Clark Stadium.
And that means prepping the players for their first road game of the 2010 season.
As preparations for the 90-minute haul to Vernon Newsom Stadium, the site of the contest between Plano and Legacy, the adjustments expand beyond gameday tactics.
The Wildcats have had to shift their practice schedule back a day in getting ready for their first and only Thursday game of the regular season. A matchup that was originally tossed up as a tilt for either Thursday or Saturday night, McCullough and Legacy head coach Chris Melson settled on the former.
“I’d rather play on Thursday than Saturday,” McCullough said. “We want to use that full week to get our kids rested up for district play. The way it falls is good in that we have a chance to get a victory and then go out and scout some people. But we have to get that victory first.”
Obtaining that win will need to be at the expense of a Legacy team still searching for its first notch in the win column. Currently 0-2, the Broncos have dropped matchups to L.D. Bell and Mansfield Summit and despite the team’s early shortcomings, McCullough isn’t buying into it one bit.
“When you’re 0-2, you’re hungry for a win,” he said, “especially when you’re a program that’s used to winning. I wouldn’t be fooled by their record.”
In its two defeats, Legacy has been done in by its production in the second half; outscored, 24-9, over the game’s final two quarters to override an even 27-27 mark in the first half.
In turn, Plano has surrendered an average of just seven points in the second half behind a defense that ranks third in the area in team scoring defense at 13 points per game. Keeping that figure came without one of the unit’s top assets last week against Irving MacArthur with senior Ben Laures now sidelined for the next six to eight weeks with a broken arm.
“You can be a bit more patient and understanding when you’ve got a good defense and I feel like we’ve got a good defense,” McCullough said. “Losing Ben definitely hurt us but (senior) Kent Bateman stepped in there and we were very pleased with how he played.”
Opposing the Wildcats’ defense this evening will be a quarterback-reliant Bronco offense with just under two-thirds of the team’s yardage triggered through the air or on the ground by Quentin Hasten.
“Their scheme really puts a lot of pressure on your defense,” McCullough said. “What it does is it stretches you horizontally and creates seams in the defense where the quarterback can either give it or keep it.”
Complementing Hasten on offense is two-way threat and Missouri commit Ian Simon, who leads Legacy in rushing.
Simon’s presence will also be felt in the defensive backfield where he aids cornerback Tevin Mitchell, a Nebraska commit who is ranked sixth in the nation at cornerback by Rivals, alongside a Bronco defense returning eight players from last season.
McCullough also paid mind to linebacker Kendall Washington and nose tackle Marcel McDowell as vital pieces in the experience-laden group.
“Their nose guard has a high engine,” McCullough said. “He puts a lot of pressure on the center in the middle and that’s very important because that’s where the snap comes from. To be a good football team, you have to be able to control the center.”
As Plano’s offensive line continues to evolve, the rushing duo of senior Murat Kuzu and junior Kevin Merrill aim to replicate the success garnered by Bell against Legacy, where 263 rushing yards was the result.
It’ll also mark another possible stride for Plano’s improving receiving corps in the latest chapter of a book that McCullough said has been scripted all according to plan so far.
“You always hear coaches talk about not wanting to peak too early,” he said, “and I’m excited about this team because I think our best football is still in front of us.
“But right now, our goal is to be 3-0.”
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