By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
A day later, El Dorado coach Scott Reed was in a slightly better mood.
Slightly.
Reed said Friday the Wildcats’ scrimmage against Nashville might not have been as bad as the 28-7 score would indicate. El Dorado’s defense had trouble corraling the athletic Scrappers in the open field. Offensively, a pair of turnovers proved costly and other mistakes negated possible big plays.
“It looked to me like we gave up a number of third down conversions defensively. We had ‘em in chances to get off the field,” said Reed. “I’m not saying we played well. But, we just didn’t make plays to make ‘em punt when we should have. After that, it got to where we all got out of the box as far as playing technique. We never really settled down and played. That was the worst part defensively. We were not at all like we have been all fall. The other night in the Purple-White game, we did a good job defensively. And then, last night we saw a different offense. We got off to a bad start and instead of settling down and trusting what we’re coached to do, we kind of got out of the box. The result was, it didn’t get much better as the night went on.
“Offensively, we had three or four times where we were behind them for big plays and didn’t make any of them. The consistency and all that just wasn’t as good as we expected it to be. I think after we watched the film today with our kids, they were shocked at what we left out there.”
The coach reiterated his praise for the slot receivers, who made big catches down the seam.
“I thought our inside receivers played really well. Gemetre (Miller) and Charles Cage and Kylieer Norman - I was really pleased with them,” he said. “I thought our two corners played well on defense. Destin Miller and Randall Coleman - I thought they did fine. I thought they were pretty good. The other spots, it was spotty. It was good and then not so good.”
At times, the Wildcats’ defense seemed caught a bit off-guard at the athleticism of the Scrappers, especially receiver Darius Hopkins, who had a 77-yard touchdown run. Considering El Dorado’s schedule, is that a concern?
“Sure it is,” answered Reed. “We’re going to see a lot of the same. Camden has got some really good outside receivers, too. They were sitting there. Every one of their coaches was sitting there and I’m sure they were licking their chops. But, I don’t think you’re going to see the same thing next Friday out of ours. I would be shocked if we don’t play much better next Friday.”
With that in mind, the Wildcats didn’t show a lot offensively in the scrimmage. Reed was asked specifically about El Dorado’s straight-ahead rushing attack.
“I told our kids, we’ll do more of that in the future,” he said. “I was trying to look at a number of kids doing different things. And, we found some things out. We’ve got some areas we have to work at. But, to answer your question, you’ll probably see more of that in the future.”
Overall, it was a scrimmage and nothing more. Traditionally, the Wildcats never seem to play well in preseason benefit games. And, as poorly as his team looked at times, after a closer look, Reed believes his team isn’t too far away.
“When you get in a ball game, you think everything is going bad. It wasn’t that way at all. It was just a number of things. Good thing is, I think they’re correctable and I think we’ll be better next week,” he said.
“I’m glad we went through it. I think it’s going to help us. And, I’m glad we’re going into week one.”