By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
Sometimes all it takes is a memory to bring about an idea that can transform an offense.
In this decade, Mountainburg has had plenty of success, winning seven or more games seven times since 2010.
But prior to the 2017 season, Dragons coach Tom Harrell wanted to make a change to the offense.
Then he remembered a playoff game from the previous decade that helped decide what he wanted to do.
“It all originated from a playoff game back in 2003, I believe when we went to Hughes,” Harrell said. “Hughes was single-wing and had lots of misdirection. We had a lot of trouble figuring out where the ball was, and you can’t read their guards, you can’t read this, you can’t read that. It was a learning experience.
“Then a couple of years ago, we started talking and trying to figure out a way we could incorporate that. At that time, we were running a two-tight end, no back, empty shotgun offense. We started messing around with ways to incorporate the old single-wing spin series into that.”
The rest is history.
In the two years the Dragons have been running the spin offense, their record is 17-4 as they get ready to face Junction City in the second round of the 2A playoffs Friday.
In some cases, having to break in a new quarterback can lead to growing pains, but Mountainburg has enjoyed continued success thanks to sophomore Ethan Gregory.
“We had a really successful group last year,” Harrell said. “We went 9-2. We had a quarterback that’s totally different than Ethan. We had a big, bruiser-type quarterback last year. With Ethan, he’s small, thin and nothing like what we had. Ethan has the ability to break a 40, 50 or 60-yard run. He can score from about anywhere on the field against most people. Over the past two years, it’s just evolved from one week to the next to what it is now. It’s been really successful for us.”
With all of the motion going on in the backfield, Gregory’s role is akin to being a point guard in basketball to make sure everything is running smoothly and everyone is in the right spot.
“That plus a dancer because you’ve got people, three of them a lot of times, are crossing full speed, and you don’t see us trip and fall, trip each other or run into each other,” Harrell said.
“They’ve done a great job with being synchronized on it. A lot of that is due to him. Number one, he’s got to know which way he’s going to start, and he’s done just a super job. To be a sophomore and we call a play or sometimes, I’m sitting there trying in my head, ‘This guy is going first, this guy is going second’ and so on. He’s picked it up. He ran it in junior high last year, and now he’s running it in senior high. He’s done a really, really good job with it.”
Junction City coach Steven Jones said Gregory has done a solid job of running the offense.
“He’s done a good job,” Jones said. “At each individual position, we have to keep focused on our keys. They’re 8-2, and they’ve won a lot of games in blowout fashion, so it should be a good opponent for us.”
Senior Austin Taylor, who had 235 yards and three touchdowns on just 18 carries in last week’s come-from-behind playoff win over Parkers Chapel, has 1,129 yards and 16 touchdowns this season.
He is one of four players with over 500 yards rushing this season, joining senior Jesse Quick (579 yards), Gregory (619 yards) and senior Malachi West (717 yards).
In order to slow down Mountainburg’s spin offense, Jones said his defense cannot lose its concentration.
“You have to read your keys and maintain focus when you play a team that uses a lot of misdirection,” Jones said. “They’ve had some success with it this year, so we’ll have to be ready for it. It’s not something you see very often.”
Although Mountainburg has certainly had plenty of success in running the ball, Junction City’s defense has been rather stingy during their seven-game winning streak, having allowed less than seven points per game during that stretch.
“We’re going to have to obviously block their big defensive line,” Harrell said. “I look at them, and their tackles seem like they’re pretty big, their defensive ends seem pretty big and they’ve got a nose man that’s just really, really quick. They’re just a really good football team all across the board, not just across their defensive front, their linebackers, their secondary does a good job of covering the pass.”
Jones has been pleased with his team’s defense down the stretch.
“Our defense has played lights out the past five, six weeks,” Jones said. “If you look at those games, more times than not, the first defense has been off the field when those teams were doing their scoring.
“They’ve really shown that it’s going to be tough to run the football against us. Mountainburg is going to come out and try to run, and we’re going to do everything we can to stuff them.”