Presbyterian Christian’s football season had an unexpected start to the year as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create havoc for football teams.
PCS’ original season opener against Lamar was forced to be rescheduled as the Raiders had to quarantine multiple players. The news became official late afternoon on Aug. 11.
“We had heard some rumblings that they had some cases,” PCS coach Derek White said. “Their coach gave me a heads up a little bit.
“We were prepared to play. He couldn’t guarantee the safety of the players. Too many guys were quarantined, and they didn’t want to get us exposed.”
The two schools will make the game up since the Aug. 13 kickoff was a schedule change in itself. The two schools were originally set to play on Sept. 17, which is the rescheduled game date, but both wanted to play earlier and have a bye midseason.
Therefore, PCS will open its season on the road against Simpson Academy.
Last year, Simpson Academy had a young roster that finished the year 4-7, with PCS coming out on top in a 49-32 win. While the Cougars bring back loads of experience and talent, they also have a new head coach with Todd Mangum leading the program.
Mangum, who posts an all-time record of 139-72, was previously at Wayne Academy for the last two seasons. Last year, Mangum led Wayne Academy to its first nine-win season since 2004; however, PCS also won that game last year 54-27.
“I know they are going to be very well-coached,” White said. “Coach Mangum does a great job. I know they will be tough and physical. They will stop the run and try to run the football.
“We’ll go back and look at last year’s film, but Coach Mangum was at Wayne Academy last year. We’ll look at a lot of Wayne tape and go off that a little bit.”
As an offense last year, the Cougars averaged 25 points per game and put up an average of 312 total yards per game. The biggest returning player Simpson Academy’s offense is its running back, Carter Cockrell. As a sophomore, Cockrell ran for 1,431 yards and 16 touchdowns while also hauling in 15 catches, 205 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
“They have a good running back and a big offensive lineman,” White said. “He was just a 10th grader and had a really good year. He has some good wheels and good vision. He’s a really good football player.”
The Cougars also return their senior quarterback Brentley Berry, who threw for 1,239 yards, 12 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 44% of his passes. Berry also ran for 141 and four touchdowns on 65 carries last season.
“He threw some good balls against us last year,” White said. “It’s a new coaching staff this year. I know they will change a little bit and that their running back is a really good football player. We will have to stop the passing game.”
At wide receiver, the Cougars also bring back four of their top five wide receivers, including top target Tyler Stanford, who made 18 catches, recorded 210 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
Defensively, Simpson Academy struggled as they gave up an average of 30 points per game. But like their offense, the Cougars bring back loads of experience.
“They have a really, really good linebacker corps,” White said. “They will get after us. It’s a tough challenge. They are going to be very sound. Coach Mangum is a defensive guy. They’ll be in an odd front.”
One of the biggest disrupters is linebacker Matthew Adcock, who made 61 tackles a season ago.
“Their linebacker is really good downhill and had a lot of tackles against us last year,” White said. “Their nose guard presents a problem too. He eats up a lot of space and makes some plays. We have to be able to establish the line of scrimmage and play some football.”
Unfortunately for PCS, a combination of a new coaching staff, the first game of the season, and COVID-19 leave room for plenty of uncertainties heading into the season-opener.
“When you play early in the year, and you don’t have any film and things like that, then it’s just about (concentrating) on us,” White said. “We need to do some things in the first game. We don’t want to turn the football over. We want to find out who is in shape and who can actually play the game. Then the next thing is COVID, who is going to be in and who is going to be out? You just don’t know who is going to be there.”
