Things are going well for the Sumrall Bobcats so far this season. They’re off to a 5-0 start, so things couldn’t possibly be better for Shannon White’s bunch. Unfortunately, none of those five wins will help them get into the playoffs, and neither does Friday night’s game with Pass High.
These games do, however, give the Bobcats the confidence entering the halfway point of the season. So, what’s going right? The offense is scoring a lot of points and not turning the ball over, while the defense is allowing opponents to do the exact opposite.
Not only that, Sumrall is giving a lot of younger, inexperienced players playing time. With its leading receiver Zane Berry missing games, senior quarterback Dannis Jackson has connected with eight other receivers, which includes two freshmen and a sophomore.
“We’ve been fortunate to be able to play some of our younger guys,” White said. “We haven’t had that in a while, so it’s a good experience for those guys. The main thing is getting that game experience on Friday nights. You see your backups and you develop them as players, so it’s a win-win deal.”
Another reason for Sumrall’s early-season success is Jackson’s dual-threat ability at quarterback. He leads the team with 495 rushing yards and five touchdowns, and he has a 67 completion percent with five touchdowns.
The Bobcats use a lot of quarterback-designed runs, but Jackson’s ability to scramble if a receiver isn’t open hurts the defense as well. Since Jackson has a high completion rate, the defense has to honor that, too.
“If we continue to throw the ball well, the threat of him running and the other running backs, hopefully, we can keep the pressure off (Jackson) because we do other things,” White said. “It’s important the other parts of our offense are really good and supplement what we do with him.”
This week’s opponent, Pass High, began the season with a win over Long Beach before losing three straight games to Lanier, Perry Central and West Harrison. The Pirates got back on the winning track last week, though, with a 20-0 win over Bay High.
White calls the Pirates’ offense “potent,” but he’s really impressed with junior quarterback Dustin Allison.
“That quarterback is an exceptional thrower,” White said. “He has a cannon and they have a great passing game. They have a big tailback who’s a power runner, and to me, they have a potent offense. They’ve played some really good teams and I think turnovers have really hurt them. They probably haven’t scored the points they could have scored because of that.”
Defensively, Pass High had a rough start to the season. It gave up 30 or more points to every opponent through the first three games, then West Harrison put up 21 points in Week 4. But, the Pirates rebounded with the shutout last week.
“They give you a lot of coverages and a lot of fronts, so they’re very multiple,” White said of the Pirates’ defense. “The purpose of that is to confuse the offense, so we have a huge assignment ahead of us this week. Our blocking schemes, we have to know who to block and not get confused. That’s what we’ll address in practice this week. Just showing a lot of stuff to our offensive line and making sure they know their rules.”
