After sitting idle for a week the South Greene football team is ready to get back on the field on Friday night and right some wrongs committed in week one as it travels to Cumberland Gap for a Region 1-2A matchup.
“The big thing about playing one game and having a bye week, especially after a loss, is that you are itching to get back on the field,” South Greene coach Shawn Jones said. “That has got the boys motivated. We started working on Gap last week. It’s a big game, it’s our first conference game. You need to start 1-0 if you want to win this conference.”
The Rebels opened the season with a 20-13 loss to David Crockett, and then had an early season bye week to work on some of the things that went wrong while also trying to get healthy. Jones is hopeful that his team can play a cleaner game on Friday with fewer mental mistakes.
“The biggest thing is that we can’t have stupid penalties. We can’t have those personal fouls and offsides that killed us against Crockett. That’s a discipline thing that we have to be better at,” Jones said.
Cumberland Gap has struggled through the first two weeks of the season, falling to Cosby 37-7 and Thomas Walker, Va. 35-8. The Panthers are led by first-year head coach Nick Nash. Under Nash the Panthers’ offense will look quite different. Instead of the old-school T formation that almost exclusively ran the ball Cumberland Gap has transitioned to the spread offense and will utilize a more balanced attack.
“It will be different this year. They are running more spread, we’ll see more option. They will still run it, but not nearly as much as in the last few years,” Jones said. “They are still a young team, but they have a new coach who is doing some new things. Over the years it’s been a very competitive series, but they are down this year and we need to take advantage of it.”
On defense Jones expects to see a lot of pressure from the Panthers who will at times send eight pass rushers, playing man coverage in the secondary with no safety over the top.
It is a style of defense that could provide opportunities for South Greene if they can block long enough to get passes off. Quarterback Jacob Susong will look to hit receivers Trey Gentry and Charlie Lane on quick passes and to dump it off to Nash Rader out of the backfield. Jones believes that playing against such an aggressive defense could allow for big plays on short passes.
The Rebels are looking to claim a Region 1-2A championship this season and that starts with beating Cumberland Gap on Friday.
“They always say you make your most improvement from week one to week two, and we are hoping to see that,” Jones said. “It’s big to win that first conference game, because then you feel like winning one more gets you in the playoffs. After that it’s about positioning and getting that home field advantage.”
In last year’s meeting with the Panthers South Greene won 47-0, and the Rebels have won six straight meetings against Cumberland Gap. South Greene leads the all-time series between the two schools 11-5.
