High school football season officially kicks off in two weeks and if Friday’s scrimmage with Science Hill was any indication Greeneville’s preponderance of skill on perimeter is going to cause a lot of problems for opponents this season.
The Greene Devils spread the ball the around with different passers finding different catchers, but seemingly every combination picked up yards in chunks. They used bubble screens and tunnel screens, deep balls across the middle and to the corner, and they kept making their way to the endzone in the firework-filled practice.
“I really feel good about how our first unit played. We didn’t get stopped on offense. We had three different quarterbacks put it in the endzone. And I’ve said it before, we are going to be explosive on the edge and those guys proved it tonight,” Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen said.
On the very first play of the day Braylen Kidwell took a screen pass from Kaine Ricker 49 yards. The second time Greeneville got the ball Ricker hit Taren Claridy and Zy Neal for gains of 23 and 22 yards respectively before he dumped to Kidwell in the endzone to finish things off.
Parker Quillen’s first pass was an 18-yard strike to Cole Smith going down the seam. He then found Neal for gains of 32 yards and 23 yards and another Greeneville touchdown.
Kase Spradlen came in next to receive the snap and his first toss was a 39-yard post that Neal made a highlight-reel dive to pull in. His next toss found Claridy behind the defense in the corner of the endzone for a 30-yard score.
With the first unit in Greeneville’s three passer’s combined to go 11-for-11 for 258 yards with thee touchdowns. Ricker also ran for a touchdown on a read play that befuddled the entire Hilltopper defense.
“We have told those guys that if we can block out there on the edge its going to open up what we can do in the passing game,” Spradlen said. “You saw that on the first play when Kidwell gets a long one. We have a lot of guys on the edge that can make plays every time they touch it.”
Greeneville’s defense also had some strong moments against the Class 6A Hilltoppers, forcing a punt on two of three varsity drives and ending the other series on a turnover.
“We had a busted coverage early, but after that we stopped them every time we had the first team in. Those guys were flying around, even on a play where we let them break a big one we figured out how to knock the football loose and recover it,” Spradlen said. “If that group keeps playing hard they have a chance to be successful. There were a lot of things we can correct, but it was exciting to see them go out there and play hard.”
When the reserve units made their way into the action Science Hill found more success, and over the next two weeks that will be a focus for the Greene Devils. Coach Spradlen knows that building depth is important, and that it is going to take more than 11 guys to make another deep playoff run.
“We have to build some depth. It’s going to take more than 11 guys on each side of the ball. We need some guys to step up, and we saw some guys step up tonight. We have a lot guys going both ways and we have to continue to push our conditioning,” Spradlen said.
Greeneville will be in action again on Friday, August 14 at Carson-Newman against Grace Christian in the 5 Star Preps Jamboree. The Regular season will begin August 21 at Burley Stadium against Morristown West.
