JOHNSON CITY – The Greeneville football team went to Science Hill on Friday night for its final full scrimmage before the regular season begins.
The Greene Devils got a lot of varsity reps in the full-game-simulation practice and coach Eddie Spradlen hopes it made his team a little better for when it really counts in two weeks.
“It was a really physical scrimmage against a good football team,” Spradlen said. “They are little bigger than we are and we knew it was going to be hard. But we had a lot guys step up. We played well at times, but I would have liked to us finish drives better.”
As the regular season closes in Spradlen is looking to build depth and find starters in the front seven on defense, and Friday was an opportunity to test his team against a Class 6A team that is big and physical along offensive line. The Devils gave a variety of guys the opportunity to prove that they could handle the varsity rotation and the coaching staff came away optimistic about some of the things they saw.
“That’s why we scrimmage Science Hill, Farragut and Daniel Boone. We knew this was going to test us on both sides of the ball, and that was good,” Spradlen said. “We’re trying to find out who can play against a good football team. Who can step in when it matters. We are trying to build depth on the offensive and defensive line, so we put some young guys in to see how they would do. We are still trying to figure out who our starters are at linebacker. Today was a good day to work on those things.”
Friday marked the first time Greeneville’s offense had played in real game scenario this preseason. Facing down and distance, and penalties for the first time. With no opportunities for do overs the Devils sputtered at times, but there were also bright spots.
University Tennessee commit Zaydyn Anderson turned a few short passes from Caden Baugh into solid gains and he ran by everyone on a 42-yard go route. At the running back spot both Yordan Mills and Dion Phipps showed promise with long runs late in the varsity portion of the scrimmage.
When the second unit took over quarterbacks Kaine Ricker, Parker Quillen and Kase Spradlen all made big plays in the passing game as Greeneville’s receivers got the best of the Hill Toppers secondary late in the day.
“One guy that really stood out today was Yordan Mills. He really ran the football well. Dion Phipps stepped in there and ran the football good. But we need to get the other two backs to get going too,” Spradlen said.
The Greene Devils will open the regular season on August 22 at Morristown West, but before that Spradlen knows that his squad still has work to do. The focus over the next two weeks will be on conditioning and building depth for what the Devils hope will be a long season.
“We have to continue to get better. We have to continue to work hard in the weight room and we have to continue to condition hard,” Spradlen said. “We are going to have a lot of guys that have to play both ways, and they are going to have to be in shape. We also have to continue to build some depth, some of these younger guys have to get ready to go. We still have a lot of competition with some positions still wide open, and we need guys to come take them.”
Before the regular kicks off the Greene Devils final tune up will be on August 14 at Carson-Newman in the 5 Star Preps Jamboree against Morristown East.
