Improved but still “Miles to go” for Patriots

JCHS Patriots in Final 7 on 7Staff Photo by Mike Stanley, Jefferson County Post Sports

JCHS Patriots in Final 7 on 7
Staff Photo by Mike Stanley, Jefferson County Post Sports

The Jefferson County High School Football Team played its final 7 on 7 skill position scrimmage on Thursday. It was a 3-way scrimmage against the Powell Panthers (5-5 2013) and the class 5A state runner-up from a year ago, West Rebels (13-2 2013). For those that are unfamiliar, skill positions consist of Quarterbacks, Running backs, Tight Ends, and Wide Receivers on the offensive side, as well as Cornerbacks, Safeties, and Linebackers on the defensive side.

The Patriots took the offensive side first in the scrimmage. Rising Junior, Noah Carter, got the nod with the first team at Quarterback, which is the biggest question mark this year for the Patriots. While Carter got the first team reps, Head Coach Kenny Cobble insists that every position is still open. “We’ve got so many question marks, that it is wide open competition everywhere.” Of the ten plays that the “first team” offense got to run, Carter completed 5 passes with a few dropped as well. Carter is competing for the starting job with Zach Rogers, Caleb Johnston, and rising sophomore Jonathan Royster.

On the defensive side of the football, while there were a few miscommunications, the Pats seemed comfortable in making big plays.  They made interceptions as well as many deflections to limit the scoring plays on the night, which came against some stout competition in West running back and current Georgia Tech commit, Nathan Cottrell. Along with Cottrell, Powell also had a division one athlete in Darel Middleton, who stands at 6’6” and weighs in at 230 pounds. Middelton is currently committed to the University of Tennessee for the class of 2016.

While Head Coach Kenny Cobble is pleased with his team’s progress over the past week, He still wants more consistency. “We came out last Thursday and we really struggled, Saturday we were a little better, and came out tonight and were better in places and worse in places. Consistency issue is still what we are working towards, we are more consistent than what we were, still with miles to go.”

Jefferson County opens fall camp Monday with shoulder pads and can put on the full pads on the 28th of this month.

Source: Mike Stanley, Jefferson County Post Sports