CALEDONIA — Losing back-to-back games by shutout would normally be cause for concern
But Ricky Kendrick doesn’t get easily alarmed.
The way the Caledonia High School football coach sees it is his team is one play away from getting back to the rhythm it has earlier in the season when it was averaging 30 points a game.
Tonight would be a good time to find that rhythm again.
Caledonia (3-3) will kick off its Class 4A-Region 4 schedule at 7:30 tonight when it plays at Carthage. After a good week of practice and plenty of review of losses to New Hope (28-0) and to Ackerman (14-0) Kendrick is confident the Confederates can execute like they did when they beat Nettleton and West Lowndes, when they scored 45 points in an overtime loss to Heritage Academy, and when they shut out East Webster.
“We’re fine,” Kendrick said. “We’ve had some injuries and some people out, but we’re just going back to our basics and our fundamentals. We’re making sure everybody is comfortable with what they have to do, even with the kids in who are replacing some of our other players.” Kendrick said injuries to three offensive linemen and a tailback put Caledonia in a bad situation. In an attempt to find a solution, Kendrick and the coaches shuffled players to different positions, but the moves didn’t work out as hoped, which led to some confusion.
Still, Kendrick didn’t see total breakdowns. In reviewing the game film, he saw multiple times in which the Confederates were one block away from breaking touchdowns.
That’s why Caledonia spent a good amount of Thursday’s practice going over each play and the responsibilities each offensive lineman has in that situation. Kendrick feels the time will be well spent tonight.
“The Wing-T is designed to be team oriented, ” Kendrick said. “Every man has to do their specific task and job to the T every time. We understand we’re not going to outrun people. We don’t have that kind of athlete now. We’re not going to line up and physically )overpower teams). That makes it pretty easy. We can’t do that, so we have to play with what we got. The Wing-T helps you do that, but when you miss assignments it is big. It looks like everybody is failing, but it is only one little part.
“We feel we have touched those edges up pretty good and sharpened them back up. Hopefully, we will do a good job offensively.”
Kendrick said consecutive shutouts are bound to make any coach scratch his head. But he and the players believe in the system because they have seen the results. Starting tonight, he is confident the Confederates will make it happen again.
“We feel good about where we are,” Kendrick said. “You can see it on film. We run the play perfect and there are holes you can drive a pickup through and there is one little black shirt sitting in there. If we do our job, and the thing we are stressing is we have seen the defense they’re running before (and we have had success against it), but the deal is we executed. I think the kids are ready to play football. I think the movement and things just caused us a little confusion. It has to be right before we can compete with people. If we don’t do the little things then the big things will never happen for us.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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