Sean Harrison wishes he had a better story.
After watching Carter Putt mature last season, Harrison felt confident in giving his junior quarterback more freedom in the offense this season, so he told Putt one day it was OK if he read the defense and checked the Heritage Academy football team into a different play.
To say Putt was non-plussed would be an understatement.
“He just told me if I see we’re running a play to the right and there are four guys over there and if I look to the left and there are only two, he said he has the confidence in me to switch it and run left,” Putt said. “It felt pretty good. I knew they trust me. I wouldn’t be out there if they didn’t trust me, but with him saying that to me it was like, ‘Wow, he really does trust me a lot running the offense and doing everything we have to do to get a score.’ ”
Putt will get his first chance to put his grasp of the attack to use at 7 p.m. Friday when Heritage Academy plays host to Kirk Academy in the season opener for both teams.
Putt is coming off a solid sophomore season in which he played a key role in the Patriots’ nine-win season. Despite losing running back Dontae Gray to graduation, Heritage Academy feels it has plenty of weapons to push past the second round of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AAA playoffs.
Harrison has conveyed that optimism by saying he feels the Patriots are “light years” ahead of where they were at this time in 2017. He said the play of Putt is a big reason for that comfort level.
“We started clicking on offense last season when he started trusting his receivers and he started throwing the ball before they were open,” Harrison said. “It just runs uphill. He trusts the receivers. He knows I trust him. He should have all of the confidence in the world because I feel he is easily in the top three or top five quarterbacks in (MAIS) AAA football, if not the best. There is nobody else I would take in AAA over him. I think he knows that.”
Harrison said he really didn’t have a conversation with Putt to give him the leeway to check in and out of plays. He said Putt showed at the end of last season he knew where everybody was supposed to be, which is why he wanted to give him added flexibility to make the most of what he sees.
Harrison said he liked what he saw from Putt last Friday in a 14-10 victory against St. Andrew’s and a 13-8 victory against Simpson Academy in jamboree action in Jackson. He said Putt had only two incompletions — one when he had a pass rush in his face — on the night as further proof the Patriots are several steps further along in their development.
Putt said he feels he is playing “a level up” from last season. He said the work he did with wide receiver Jared Long on Sundays last year and the extra reps he plans to take with Long, senior Moak Griffin, and juniors Banks Hyde, Noel Fisher, and Davis Fitch and others will help him build even more trust and familiarity to fuel the offense.
Putt feels that trust will allow him to make the most of the added responsibility and trust Harrison has given to him and shown him.
“We have a good running game with (Kelvin) K.J. Smith, and our line is doing good. I feel like with K.J. our line, me, and our receivers, I feel we can have a lot better run and, hopefully, make it to the state championship and win it,” Putt said.
Nicholson: Volunteers are where he thought they would be
A 16-0 victory against Noxapater 16-0 last week in a jamboree left Starkville Academy coach Chase Nicholson feeling good about his team.
Like any coach, he saw plenty of things Starkville Academy could work on prior to its season opener against Lamar School at 7 p.m. Friday.
Howell Archer and Shaundrayus Frazier caught touchdown passes from quarterback Garrett Lewis, and Taylor Arnold kicked a field goal to help set the reigning MAIS Class AAA State champions back on the road to another title.
“We are where we thought we would be because it is not behind where we thought we would be,” said Nicholson, whose team lost 14 seniors to graduation from a 13-1 squad. “We’re right on track where we need to be, but we have a long way to go.”
Nicholson laughed when asked if he deserved a pat on the back for having the Volunteers at this point. He said a good coach likely would have the team further along, so he didn’t feel he should receive any credit. Instead, he said the Volunteers are doing a good job accepting the expectations and pushing themselves to realize a new identity, which will be forged with many of those players in different roles.
Lewis, a junior, is one of those key players who has taken on additional responsibility. He replaces seniors Noah Methvin and Ben Owens, who gave the Volunteers a dual-threat capability.
“He was very comfortable in what he was doing,” Nicholson said of what he saw from Lewis in the jamboree. “I was very pleased with him as a quarterback. He showed a lot of poise and took a couple of hits and still delivered the throws. He was bringing me back a lot of information, which was good.”
Harrison said Lewis’ comfort level in the offense is important because coaches want to see what happens when players are in pressure situations. He said he knew Lewis had the talent, skill, and ability to play the position. Nicholson said Lewis didn’t get frustrated and continued to lead his teammates even when things didn’t go right. He hopes Lewis will be able to keep the same mentality against Lamar School.
“I think we have a new understanding of each other. I think we turned a corner,” Nicholson said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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