Wildcats Football Coach Greg Owens is still a believer in the benefits of spring football but that doesn’t mean he is any less anxious two days away from his team’s season opener against Frisco Wakeland Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Gerald Prim Stadium. Coach Owens says spring football has allowed Wildcats’ coaches to know what their players are like and how they fit on the depth chart. Still this week Coach Owens says he feels rushed after only one scrimmage that left a lot of things to clean up. He adds Frisco Wakeland is in the same boat. Coach Owens admits he doesn’t know a lot about Wakeland. He says he is more concerned about his team that needs to figure out how to eliminate mistakes and be more fundamentally sound. One advantage is that the two teams played last year. Coach Owens says Wakeland has a tall quarterback who played last year (Dylan Laible, a senior). He says they also have a deceptively fast receiver (Kevin Rychel, a senior who also played last year). He says they also have a running back who runs hard. The Wolverines head coach is Marty Secord, in his fourteenth year (he’s the only head coach Wakeland had ever had). Coach Owens says Coach Secord’s teams are well coached and fundamentally sound. Coach Owens remembers last year Wakeland constantly sent an extra rusher at the Wildcats. He also remembers the Wildcats made a lot of mistakes last year. Coach Owens says with a new quarterback and so many new faces, Wildcats’ coaches will have to keep the Wildcats calm and settled down. He says he liked the Wildcats composure at last Thursday’s scrimmage. He says he is pleased with the progress the Wildcats have made and he says they are striving to get better every day. Coach Owens says the Wildcats have had to deal with hot weather this week. He really liked Tuesday’s practice when the Wildcats number one units on offense and defense got after it against each other. With just 40 players on the varsity, Coach Owens says they have to be careful about injuries. Many players are going both ways. He mentions several players who have many roles: Chase Haney for example is a receiver, safety and a punt returner. He also mentions Bryant Sanchez, Noe Ponce, Kylan Wade and Aidan Walker. Coach Owens says he hopes the offensive line can be special this season. He says he is counting on them. He says they will hit you. Coach Owens also likes the play of the defense so far. He says they fly around and he adds he mostly liked how they responded at Liberty-Eylau last week. He likes his inside linebacker duo of George Greenway and Ryan Carrillo and outside linebacker Kylan Wade. Coach Owens feels defensive lineman Cameron Kaufert is the best of the group but he also likes D’Andre Peoples, who he says is a good field leader and a hard worker. Last year the Wildcats came away with a two point win. That may be the kind of game we see Friday night.
