Sports
Tigers scrimmage Waco and LBJ
Thursday, 06 September 2012 by Matthew Girard
Belton’s cornerbacks are tall, fast and physical. Pictured Malik Green driving through a receiver in the Tigers scrimmage. At times this season the Tigers will move both starting corners to linebacker and bring in two other corners that can play. Photo by Matthew GirardThe Belton High School football team got its first look at a "game" situation Saturday morning as the Tigers participated in a three-team scrimmage at Tiger Field.
Along with the BHS varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams, Austin LBJ and Waco High also participated in the scrimmage, which was a first for BHS coach Rodney Southern.
"That was the first time I've been involved with three different teams," Southern said. "At times, it got a little slow, but overall it was a pretty good scrimmage."
During the scrimmage, the teams participated in line drills, 7-on-7 scenarios and then finished the day rotating offenses versus defenses during the "game" portion of the day.
Although Southern said getting to see two different teams at once was beneficial, he said he would've like to see his varsity squad get more plays in.
"We probably needed to get a few more reps, but I've got two weeks before we play a game so we will be fine," Southern said.
As far as the scrimmage went, Southern said he was pleasantly surprised by the play of his offensive and defensive lines.
"I thought our pass protection was better than I expected, but I thought our run game was not where it needs to be," Southern said. "(Defensively) we gave up too many yards on first down, but I thought the other defensive phases were pretty good."
Despite the obvious corrections that need to be made before Belton's first game against Round Rock Stony Point on Sept. 7, Southern said he and the coaches got what they wanted out of the scrimmage.
Shane Stafford, in motion, cuts in front of starting quarterback Peter Shelburne at the Tigers scrimmage Saturday. The pair of quarterbacks will be featured in the backfield this season. "Our big thing was to see them give effort and for us to look and see effort on film, and we saw that," Southern said. "We just have a few young kids that have to get more experience and some of our seniors and upperclassmen need to continue to work to get into better shape each week."
Working on getting more reps for his runningbacks and secondary will be the main focus for the next two weeks, according to Southern.
The Tigers will be breaking in two new runningbacks in Brandon Rhoads and Rayshun Jones this season along with players changing positions in the secondary.
"The biggest thing is we've got two runningbacks that don't have a whole lot of experience," Southern said. "We've got a couple of guys in the secondary who are changing positions and they just need reps. The more live reps they get, the better they are going to be."
The Tigers will take on Stony Point at Round Rock at 7:30 p.m. September 7th. Stoney Point advanced to the semi-finals three straight seasons before slipping a bit last season. They are led by two time all-state linebacker Marcos Curry.
Stoney Point traditionally has some of the best talent in the state and last season had three player receive division 1 scholarships.
