A new day for West Memphis in 2016

A new day for West Memphis in 2016

Year Three of Elmore era could be better

WM School District Year Three of the Billy Elmore Era should look different from his first two Blue Devil squads.

At any given time in games this season, Elmore will have more seniors with more experience than in his first two seasons. The Blue Devils, who made it back to the state playoffs last year in their Class 7A swan song, finished 5-5 in the regular season before falling to Fayetteville in the first round of the postseason.

But the inexperience that has plagued the program the last three years will not be nearly as visible in 2016.

'At times we could have as many as nine seniors on the field,' said Elmore. 'The level of experience will be different this year. I think our kids are buying into what we're doing.

I've always said it's hard for seniors to buy into a new system because all they've known is one system. It's our third year here now and I think all these kids have ever known is the way we're doing it.'

Also different will be West Memphis' classification level.

The Blue Devils will drop to Class 6A in 2016 and be placed in a conference that will include holdovers Jonesboro, Marion, Mountain Home and Searcy along with newcomers Pine Bluff, Little Rock Hall and Jacksonville.

'With the size of our school, I think we'll be better off in 6A,' said Elmore. '7A ball is very tough because the enrollment level in the Northwest Arkansas schools is very high. There's still some really good teams in our conference with Jonesboro and Pine Bluff and I just think we'll still be in a very competitive league.'

The Blue Devils will be experienced in most every area on the field this year except at quarterback. Junior Amaurius Stinnett is clearly the most talented out of a field of three (junior Michael Troxler and senior David Kohl are the other QB candidates), but he had limited snaps last year as a junior varsity player due to a knee injury that knocked him out the last several years.

Thus, you could classify Stinnett as a sophomore in terms of experience. Because of that, Stinnett has yet to clearly separate himself from Troxler and Kohl for the starting job.

But the strength of Elmore's offense will be a deep group of running backs headed by senior Devonte Dean, who rushed for 654 yards and 18 touchdowns a year ago.

Other top candidates include talented junior Guren Holmes, who bursts onto the varsity scene late last year, rushing for 102 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries against Mountain Home.

'We've got the numbers in the backfield, and that's a really good thing because it's hard to go through a whole year without somebody getting hurt in the backfield,' Elmore stated. 'Holmes has developed in early camp.

Sometimes sophomores don't like to run downhill because they don't trust their linemen to open the holes. We're telling him to trust the line to open those holes because at the last instant we think those holes are going to be there.'

A pair of diminutive backups, junior Ken Lowe (5-foot-5) and senior Martavious Thomas (five-foot-7) are also showing promise in early camp.

Sophomore Marcus Whitaker has made an early statement in preseason camp to claim an inside receiver starting job while junior Joshua Hinton is the favorite to start at a slot receiver, backed up by dependable senior Austin Sudbury and tough-as-nails sophomore Mason Kearney.

The other slot receiver will be junior Steven Stone, who got his feet wet last year as a solid varsity player. The outside receivers are expected to be promising sophomore Desmond Howard and returning starter Jamerun Dudley, a senior.

The fullback will be junior Donte Perry.

Experience marks the offensive line, led by returning starters Decameron King (left tackle) and Jason Robinson (right guard). But plenty of other projected starters are loaded with experience from last year, including senior Danny Ealy at left guard, jun- ior Caleb Clark (6-4, 275) at center and Kaylon Gilmer at right tackle.

The Blue Devil offense has had a slow, but steady evolution since Elmore's arrival. He said his kids are getting hang of a scheme which should be very balanced between run and throw.

'At our best, our offense should look like Ohio State's offense,' said Elmore. 'Not saying we'll look as polished as (Ohio State) does, but our terminology is very similar to theirs and calling our plays is very similar. Right now sometimes it looks really good. At other times it doesn't.'

New defensive coordinator Butch Gray, a former DC at Marion High School, takes over for the Blue Devil unit in 2016 and he inherits a solid group of linebackers highlighted by senior Jerry Edwards and Kentrell Allen. The other projected starting linebacker is senior Arland Collier.

The defensive line starters will include two-way starters Gilmer at nose and King at one end. The other end is expected to be senior Adarius Brown. The tackle will be outstanding sophomore Hasani Adams.

Elmore said he expects the secondary to be improved from a year ago, where experience marks the group headed by senior returning starter Rayshaad Hall at left corner and senior Brien Glasper at the right corner.

Junior Anthony Hite has earned the starting free safety position while senior Josh Williams will man the strong safety, backed up Kyren Todd, who logged a lot of minutes last year as a part-time starter.

The special teams will be led by returning place-kicker Dylan Wiggington, who showed accuracy on PATs and short field goals last year.

By Billy Woods