Young Bulldogs look to break through in 2016

Young Bulldogs look to break through in 2016

Coleman has high hopes for sophomores, Bohanon

Sports Editor How would one view Earle’s 2015 football season?

On one hand, Earle’s fall finished with an 8-3 overall mark and a share of second consecutive 2A-3 conference title.

On the other, the Bulldogs lost its last two games, including a 43-36 loss to Magnet Cove in the first round of the Class 2A state playoffs.

On the plus side, Earle won six consecutive games at one point, all in league play, and had a chance to win the conference outright with a road win against Cross County.

On the down side, Earle lost that game to Cross County, and settled for a split of the league for the second straight year, as well as the number two seed from the conference. No matter which side of the fence you land on regarding Earle’s previous football year, this upcoming season may have the potential to be one unlike any previous ones for head coach A.C. Coleman and his staff.

For starters, his team will have over 30 players on its varsity roster on September 2 when Earle travels to play Central High School, a Class 4A school in Helena.

While the numbers themselves will be a welcome sight for Coleman and his squad, the biggest difference may be in a quality that can’t be contained onto a stat sheet or show up on film.

“We won’t be very seniorladen this year, we have a lot of sophomores on our team, but the major difference between this team and others is that we have leaders,” Coleman says of his 2016 Bulldogs. “We have kids that love to work hard. (Junior quarterback) Gerry (Bohanon) is not just a vocal leader, but he leads in drills. He teaches his guys what to do, he’s able to lead that way. Dontrell (Johnson) leads that way, he’s looking out for his guys. Cordale (Chase) leads that way. We may be young, but the older kids are leaders.”

The 2015 season was a bit of a bridge year for Coleman at Earle. 13 seniors that played big roles on Earle’s state semifinal runs in 2013 and 2014 graduated in May of 2015 and a talented junior high crew wasn’t yet ready to contribute to the varsity team. “Last year we took a gamble and we had a whole bunch of basketball players,” Coleman explains. “Marcus Brown was a basketball player, he’s a great athlete that can do anything, it just so happened that he could catch and run and wanted to play football. His brother (Marquise) was a basketball player that came out and caught balls. Now, we have football players that may play basketball, but love football. I really feel like this team right here is the team that will get us over the hump.”

So it will be for Coleman and his crew that will play just four home games in 2016, but they’re all against conference opponents as the Bulldogs gun for at least a share of their third consecutive league title.

Offense Earle’s offense has been anchored by Bohanon for two seasons already, but the talented junior has really taken ownership of his squad during the past offseason.

Bohanon organized countless workouts at Earle’s home field since winning the Class 2A state basketball title in March.

The junior was slowed in 2015 by a rash of injuries that conspired to hold him down last fall.

While Earle was rolling to a 60-14 win against 2014 Class 2A runner-up Hazen in the opener, he hurt his ankle and just as he was getting back up to speed with the start of league play, he injured the same ankle again in a game at Marked Tree.

That injury would stalk him for the reason of the season.

This season, Coleman hopes to return to a truly balanced offense, not just to keep Bohanon healthy, but also to keep opposing defenses guessing.

“Last year we tried to think pass first and then run, and while that was successful against certain teams, it wasn’t against others,” the coach explains.

Protecting Bohanon will be Montrale Williams at right tackle, Cordale Chase at right guard, Dallas Hill at center, Demetrius Johnson at left guard and Allen Coleman at left tackle.

Amazingly, all five starters on the line will be new in 2016, as Earle hopes that this crew will be upgraded from the offensive line that struggled at times last fall.

“Cordale and Dallas have been real leaders for us this summer,” Coleman says of his young linemen. “It’s really made all the difference for us too in our line play. Athletically, they’ve been impressive, but it’s also our smartest group of kids on the line that I’ve had. None of these kids have under a 2.5 GPA. Not one of them.”

Coleman says that he will also be counting heavily on Jalen Coopwood, a freshman, to contribute to Earle’s offense this season as a jack-ofall- trades type of player.

“We want him to be a Markus Lane-type,” Coleman says of Coopwood, referring to his 2013 and 2014 All-State linebacker and H-Back. “He’ll do a bit of everything, but for the most part, he’ll be hands in the dirt.”

Earle’s skill players were exceptional last season as seniors Marcus and Marquise Brown and Richard Merritt all left their marks on the field, and while this season’s receivers and running backs may not have as many recognizable names, they could still be pretty potent.

At one wide receiver will be senior Dontrell Johnson, a three-sport star at Earle who was also a member of the 2016 Earle Class 2A state basketball champions.

“He can possibly land a Division 1 scholarship as a wide receiver,” Coleman says of Johnson.

Quinton Allen, a junior high running back, will line up at the slot receiver in week 1.

At the other outside receiver, a battle rages between Alex Coleman and Leandre Milow.

“They’ve been going at it all summer long,” Coleman says of his outside receiver race.

Coleman says that nobody has emerged as a second slot receiver, so he’s looking for Coopwood to be ready to contribute

as an H-Back at some

point in 2016.

“Our seniors aren’t quite where we want them to be yet,” Coleman explains. “Between Tavarius Sanders and Shurn Dunn, one of them should emerge, and they’ve been battling.”

Coleman says that Donerius Crowder will be his backup quarterback, in addition to his duties as the starting quarterback of the junior high squad.

Crowder could also factor into the wide receiver rotation this year.

Replacing Merritt, a threeyear player and a two-year star, at running back is a real question mark, as Coleman readily admits.

“Right now, it’d be Kameron Banks starting,” says the coach. “My backup would be Jacquez Gray. The third guy should be Treyvon Reel.”

Defense

Of all of the seniors that Coleman may be missing when Earle hits the dog days of October, the one he may wind up missing the most is Cortez Banks.

The 2015 All-State linebacker that his teammates affectionately referred to as “Cuckoo” left his mark on offense and defense at Earle, but really opened eyes at linebacker.

“I’ve watched so much film over the summer and you just can’t replace a guy like Cortez Banks,” Coleman explains. “We just don’t have those ultra-aggressive kids this year. What we have this year is a young core that will fly to the ball. In the past, maybe we’ve had one or two dominant players that stick out, this year, we’ll have a lot of guys that are good players.”

Cortez Chase and Coopwood project as Earle’s middle linebackers this season, and Coleman says the reasons are simple.

“They’ve really impressed me because they spend more time in the weight room than anyone,” says the coach.

“With those two at middle linebacker, I think we can get some stuff done.”

At outside linebacker, Justin Brown should be the opening day starter, while Keyshawn Johnson and Treyvon Reel could be in the team’s plans at the opposite outside ‘backer.

Bohanon also factors into Earle’s plans at linebacker as the versatile junior has garnered the attention of Alabama and Arkansas at that position.

“That’s the thing we’re gonna wrestle with the most,” Coleman says of Bohanon’s defensive alignment. “We’ve moved Gerry around on defense a lot. I don’t believe there will be a game that we play where we can not play the best athlete on the field both ways.”

The defensive line should be made up of Dallas Hill, Devonta McKinney and Demetrius Johnson, Reel, Johnson and Bohanon all playing at times.

Johnson will be the starter at free safety, while Banks will start at one corner, joined by Kenneth Payne on the other side of the field.

“That looks to be the kids that we’ll count on defensively,” Coleman says.

Conference

Earle has lost just two league games since dropping down to the 2A-3 in time for the 2014 regular season.

Despite all of their graduations following the 2015 season, many publications favor the Bulldogs to win at least a share of its third consecutive league title.

However, Coleman thinks that the league may be better this season from top to bottom.

“I think we have a chance to win this league, but that’s only if we play well,” the coach admits. “Cross County lost a lot, just like we did, but their group of 9th-graders will be good.”

Earle will open its season against Central High on September 2, followed by a road trip to Hall, Tennessee on September 9. Their final nonconference game will be played at Mountain View on September 16.

The Bulldogs will open their home schedule on the same date that they open their league schedule, on September 23 against Salem, a team that is on Coleman’s radar.

“They went through a coaching change, but really came on last year,” says the coach.

On October 21, Earle will host the two-time defending 2A-3 co-champions from Cross County. The Bulldogs clinched a share of the league title in week 10 of 2014 with a rousing 50-6 win against the Thunderbirds.

Earle will have a bye in week 9 as KIPP: Blytheville elected not to play football this fall and the Bulldogs will close their 2016 regular season on the road in Lepanto against East Poinsett County.

By Chuck Livingston