WM opens up against Forrest City

WM opens up against Forrest City

Elmore not worried about lackluster performance in preseason

WM School District The West Memphis Blue Devils will have had nine days to correct the flaws from last week's preseason scrimmage against Batesville. And there were plenty of flaws to fix.

But head coach Billy Elmore isn't worried as his team is less than 24 hours away from opening the 2016 regular season at home against Forrest City.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Execution was off in more than one area as the Blue Devils lost to Class 5A Batesville 14-3 in 24 minutes last Tuesday. Before that, the Pioneers exposed the Blue Devils in two 10play series involving both teams' first teams.

'In a scrimmage, you're going to see some good and you're going to see some bad,' said Elmore, in his third year at the helm.

West Memphis' secondary blew a few coverages against Batesville quarterback Zach Griffin, who threw for two touchdowns.

Offensively, the Blue Devils took two steps forward and one back consistently because of holding penalties.

'I think people read way too much into preseason scrimmage games,' Elmore added. 'We actually want to see some things go wrong in scrimmage games. If you look like world beaters in a scrimmage, what it does is cover up some things you know you need to work on. I think back on when I was an assistant under (former legendary Barton head coach) Frank McClellan. I don't think we ever won a preseason game. As long as you don't go out and get physically dominated and the mistakes are correctable, that's OK.'

Forrest City has been the Blue Devils' whipping boy for the last 18 years with West Memphis keeping the Cotton Bale Trophy since 1997. Last year, the Blue Devils overwhelmed the Mustangs 41-6 in the season opener at Sam Smith Stadium.

Three West Memphis holdovers played major roles in that victory.

Running back Devontae Dean, now a senior, rushed for four touchdowns and 109 yards, current senior Kyrien Todd intercepted a Mustang pass that set up a touchdown and Jonathan Craig had an 11-yard touchdown.

But maybe all that should be tempered by the fact that on the same night the Blue Devils were losing to Batesville, Forrest City defeated powerful Jonesboro in a scrimmage game.

And the Mustangs return some serious speed in Kendrick Johnson, who gave the Forrest City faithful its only chance to cheer all night in last season's matchup with West Memphis by returning a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown.

'They also have a quarterback who runs it well and throws it well,' Elmore said of Forrest City. 'And they have some big, athletic wide receivers. They didn't feature those receivers very much in the scrimmage at Jonesboro, but I'm sure they will against us.'

Elmore's defense looked solid defending the run last week against Batesville, and it was especially strong in the win last year at Forrest City, limiting the Mustangs to only 9 yards on the ground in the first half.

Elmore withheld two Blue Devil senior starters from the Batesville scrimmage in defensive backs Brian Glasper and Jonathan Craig. He said both will be ready to start against Forrest City.

'We did a lot of hitting early in preseason camp and we got a few guys banged up in the process,' Elmore stated. 'We've backed off of that quite a bit and we feel like we'll be pretty healthy for the first game.'

By Billy Woods