Published: August 30, 2006 07:25 pm            

Versatility is the key for Bearcat offense

The Aledo Bearcats will be looking to refine their spread offensive package this season as they head into the 2006 campaign.

“I think we will stay in more spread offense until someone just lines up and says, ‘We are going to do this until you change and do that,’” said Aledo head football coach Tim Buchanan. “We have got the versatility to line up in a two-back I offense and run the ball at them if needed.”

The offensive versatility the Bearcats will use comes from their depth at their skill positions, at both the receiver positions and in the backfield, and their offensive line play.

“Because of our skill kids, people are going to have to spread out to cover us and if they spread out and cover us, we are going to hand the ball off inside,” Buchanan said. “If they come in and stop the run inside, we are going to throw out to where our wide-outs are. We are going to make them defend the entire field.”

Buchanan is hopeful very few teams will be able to completely defend the run and the pass, but Buchanan knows the good teams will be able to shut down both the run and the pass. Defenses can be negated, but there are some things which will shut down the Bearcats offense quickly.

“Dropped passes more than anything,” Buchanan said. “I think we may have dropped one or two passes in the scrimmage the other day, but other than that, we threw it, caught the ball and ran with the ball extremely well.”

The Aledo offense has not had a lot of success in throwing the short screen pattern.

“That is something we have not been good at in the past, and we are trying to get better at during two-a-days,” Buchanan said.

Juniors Cole Loftin and Brady Thomas will run the offense on the field.

“Both of them are going to play [at quarterback],” Buchanan said. “When I have two as good as those two, I don’t mind [running a two-quarterback system]. You have two good athletes out there. Cole is a very versatile quarterback, who not only can play quarterback, but he is a heck of a running back and a great quarterback. Brady probably is not as good a runner as Cole, but he has a great arm and he really throws the screen package well. He has a pretty accurate arm throwing the ball down the field. There is a situation where we can actually get Cole at a wide receiver and make people cover us.

“I have no idea right now. It will all depend on what we have got. It is way too early to say if it is going to be packaged in a series. It is not going to be every other play, I think.”

The offensive linemen are another big reason why Aledo will succeed, no matter what offense they run.

“They have good experience,” Buchanan said. “Four out of the five [offensive linemen] started last year. Six out of the seven, counting the tight ends. When you look at our offensive line and when we go to a two-tight end set, we’ve got Kirby Myers, who’s a little over 6-4, about 235 pounds at the weak side tight end. Then you have Anson Kelton, who is 6-3 1/2, 250 pounds, at the strong side tight end.”

In other words, a lot of size, ability and experience. Hunter Heiss joins Kelton, Myers and the other returning linemen on the line.

        

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