Published: August 31, 2007 10:48 am            

Weatherford defense undergoes change

Like all aspects of the Weatherford Kangaroos football program, the Roos defense underwent a change during the offseason, converting from the 3-4 alignment to the 4-2-5 set.

While change is not always easy, Weatherford Kangaroos first-year head coach Kenny Wheaton said his staff has been diligent in finding the right players at each position.

“Implementing the new style that we do and teaching them, we spend a ton of time in the classroom watching video tape, coaching them up and giving them tests and all that, placement of personnel is huge,” Wheaton said.

“Still, we have a couple of question marks. When you move people from one side of the ball to the other, it’s kind of scary, but once we get them in there, we don’t like to fool with them and move them around.”

Wheaton said the reason defenders don’t move from one position to another is simple and is instrumental in the success of each player.

“The old saying is ‘If he’s thinking, he’s stinking,’” he said. “They have got to be able to react and know exactly what to expect and what to do. If you start moving them around from position to position, they start getting confused with the different stunts and blitzes and coverages and it shows on Friday night. They don’t play fast and they don’t play as hard because they’re thinking.

“We will play hard, you can bet on that. We’ll fly to the football defensively and that’s the way we practice. It’s go, go, go and the tempo and that stuff is very important to us.”

The Roos have a solid group of agile and athletic defensive linemen, which is led by Texas A&M commit defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore.

“You have to have athletes up front on the D-line,” Wheaton said. “That’s what everybody in the country is looking for, in college, too. It’s the hardest position to fill because you’re looking for ‘a big athlete that can move’ and we’ve got a couple of guys like that. They’ve got to be able to run, they’ve got to be speed guys because defense is all about speed and chasing the football.

“You’ve got to have quality depth, too. You’ve got to be able to rotate those guys in there. You say you’ve got 11 starters, but you really don’t. We try to find three at each position the can roll in there, so we may have 15 to 18 guys that could legitimately start or there’s no drop off. That’s on both sides of the ball, you have to find kids like that, so you have to develop your depth.”

If an opponent gets around the defensive linemen, they reach the second level of the defense, which is loaded with experienced returners.

“Our linebacking corps is very good,” Wheaton said. “They’re not real big guys, but Stuart [O’Neal], Colton [Matlock] and Nathan Scoggins, those guys are all solid football players. They love the game. They’re hard-nosed guys, they’re smart kids that can take control of the defensive huddle and make adjustments and things like that.”

If an opponent chooses to pass on the Roos, they must contend with more talent, but less experience in a secondary that was hit hard by graduation.

“We’ve got some guys back there like [Isaiah] Busby and KJ [Johnson] and we moved Will McGrath up closer to the football as a linebacker, we’re still checking some things there,” Wheaton said.

“We have a lot of guys that I think are very good football players, but they played on the JV last year, so they haven’t played in a Friday night game and that’s something you’re concerned about as a coach.”

The new-look defense and the Roos get their first taste of action at Kangaroo Stadium against Abilene Cooper at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

        

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