The Republic football team finally took the field at full speed Saturday for the team’s annual preseason scrimmage. After weeks of summer practice, the scrimmage serves as an opportunity for both players and coaches to gauge their progress and figure out what they need to work on, according to coach Wes Beachler.
“This is an evaluation opportunity for the coaches,” Beachler says. “If there’s something that’s just not very clear to the kids, and not being run very well, we’ve got to take a look at how we’re teaching it and how much time we’re spending on that particular aspect of the game.”
As Republic gears up for the preseason jamboree next Friday night, Beachler says his offense is showing the strengths he hoped it would.
The day started with a long run when Jerney Jones got to the outside and sprinted up the right sideline. “I think we saw some thing that we knew we’d have, which was speed getting to the edge, and I thought we could use that speed to decoy the defense out,” he says. David Feil also broke off a long run for the Tigers, while several other backs showed speed and elusiveness during the scrimmage.
“What we came in trying to do offensively, I think we’re going to give people some trouble with, and that’s getting our speed to the outside,” Beachler says. “Our backs run tough. We gave it to [Zach] Jester on a fullback trap and he ran tough. David Feil, who right now is probably a number two — he’ll be pushing some people — he ran hard. We tell our backs all the time you have two jobs: take care of the football and beat one tackler. Make one tackler miss or run over him, and they did that today.”
Up front, the Tigers still need work, Beachler says, ” but anytime you lose five of your seven offensive linemen, you’re going to going to have a few glitches early on.”
Defensively, Beachler sees improvement.
“We still just have some little things to shore up. We have a linebacker for example who was playing downhill and squeezing inside-out, then one time he overran it and a back cut back on him. [It’s] just that consistency–and we’ll get there.
“I don’t know if there’s a better linebackers coach in southwest Missouri than [Steve] Forbis, and I don’t know if there’s a better defensive staff overall. So we’ll get those things fixed too.”
The Tigers travel to Lebanon for their jamboree next Friday. They open the season in two weeks at home against Sedalia Smith-Cotton.
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