Holtville hosted an OTA with Stanhope Elmore and Montevallo on Thursday morning. Bulldog coach Cody Lee knew matching up his squad against two very different teams would be a great challenge for his players. At this point in the summer, Holtville is all about buffing and polishing the team, preparing players to shine this fall.
“I think all teams competed really well,” Lee said. “I thought we were doing some good things on both sides of the football. With our run game we had some nice plays, we had some big plays late against Montevallo through the air. This is the back end of our competition this summer, so really I think we’re in a good place right now.”
Going up against Montevallo, Holtville had moments of real promise on offense. Senior quarterback Jacob Burgess had at least two perfectly-placed throws that resulted in either a touchdown or a march down the field. A lot of that is credit to the offensive line, as they were able to handle a very athletic and scrappy Montevallo team.
Ana Sofia Meyer / TPI Holtville practices catching and running downfield with a defender from Montevallo in an OTA on Thursday.
“We’re coming into a unit with our offensive line,” Lee said. “We’ve had some shuffling in a couple spots, just trying to find the five guys that make us the best unit that we can be. They’re playing better together, they’re communicating better. All those things that will hopefully continue to improve, but it’s good to see that progression.”
Stanhope Elmore presented a completely different challenge compared to Montevallo. The Mustangs are a very physical team on both offense and defense. Early Thursday morning, the Mustangs’ defensive line put Holtville’s offensive line on notice. As the OTA progressed, the offensive line adapted and rose to the challenge. Those improvements carried over to the latter-half of the OTA, as the Bulldogs set up against Montevallo.
“Montevallo is a different team, they’re explosive,” Lee said. “They have really good athletes so they challenge us almost every play. Our guys were having to strain to make sure they’re staying where they need to be.”
With football season only weeks away, that is the type of challenge that Coach Lee is looking to put his guys up against.
“That (competition is) what we want to see,” Lee said. “We want that to be something we get to see, like what guys can make plays against really good athletes, because that’s what we’re going to have to do in the fall.”
Even in the face of a long, hot summer day on the football field the Bulldogs put up the effort their coaches wanted to see and handled smack talk not with words, but with a big play on the next possession.
“Today I was proud of our guys,” Lee said. “I think they handled things the right way. The worse the smack talk was, the more our guys kind of just elevated and made a play. We’ll let our actions on the field do the talking for us.”
Ana Sofia Meyer / TPI Holtville running back Daishaun Ziegler pushes down field past blocked defenders in an OTA against Montevallo on Thursday.
A lot of that composure is driven by the leadership of the veterans on the team this year, especially Burgess at quarterback, Daishaun Zeigler at running back, Tyler Hackett at linebacker and Brock Godwin at safety.
“(Burgess) has matured so much in the past year,” Lee said. “Even when things go wrong, he comes back the next play and makes a good throw. (Ziegler) has been steady as can be all summer. He’s one of those guys, when he says something everybody stops and listens. Hackett is as consistent as they come. And Godwin, he’s grabbing people, pointing people directions. He’s consistently talking, getting everybody lined up.”
With leadership and poise in the face of stiff competition, Holtville is closer to season-ready every day.
