Holtville quarterback Tanner Potts is a winner, and that’s exactly what he’s doing this year on the gridiron.
Potts, a junior first-year starter, has led Holtville to a 4-1 record this year with a 3-0 record in Class 5A, Region 4. The Bulldogs have won three straight games, and they put record on the line this Friday night as they travel to play Marbury in a non-region rivalry game at 7 p.m.
Potts has improved in each of the last three wins and had his best start of his career last Friday night against Talladega. In the game, Potts finished 12 of 19 for 224 yards and two touchdowns. It was the first 200-yard passing game of his career.
“There was a reason we named him our starter,” Holtville coach Jason Franklin said. “He’s very steady and makes good decisions. He’s smart enough to put us in the right place, he’s an overall leader and he’s just a winner. I call him our Drew Brees. He wins and he leads and does a great job.”
Potts, while having his best game of the year last week, has improved week by week this year.
He threw his only interception of the season in a scrimmage against Shelby County, and has thrown for two touchdowns in three of his last four games. He wasn’t called upon to throw much in the game against Beauregard, and only attempted six passes.
Nonetheless, Potts has thrown for 670 yards, seven touchdowns and only one interception through the first five weeks of the season. He has also seen improvement on the ground, and rushed five times for 31 yards last week.
He has 84 rushing yards and two touchdowns this year.
“The biggest thing about Tanner is that he doesn’t turn the football over,” Franklin said. “He doesn’t throw interceptions. When your quarterback doesn’t throw interceptions or make bad reads, you have a chance to win. He doesn’t do that. When you have a touchdown to interception ratio like he does, it gives you the chance to win.”
Potts will be tested this week against Marbury.
Not only is it a rivalry game, but Marbury features a long and tall secondary that makes tons of plays in the passing game. Two of the best players in Marbury’s secondary are safeties, and one is a sure ball-hawk.
Junior safety Cody Whitford has three interceptions on the year, and has returned one for a touchdown. He also is a threat on offense with both of his receptions this season going for touchdowns.
Marbury uses their safeties in a variety of ways, and brings them down into the box a lot to take away plays and condense the field against opposing offenses.
“They’ve got a couple of long guys who are really athletic back there in the secondary, so that’s always going to lead to balls getting tipped back there,” Franklin said. “Those guys can dive out there and with such long bodies, they can pick them off. He’s always around the football and he can tackle well when we do catch the ball.”
Marbury’s secondary isn’t the only strength of their defense. Marbury defensive end Amos Barton does a really good job of getting into the backfield and forcing quarterback mistakes. So far this season, Barton has 15 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and four sacks.
He leads a very big and physical defensive front that will give Holtville’s offensive line all they can ask for.
Despite being 2-3, Marbury’s issue hasn’t been on the defensive side of the ball. The Bulldogs have allowed only 18.6 points per game, and 30 of the 93 points they’ve allowed came in the first game of the year.
Since that game, Marbury has allowed only one of four opponents to score over 14 points.