Exciting things are happening in Millbrook following the Stanhope Elmore spring game against Chelsea last Thursday.
Although not a typical spring game, Mustangs head coach Hunter Adams knew the opportunity was too good to pass up. This was the second year in a row that they had faced off against the Hornets with a scripted scrimmage where no score was kept.
As this was not an opportunity to see which team was better, but to practice specific situations to better prepare them for the season.
“What we do is we guarantee that we can get everything we practice all spring on tape for evaluation,” Adams said. “If you play a traditional four-quarter game in the spring, you might not see a third and long all night long on one side of the ball, or you might not get more than one snap in the red zone, or one PAT or one field goal attempt. So to script it to where we can work all those different things against live competition is tremendously beneficial.”
It is those situational simulations that are going to carry over into the summer, according to Adams. His focus is to make sure, regardless of what the down and distance may be in an actual game, that his players know their responsibilities and know what to expect.
“We're going to do situational things every day,” Adams said about the summer. “We want to compete all summer, like I want the intensity and the competition and the sense of urgency to exist every day that we're here. I don't want them, when the lights come on in late August, for them to be overwhelmed by the moment or feel the pressure of the moment. Because I want that pressure to have existed all summer.”
Overall, the spring game had many notable standouts, like running backs Dee Barnes, who is set to be the new bell cow back with Arthur McQueen graduating, as well as Jordan Steele finding the endzone on three occasions. However, the group who has grown the most is the Mustangs secondary.
“Last year, we were extraordinarily young in the secondary,” Adams said. “All of our guys were first-year starters. We started a group of all sophomores and freshmen in the secondary last year that played a lot of ball. Took some lumps early and played well by the end of the year. But now that group, I feel like they're smart, they're physical, they can handle a lot of volume. Our secondary group had a really, really good spring.”
Stanhope Elmore will get some more opportunities to compete over the summer with possible organized team activities against other schools. But for the time being, Adam viewed the spring practice slate as a huge success.
