It’s early in the 2010 season but if ever a matchup at this stage of a football campaign had a heavy significance attached, this one could be it.
Apalachee High School will travel to Flowery Branch Friday and the winner of the contest could be on a strong track to eventually qualify for the playoffs.
“They are a very good football team,” Wildcat coach Shane Davis said. “They are good all the way around. They do not have a weak spot.”
While Davis and his coaching staff has studied the Falcons on film, they also had the chance to scout them in person since AHS was off last Friday. Davis came away from the contest very impressed with his opponent this Friday.
Flowery Branch has been a perennial playoff contender in Class AAA and through two games this season, it doesn’t seem the move up in classification has been a problem for the Falcons, who defeated Winder-Barrow 28-0 last week.
“The region they came out of was very good for years,” Davis said. “I’ve always said the upper tier of AAA is just as good as the upper teams in AAAA. They came from a region where they were competing against quality programs like North Hall and Gainesville.”
Flowery Branch uses a wide-open offense, similar to the Air Raid formerly used by Texas Tech.
“Their goal is to continually spread you out,” said Davis. “They have people big up front and their running game is also good. They have a good quarterback and good receivers. Quite frankly, they have the complete package.”
Running the style of offense employed by the Flowery Branch Falcons is somewhat unusual at the high school level but Davis said it can be done.
“To run that system, you have to have a quarterback who can throw it and they have been blessed with that in recent years,” Davis said. “It all starts with the quarterback. After that, it’s about the receivers. They don’t have to be great, but they must run good routes and be able to catch the ball. You can have good defensive coverage against them but they will still complete it many times.”
Part of the issue the AHS coaches are dealing with in practice this week has been trying to simulate the offense used by their opponent this week.
“We are a Wing-T offense and it’s tough to duplicate what they do,” Davis said. “I would imagine they are having an easier time preparing for what we do.”
Many times last week against WBHS, Flowery Branch would face third and long but would still convert for first downs.
“They offense they run always gives them a chance,” Davis said. “Every play there is a chance for a big play. They don’t think ‘Let’s get three yards and go.’ They think big all the time. You can play well defensively against them and still give up 28 points. You have to be ready on every play.”
While the offense of the Falcons gets most of the attention, Davis is equally impressed by their defense.
“They play with no fear because they believe their offense will eventually score points,” the Wildcat coach said. “They take chances on defense and pin their ears back and come after you. They take the same aggressive approach defensively as they do offensively.”
Coordinator Joel Miller has been formulating a game plan this week.
“Flowery Branch is as good of a defense as we have seen in this region the past few years,” Miller said. “ They are well coached and they swarm to the ball. They have yet to be scored on this season, so they also have a huge amount of confidence right now.”
Several elements will go into Apalachee having success offensively.
“For us to be successful, we need to continue taking care of the ball and limiting our penalties,” Miller said. “ With a defense this good, you can’t make it easy on them with motion penalties, delay of games, and dropped handoffs, etc. Everyone has to execute their assignments. It is very important that the people on the backside of the play get their blocks, because if they don’t their defense runs to the ball so fast that they will close down any running lanes that we may have. We will continue doing what we do, which is run the ball, control the clock and take some chances in the passing game in good situations.”
The game will be a measuring stick in many ways for AHS, Davis said.
The coach said his team is still searching for its identity after losing so many players from a season ago.
“We are still figuring out who we are while they know who they are,” Davis said.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
