Some football followers only look at a team’s record.
In a rebuilding process, however, there is more to judging a program than a won-loss record. Winder-Barrow High School coach David Wagner knows this and points out his team has been through a rough gauntlet to start the 2010 season.
The Bulldoggs, who host Habersham Central this week, are 0-4 but Wagner points out that three of the opponents made deep runs in the postseason in 2009.
“I’ve been saying all year when you play against teams that had two, three, four more games than you did then it makes a difference,” Wagner said. “In some cases it’s almost half of another season. That experience means a lot.”
Clarke Central, last Friday’s opponent, reached the state championship game in 2009. Rockdale County reached the semifinals and while Flowery Branch moved up from Class AAA, the Falcons were perennial postseason contenders at that level.
“That’s about as tough as you can get,” Wagner said. “We haven’t been playing chopped liver.”
The Bulldoggs will look to get in the victory column this week against the Habersham Central Raiders, who defeated Madison County 44-14 last week for their first win of the 2010 season.
“They finally got things clicking,” Wagner said.
The Raiders are using a triple option attack and have an extremely talented quarterback, Wagner said.
“Habersham Central is an example of how a 1-4 record can be misleading,” the WBHS coach said. “They have been continuing to get better each week and they finally broke through with a win.”
Defensively, the Raiders base out of a 4-3 look but are constantly moving defenders around.
“It’s tough to tell 100 percent what they will be in,” Wagner said. “We’ve been making a lot of calls in order to help us prepare fully for what we may see.”
Even after the tough 55-0 loss to the second ranked team in the state last Friday, Wagner said he hasn’t seen any quit in his players.
“It’s tough because Clarke Central is a very good team and we knew that going in,” the coach said. “We would be in position to make plays but couldn’t finish it out. Losing three fumbles doesn’t help either.”
