BAKER — Two days into spring football practice Baker School coach Matt Brunson couldn’t have been much happier.
“The weather this first Wednesday and Thursday has been awesome,” he said after Thursday’s practice. “The humidity has stayed away. It’s been slightly cool with a breeze and we got a lot of work done – as much as you can get done in shorts.
“We have a great group out here. We have about 80 kids and right now everything is going great.”
Brunson, who is starting his third year at Baker, credits a lot of the team cohesiveness to having a senior class that has been in his system since their sophomore year.
“We’ve got a large senior class and a lot of these guys played with us my first year as sophomores and they have three years in the system” he said. “They understand what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.
“Them knowing what to expect and what I’m expecting from them has been a big plus.”
Brunson stressed that the physical team he puts on the field starts with the players spending long hours in the weight room getting stronger. He said the intensity the Gators showed in the weight room has carried onto the field, which is another thing he likes about the team.
Brunson continued to stress the importance of having a physical team as the Gators prepare to practice in pads for the first time on Monday. He said he wants to see his players come off the ball with good pad level (to gain leverage), to beat the opposition to the first punch and for them to continue moving and driving their feet after making the first contact so they can win the line of scrimmage.
One of the more interesting things to watch this spring will be the battle between Jon Beck and Ben Crowson for the starting quarterback job.
Brunson said in the end both players will see action at quarterback in the fall and it’s nice to have two talented players at the key position on the field.
“Both of those quarterbacks are very capable of running our offense and we are going to keep working both of them,” Brunson said. “And again, Ben is going to see some time on defense so it’s going to be a very good situation to have two guys that can do what those two guys can do.”
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Gators off to a strong start