CRESTVIEW — It’s a short week for Crestview High School's varsity football team.
The Bulldogs (1-4), coming off a 41-16 win over Fort Walton Beach, travel to Tallahassee on Thursday to take on Leon.
Crestview Coach Tim Hatten, who spent more than a decade coaching in the junior college ranks, said Thursday's game isn’t a big deal for him.
“You have to remember I’m kind of wired to play on Thursday,” he said. “In Juco, we always played on Thursday so we kind of had a regimen where you went Monday through Thursday getting ready to play.
“It’s not much of an adjustment for me. It’s a little bit of an adjustment for the kids. All we are going to do really is eliminate our Thursday walk-through.”
Game night aside, Hatten expects the Bulldogs to be tested against a 2-3 Leon squad.
“They are real athletic,” he said. “They run around better than they did last year. I think they are progressively getting better.
“They have played some good people. They beat Rickards – a team that beat us. We are very wary of what they can do.”
The Lions run a spread offense with a two-back set and use two quarterbacks. Leon tends to run the ball more when D’Anfernee McGriff is at quarterback and throw it more when John Burns takes the snap.
The Lions show multiple defensive fronts.
At times, Leon will line up in a three-man front. Other times, they will disguise the three-man front and pull the outside linebackers up to give it the look of a five-man front. And finally, there are times when Leon brings seven men up in the box to stop the run.
“We could combat that (the five-man front) a couple of ways,” Hatten said. We could increase our box numbers to match them and try to run the ball. Or we can try to move them out and try to take advantage in the passing game.
“We have some options of some things we would like to do and we are probably going to execute those options.”
The win over the Vikings gave Hatten some hope for Thursday’s game and the rest the season.
“We’ve got to play the way we did this last game each and every game left on our schedule to be competitive,” he said. “We know that.
“If we play that kind of game, we can be competitive with everybody we play.”
UPCOMING
WHAT: High school football, Crestview at Tallahassee Leon
WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Gene Cox Stadium, 601 Paul Russell Road, Tallahassee
EmailNews Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bulldogs hope to build off win