Baker School's football team, coming off its first district title since 2001, still has work to do.
The Gators lost their playoff opener to Cottondale and finished last season with a 10-1 record. This year, Baker will try to repeat as District 1-1A champions and make a deep run into playoffs.
Head Coach Matt Brunson shares his thoughts.
Team strength: Conditioning.
Biggest concern: Being targeted for defending district champions.
Offense: Having a veteran quarterback is a strength, but conditioning and big players' speed are concerns.
Offensive line: Very solid. Calvin Blankenship, Dakota Blackburn and Bubba Ellis, our center, have good size. Bubba has done a good job with the shotgun snap at center. Ben Martin and Taylor Sexton will be on our left side. All of those kids are very capable of providing what we need to be successful.
Receivers: We’ve got Jacob Nixon, Josh Long, Josh Mayhew and David Oglesby. We’ve got several receivers that are capable of making big plays. All of these guys will play hard every snap, whether it’s blocking or the ball is coming to them.
We aren’t going to run by people, but we are going to be very steady in what we do. Our precession is going to make up for our lack of speed.
Offensive backfield: The depth of our backfield is strong. Jon Beck, Nate Taylor and Austin Davis are very capable at quarterback.
We’ve got Austin Martin, Austin Davis and Monte Barto, who are all capable at the running back. And we’ve got linebackers we could play at that position.
But maintaining control of tempo without making mistakes is a concern.
Defense: Our linebacking corps will be our strength. I think the group's depth and the athleticism will be very strong.
Defensive line: Those guys are very strong, they are in very good shape and they will be able to play four quarters. But there are no returning starters.
Linebackers: Our defense's back end is very strong. We have Monte Barto; and Austin Martin has started every game the last four years. We have Dakota Smith, who will be a very good outside linebacker, and Triston Carroll plays some outside linebacker
Secondary: Ralph Poythress will be a very good strong safety/outside linebacker type. Austin Davis and Dillon Nixon will anchor the safety positions. Jacob Nixon and David Oglesby started at corner last year. They are backed up by Nate Taylor and Josh Long. We'll be concerned with minimizing mistakes.
Randy’s take: Brunson enters his fourth season as his alma mater's head coach and has produced a winning team each year.
If Baker's defensive line matures like Brunson thinks it will, this team could easily be playing in December.
If the last three years are an indication of what to look for this year, I think the Gators are set to make a run deep into the playoffs.
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 return with veteran QB, solid defensive line