Huntsville faces battle against 6A Bryan

Aug. 31—HUNTSVILLE — While it has been one game, Huntsville is looking for a repeat of what happened at the beginning of the year.

The Hornets took a brutal loss to A&M Consolidated on the road but opened up their home slate with a win against Bryan. Huntsville left Bowers stadium with a 21-14 win and will now try and replicate the win this year.

But doing so would be taking down a team that is going into its second year with a head coach Ricky Tullos, who finished 6-5 last season, making the postseason and losing in the bi-district round.

Last week against Tomball, the Vikings played a two-quarterback system with Kason Byrd getting the start and Boone Turner sharing the reps. But with a quarterback battle underway, the Vikings have key players back that can run the ball.

Sophomore running back Jevalen Wade was a key player for the Vikings last season and rushed for 9.1 yards per attempt and three touchdowns. Wade now takes over the role as the main running back but struggled against Waller to move the ball offensively.

Against Waller, the Vikings found success throwing the ball as they nabbed 123 yards through the air.

"They are unique and different. They are going into their second year with coach Tullos and I think they did what they had to do last year," Huntsville head coach Rodney Southern said. "I think they want to be a two-back run game but they like to throw the ball."

As far as the Hornet offense will stack against the Bryan defense, the run game with sophomore running back Trae'shawn Brown.

Bryan has a solid backfield on defense that could bring trouble to an offense that threw the ball 23 times with two interceptions.

"Their back seven are very athletic. They gave up some yards against Waller but they never gave up the big play," Southern said. "It's a typical Bryan team."

Huntsville's offense in Week 1 was a dual quarterback system, with one main running back, Junior Austin Taylor and sophomore Markcus Lewis.

And both quarterbacks are completely different.

Lewis is a mobile quarterback who isn't scared to roll out and run. Against A&M Consolidated, Lewis rushed eight times for eight total yards and a touchdown. However, he took some sacks at the end of the game and they reduced that number.

Taylor is a pocket passer that isn't a big rusher. The lone rushing attempt Taylor had, went for nine yards as he ran out of bounds before claiming a first down. Taylor tossed the ball 13 times and completed 7 passes for 95 yards.

With neither quarterback pulling away, Huntsville may look to the same system for this upcoming game.

"We are very fortunate this year to have a competition at every spot on the team," Southern said. "There is competition every day in practice. I would love for one of the quarterbacks to separate and truly be the guy, but if that doesn't happen we have to do what we have to do. You may see them both on Friday night."

Getting a tight end involved is something the Hornets have wanted to do for a long time. Jerious Singletary, Cardell Franklin and Bryan Redd are all listed as tight ends and Singletary was big for Huntsville.

Singletary hauled in one reception for six yards and had a drop. The tight end also played a lot in the run game and was capable of getting blocks off for the run.

"You want the tight end involved in run games but we missed him in the passing game," Southern said. "We are going to continue to develop our offense with a tight end at times. When we take him out, we are putting a 'skill' kid in, so we have to be able to do both things."

Brown carried the rock for a team-high 24 attempts, but he never had "the big one" as his longest rush was 19 yards. But those carries may not be sustainable for the entire season.

He ended the game with 111 yards and a touchdown but coughed up the ball twice in the game.

With junior Braylon Phelps only getting two attempts against A&M Consolidated, he may be the feature running back to give Brown some breathing room.

"That was technically his third varsity game. We didn't play him against Lufkin and so last Friday was his first real contact. He was probably really close on six or seven of those carries on breaking the big run. We will continue to run with him, Payton and Braylon because it gives us a different dynamic."

Huntsville's defense played a clean game, for the most part. The Hornets allowed one big play that lost containment on the far side of the field.

A&M Consolidated's Camron Vines was the one who broke out the big run, which inflated their rushing numbers. Without the big run, A&M Consolidated would have been limited to 36 yards on the ground and one less touchdown.

"The one disappointing one was rushing, they had 109 rushing yards but 73 of it came on one play. We just lost the containment and you have to give the kid credit for his speed. I thought other than that, we contained them. The four pass plays of 18-20 yards were the most disappointing."

Huntsville's defensive line was something that brought questions and concerns at the beginning of the season, but after one game they look solid.

Sophomore Fred Oladele was capable of getting better as the game went on and in the second half, he had a lot of pressure on the Tigers. With his near 6-foot-4-inch build, Oladele can create leverage against offensive lines.

Matched with junior Zack Moss and Singletary mixed in, the Hornets may still need to find a few pieces to make the defensive line one of the best in 5A.

"It's unique because Fred never says a word and football is new to him," Southern said. "He does a couple of things naturally and gets as good of hand placement on anybody. I thought we got good pressure from Zach [Moss] and [Jerious] Singletary. For the first game, the amount of pressure we got with four guys was pretty good."

Now, Huntsville will try and replicate what they did last season but this year is on the road. This will serve as the Hornets' first road trip of the year, the game will serve as the Vikings home opener.

But despite getting on the bus, it is no different for Huntsville who has to get on buses for their home games.

"We are in the same situation that we were in last year. They beat Waller and we lost to A&M Consolidated, the only difference is we are playing on the road. People make more out of playing on the road than it is, our kids get on a bus every Friday night. Having a home field is an advantage but our kids will manage that well," Southern said.

Kickoff for the game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Merrill Green Stadium in Bryan.

The game will also be streamed on the 101.7 KSAM YouTube page.