“I run six plays, split veer. It’s like Novocaine. Just give it time, it always works.”
Herman Boone, T.C. Williams High, from the movie, “Remember the Titans,” 2000.
Collins Wilson is just a plus athlete. If I were running split veer, like Coach Bowling, Wilson would be my choice under center. Murray has been really competitive since Bowling’s arrival and annually looks to position itself to make deep playoff runs. This year is no different. The Tigers dropped a game, in a nail biter, to the Trigg County Wildcats Thursday night, but Wilson’s play was brilliant.
Fletcher W. Long, KPGFootball’s Senior Scout
Murray High is a premier program in the 2A classification, a classification which boasts such perennial powers as Mayfield, LCA, Beechwood, etc. Murray has the misfortune of being slotted in the same district with “Mighty Mayfield.”
That aside, Darren Bowling was brought to Murray to challenge and eventually win titles. He won titles in Louisiana, he won three state championships at Union City, Tennessee, and he will win, or at least challenge, for supremacy in Murray, Kentucky before he is through.
Thursday night, the Tigers run (pardon the pun, but the Tigers rolled up 400-yards rushing on the night against Trigg) suffered a mild setback. Murray traveled to Cadiz, Kentucky to play a Wildcat team which has some of the best roster talent in quite a while.
Trigg County, and its head coach Chris Ezell, came away with Coach Ezell’s signature win at the helm of the 3A, 1st-District team. Trigg won 35-34 and ran its record to 3-0, dropping the Tigers from Murray to 2-1.
Murray will prepare to play another 1st-District, Class 3A “heavyweight” when Union County rolls into town. Trigg will look to run its record to 4-0 with a visit from Fort Campbell.
Though Murray lost, Collin Wilson was both scintillating and brilliant. Wilson, at the helm of the split-veer attack, ran for 122-yards from his QB-post, in 20-carries scoring 4-TDs. Wilson led all scorers, logging 24 of his team’s 34 points up onto the scoreboard.
Now Wilson is 6’2,” and weighs close to 190-pounds. College ranking services are hard on Veer QBs, not favoring the players who thrive in the Bill Yeoman crafted offensive system. However, Bobby Bowden ran it…that should be enough said.
A football player is a football player… dare to take a chance on greatness!
Ramel Borner, Assistant Head Coach/Run Stop Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach Duncanville High (TX)
One of our favorite quotes about football comes from a “Jack of all Trades” member of the Duncanville High football staff. Obviously, this quote was said around the time Baker Mayfield was awarded his Heisman Trophy.
We have above quoted the most salient portion of his sentiment. The full quote was the following, “The Heisman Trophy winner is 5’9, the best D linemen in college football is barely pushing 6’0, Ed Oliver, and the best D linemen in the NFL is 6’1, Arron Donald. SIZE has nothing to do [with] talent! A football player is a football player… dare to take a chance on greatness! (Sic)”
Now you may be struggling to find the relevance to the present situation. After all, Wilson has a fine frame and good size for where he is deployed. Allow us to clarify. Just like size shouldn’t necessarily prevent college’s from daring to take a chance on greatness, neither should the player’s high school offensive scheme.
See, we brought it back around for you. Now, were we on a college staff would we recruit Collin Wilson to play for us, even if we didn’t run Veer? In a New York minute…
After all, a football player is a football player. We aren’t the least bit afraid of greatness. Heck, we search for it!
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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