Commerce football chews up Madison County, RB Jaiden Daniels takes on new role for offense

DANIELSVILLE — Two things to note on this cool, rainy Friday night as the Tigers cruised past the Red Raiders 28-12.

First, Commerce is running its offense in a vastly different way than it did last year; and I mean literally running it. Not a single pass was thrown in 48 minutes.

"That's just who we are at Commerce," coach Mark Hollars said. "We know who we are and we're just trying to get better at it every day. JD would be the first to tell you, Jacari [Huff] would be the first to tell you, Tysean [Wiggins] would be the first to tell you, it starts up front. Our o-line works their tails off and I'm proud of that group."

Second, senior running back, or should I say quarterback, Jaiden Daniels is apparently a jack of all trades.

"Coach Hollars tells us all the time, we're going to fit our talent," Daniels said. "So that's what we do. We run the ball, we're a smashmouth football team, and we're going to get it done every single down. We're going to make everybody fight for it."

Daniels took the field for the second week in a row as the starting quarterback for the Tigers, filling the slot left behind by a graduated JP Allen at the helm of the offense in what he wrote in a text was "the best (move) for the team."

Daniels became the starting quarterback after his summer injury — a high ankle sprain — finally healed.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Daniels said. "I mean, I got to punch one in, my first of the season, big help from my o-line and guys and everybody putting their trust back into me to get out here and do this. I'm really happy."

Hollars said he decided to put one of his top three running backs at quarterback because he wanted to put his best 11 on the field all at once. It's as simple as that.

"In the spring and summer, it was the plan to put Jaiden at quarterback," Hollars said. "Obviously, he had the injury, and when that happened, it sidelined the plan for a little while, but it's always best to, especially when you run the ball (like we do), it's always best to make them defend 11 and having all those athletes in the field makes us a little harder to defend. I'm proud of our kids for hanging in there and not panicking."

Daniels, who committed to play collegiately for East Tennessee State ahead of Week 1 of GHSA action, scored his first touchdown of the season on a 64-yard rush in the third quarter, while Huff scored the other three for a Tiger victory.

Like Hollars said, having the shere amount of athletes they do is a positive. Especially when Wiggins is an absolute brick wall to take down and Huff might honestly be Turbo (like the snail) with those quick feet and evasive measures, and of course, Daniels himself can bust out moves of his own whenever he needs, like he did tonight.

Next week, Madison County (2-1) will host Jackson County (2-1), and Commerce (2-2) will be on its first bye.

After a long, hard week, Commerce and Madison County came together to show their love and support for the victims of the Apalachee tragedy and its community with a moment of silence before the game.

Commerce, Madison County football show support of Apalachee High School

Commerce cheerleaders donned '#CheeStrong' shirts over their uniforms and Madison County cheerleaders painted words of affirmation to the Wildcats on their legs. Commerce High School also painted a sign they laid out front of Apalachee High School.

The Wednesday morning shooting claimed the lives of two 14-year-old students and two math teachers, one of which was the football team's defensive coordinator Richard Aspinwall .

"It puts a lot of perspective on things," Hollars said. "We talked to our kids that day and said, be grateful. Be grateful for every day and for each other. It puts things into perspective, like some of the things we fight over and things that we think are important, man, we found out this week, it's not. ... We're just trying to edify each other, love each other and we're trying to love those folks. We're praying for them every day.

"You're trying to teach kids way more than football and that kind of stuff could happen anywhere, but having it happen so close to home, it shakes you up man. ... I hope we start loving each other a lot better in this country. We've got to quit dividing over silliness."

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Commerce football chews up Madison County, RB Jaiden Daniels takes on new role for offense