The Wallace-Rose Hill football team lost all but two starters on offense and two starters on defense from last year’s East Central 2A Conference championship team due to graduation; however, according to head coach Kevin Motsinger, the expectation of success remains the same for the Bulldogs.
“The expectations will never change at (Wallace-Rose Hill). Whether I’m there or not, the (fans) they expect that we should score every time we run, and when the other team runs a play, we should still score. That’s kind of the mentality of our crowd. We’ve had so much success for so long that people just expect it to happen,” Motsinger said.
In order for the Bulldogs to reach the level of success that the fans will expect from them though, they will need their two returning offensive starters Irving Brown and Jamarae Lamb to step up in a big way to fill the shoes of last year’s leading rusher Corbin Kerr, who in 12 games, ran the ball 257 for 2,257 yards which is an average of 8.8 yards per carry. He also scored a whopping 26 rushing touchdowns.
“On offense, we’ve got Irving Brown who’s coming back. He’s committed to Ohio University. Then we’ve got Jamarae Lamb. He’s going to be a junior. He started last year as a sophomore. So those are the only two starters, but those two dudes are dudes. They are studs … They are put together, and they can flat out play.”
Brown, who last season in 12 games received 182 carries and ran for 1,696 yards (9.3 yards per carry) and 23 rushing touchdowns, is expected to take the role as the primary running back and see an increase in carries. While Lamb, who in 12 games ran the ball 96 times for 839 yards (8.7 yards per carry) and eight touchdowns, will be an important rotation back and is also expected to get an increase in carries.
Brown and Lamb both also contributed to the passing attack with Brown receiving 12 passes for 232 yards and three receiving touchdowns (which combined with rushing touchdowns made him the co-leader on the team along with Kerr for total touchdowns at 26), and Lamb added five catches for 85 yards.
On offense, the Bulldogs will also be looking to replace quarterback Reid Page who completed 26 of his 51 pass attempts for six touchdowns while also rushing for 53 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries. Kevin Motsinger said he feels confident though in both Matthew Wells and Adrian Glover who are battling it out for the starting job.
“At quarterback, we have Matthew Wells and Adrian Glover. Both of those guys we feel very good with and are just going to see how it unfolds there,” Motsinger said.
Of course, the success of both the passing game and the rushing game is reliant on a strong offensive line— a group that will be entirely new for the Bulldogs this season.
“This year you’ve got Christian Scarlett who will be a junior. You have big Tyvaun Williams who was a backup offensive lineman last year. We had Jerrod Smith who was a tight end, (and) we moved him to guard. Aspen Brown was another guard that’s coming up from J.V., Shane Miller and Travis McIver (are) two guards. Mason Diers is taking the spot at center. To me, center is probably the most important position on the football field because he touches the ball more than anybody. Mason is a senior that played a little bit of guard last year, and that’s going to be critical,” Motsinger said.
On defense the Bulldogs will also need their two returners in Linebacker Jamari Shaw and defensive back Kam Thomas to pick up where they left off last season. Motsinger said with all of the young talent coming in though, he feels like the Bulldogs will have a chance to be strong on both sides of the ball.
“So, we’ve got a lot of holes to fill, and we lost some very good football players and a lot of talent, but I really feel like these young (Bulldogs) have a chance to be really good.”
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