Sequoyah ended its spring schedule with a scrimmage against McMinn Central Wednesday in Madisonville.
The night showed some of the biggest differences about Sequoyah this season.
Most notably, the amount of depth the program has. The Chiefs ran nearly 60 players Wednesday, all getting at least five snaps. Eleven different linemen played along with five running backs, three quarterbacks and 13 receivers.
Defensively, at least 30 players saw the field.
“We have developed a lot of depth. We graduated quite a few guys, but we have gotten a lot of kids to come out,” Sequoyah coach Derrick Vestal said.
After running three free plays, the two teams would run drives until deciding to swap — making sure that each team had chances to look at what they wanted to see.
“We installed four plays for the run game and four concepts for the pass game and that is all we were going to run,” Vestal said. “We wanted to make sure our guys would play the style of football and be able to do things the way we want to do them.
“Keeping it basic during the spring and giving them a taste of it was good for our guys.”
Theo Spurling stood out as a ball carrier for the Chiefs while Maddox Jones and Clint Staples showed their value. Elijah Faraji and Carter Willamson also played hard on Wednesday.
“Theo is a workhorse. He is hard to tackle and is a big, strong kid. Clint brings a different dynamic with his versatility and his ability to make people miss,” Vestal added. “Then you got Maddox, who is dynamic with the ball in his hands. You know what you are getting when you get Carter and Elijah. Elijah is going to be able to hit and gash people and Carter is a great downhill runner.”
In the receiving corps, Evan Hunt played well with the ball in his hands while Sequoyah also found targets in Billy Barr, Keith Gentry, Mechi Rice and Mason Sheppard.
Aaron Hunt was the main arm spreading the ball around. Sequoyah also gave looks to Faraji and Rice.
“Aaron does a good job protecting the ball for us. He distributed it well and read the defense well. He had a good day,” Vestal said.
Amongst the several offensive linemen given looks, Caiden Atkins, Brody Hunt, Trey Lewis, Ben Ridge, Landon Slack, Connor Smith and Tanner Parcher showed well.
“Our offensive line as a whole had a great day,” Vestal said. “It is a good group up there.”
Defensively, Sequoyah sought to keep things simple, running out of a Cover Three the whole night.
“We wanted to make sure our guys understood their rules no matter what formation we saw. Play by the rules of our defense. It does not matter if we put you in a bad spot or not, we are going to play that rule to make sure we have it in our heads to do it,” Vestal said. “Defensively, we are going to try to make you bounce everything and let our linebackers make tackles.”
Faraji played well at safety while 260-pound lineman Levi Jones also stood out. New face, Luke Brackett, also played solid at linebacker.
“I think they did a good job staying within the rules of what we are doing. During the summer, we will add so many wrinkles and things to what we are doing, but I think they did a good job,” Vestal said. “We put them in some pickles and a couple of bad spots because we were not going to change what we are going to do out there.”
The Chiefs recovered one fumble with rising junior Dillon Wilson falling on the ball.
“He is one of those guys that needed to develop and he did a good job developing in the offseason,” Vestal said.
Sequoyah has made changes amongst the staff with Jalen Sharp and Bo Watson joining the staff.
“This is going to be the toughest summer that our regime has brought to it. We have added some guys and subtracted some times,” Vestal said. “This is the staff I want. We are going to coach them up all summer. The weight program, as Shemar Collier always makes it, is going to be the best around.”
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