Carter Football continues to climb with Helton at the helm

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Carter Hornets are transitioning from the Justin Pressley era to the Todd Helton era. The new Hornets’ head coach is looking to lead Carter past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

“We’ve had in the past two years, we had one one-possession game in the fourth quarter,” said Helton. “It’s all because of self-induced penalties and self-induced inflictions. We gotta learn how to be comfortable being uncomfortable and dealing with adversity. What happens is we have a bad play and then that turns into a bad quarter and it snowballs into a bad game.”

Helton’s players are well aware of the expectations their coach has set for them.

“I feel like you should expect a much more disciplined team coming into this year,” explained Carter senior lineman Hayden Warwick. “A closely knitted team, at that. We’ve all gotten behind Coach Helton. He’s a great leader. Somebody you want to play for. I think overall this team will be different than years past in a good way.”

The Hornets will have plenty of explosive options this year. Jody Scruggs is back for junior season. The do-it-all player finished with 634 yards rushing and 488 yards receiving while totaling 16 touchdowns.

“We’re blessed offensively. Obviously, we bring back Jody Scruggs. He’ll be a junior. He was almost a 1,800 or 1,900 all-purpose back. We bring back our quarterback. He’s young. He’s a sophomore. Brody Sparks almost threw for 1,200 yards. What really is gonna anchor our offense is our offensive line.”

Carter will show off that explosive offense on Friday when the Hornets travel to Sevier County to open the season.

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