The Greenwood Bulldogs are wrapping up their spring football activities this month before the AAA's mandatory two-week dead period begins in late June. Their pre-season workouts will resume on July 9th with the start of the FASDOGS conditioning program. Football practice officially begins in early August.
Head Coach Rick Jones, now starting his 15th season at Greenwood, was not pleased with his team's performance in the annual Blue-White game in mid-May, especially the offense. But two weeks later, after the first team camp on May 30th, Jones saw marked improvement offensively, especially at quarterback.
“We lost some really good football players,” said Jones of last year's state championship squad. Several players from that team have already reported to their college teams, including graduated quarterback Connor Noland, who will be suiting up for the Arkansas Razorbacks this fall.
Greenwood had maybe its best team ever in 2017, effortlessly cruising to a perfect 13-0 season topped off by a 52-14 blowout win over Pine Bluff in the Class 6A title game, capturing the eighth gridiron championship in school history. With a potent offense and a stingy defense, the Bulldogs won their games by an average of more than 30 points per contest.
Noland's replacement will be critical to the performance of the 2018 offense, and three players are currently in the mix, junior Jace Presley, senior Peyton Holt, and sophomore Landry Jurecka. Presley is the heir-apparent, largely because he's been groomed as a QB since junior high and took most of the junior varsity snaps last season. He is also the tallest of the three candidates at just over six feet.
Presley took most of the snaps in the spring, but still lacks consistency said Jones prior to the Blue-White game. Jurecka is the youngest of the three and has the least experience with Greenwood's offensive scheme, but does have good size and a strong arm. Like Noland, he also pitched for the baseball team.
The real decision for Jones involves the team's best athlete and playmaker, receiver Peyton Holt, who led the Bulldogs in catches last fall. Both Jurecka and Holt missed most of spring practice because of their commitment to the baseball team's successful quest for a state championship. Holt is the team's shortstop and leading hitter.
Holt took snaps at quarterback in Greenwood’s final two practices after the spring game, has a good understanding of the offense, and could get the nod as the starter in the fall. He also played QB in junior high at Russellville before transferring to Greenwood before his freshman year.
“We’re a long way from figuring that out,” Jones said of his choices at QB. “We’re going to go through the summer for sure and probably through the [pre-season] scrimmage to see where we’re at.”
Holt was Greenwood's and the state’s leading receiver in 2017 with 101 catches for 1,355 yards and 17 touchdowns. Putting him behind center would create a big hole at another key position and leave the Bulldogs with only one experienced receiver coming back in senior Josh Barlow, who had 29 receptions last fall.
“Without Peyton out there, we have Barlow, but the other guys are undetermined,” Jones said. “We have a long ways to go. We have questions on both sides.” But the coach does believe his roster has some quality receivers with talent who simply lack experience.
“It’s [about] getting the best 11 – not the best athletes – but the 11 best guys that give us a chance to be successful on offense,” said Jones, whose teams are well-known for their wide-open, yet balanced offensive style. The Bulldogs averaged over 40 points per game last season.
Last Wednesday, May 30th, Greenwood hosted a major team camp with some of the region's best teams in attendance, including Springdale, Pulaski Academy, Fort Smith Northside, Fayetteville, and Broken Arrow, the largest school in the state of Oklahoma.
This Wednesday the team traveled to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia for another camp. They will also later engage Fort Smith Northside in a pair of seven-on-seven practices as well.
“We’ll see how it plays out,” said Jones said. “We’re going against some good people. We’ll have a little better idea of what we’ve got.”
The coach was pleased, however, with his team's noticeable improvement during their first team camp following the Blue-White game.
“The spring game – it seems like a year ago that happened,” said the coach in an interview on May 31st. “Primarily we used Jace [Presley] in the game [at quarterback] and we tried to have the competition level as even as we could make it. But offensively it was pretty ugly. We didn't execute very well at all.
“Unless our defense is a reincarnation of the ’85 [Chicago] Bears, offensively we have a long way to go,” said Jones, “unless our defense is a lot better than we thought it would be. They’ve gotten after us.
“But by the time we get to the 10th day of spring [practice], they know what [the offense] is going to do about as well as we do. But I like making it hard on ourselves [offensively].
“I was disappointed with the offensive line. I thought with three starters back we would do better. But defensively we got after it and they did a good job.
“But I don't put a whole lot of stock in spring games,” continued the coach. “What we're trying to do is get kids reps so they can get experience and see how they handle the incremental steps it takes to get ready for a football season, because the intensity builds as it goes, and we evaluate them.
“Then you sort of step back after the spring game and make some adjustments, sometimes personnel-wise and sometimes scheme-wise, and sometimes both,” Jones explained.
The Bulldogs had a chance to face multiple offensive schemes in their first team camp last week. “I love it,” said Jones. “It's great competition and a good evaluation tool to see how your kids play against some of the best teams in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
“But it was really not good weather,” he said, a reference to the heat and humidity. “We don't use the “H” word,” the coach joked. “It was Bulldog weather. But we got 225 to 227 reps on film, and that's what you need.
“Someone said they actually saw me smiling on Wednesday, and I was, [because] we made progress. We were so much better offensively than in the spring game. I rolled three quarterbacks out there with the first [team offense], and all three of them did good stuff. I was pleased with all three of them. All three of them showed promise. It was positive.
“I thought, 'They did okay.' They did their stuff pretty well, especially considering we were playing some pretty good teams,” said the coach. “The offensive line blocked a lot better, and the receivers did some nice things. We dropped some balls, but we had some receivers that I thought stepped up and played well.”
As for the running backs vying to replace graduated senior Kenny Wood, who rushed for over 1,700 yards last season, Jones feels pretty good about his options with returning senior Marc Jones and promising sophomores Hunter Wilkinson and Caden Franks.
“We didn't play Wilkinson in the spring game because he had a little knee [issue] and it was a huge difference running the football. But I think between the two sophomores and Marc, we going to be okay there. I think both sophomores are going to help us, and Marc has just got to keep getting better.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs had some trouble adjusting to the speed of the opposition in their first team camp. “We gave up leverage and containment a lot more than we should have. It's a speed adjustment that we didn't do a very good job of,” said Jones.
The 'Dogs will also continue their work in the weight room until the dead period begins the last week of June, before returning for FASDOGS on July 9th. Greenwood will hold its annual pre-season scrimmage at Fayetteville on August 16, a bit sooner than normal to accommodate Fayetteville, which plays its opener a week earlier than Greenwood on August 24th.
The Bulldogs open their season August 31st at Fort Smith Northside, and will return to the River City the following week to play at Southside. Greenwood's home opener will be September 14th against Sand Springs, Oklahoma, the final non-conference game.
The 6A-West league opener will be at home against the Little Rock Hall. The Warriors took the place of Texarkana after the Razorbacks moved down to Class 5A. All other conference opponents will be the same as last season, with Benton and El Dorado looking like title contenders.