Page 7 - TR Football Preview Sept 2017

THREE RIVERS EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE FOOTBALL PREVIEW | SUNDAY, AUGUST 27, 2017
7SS
CABOT PANTHERS
Panthers to return to grinding it out on offense
BY MARK BUFFALO
STAFF WRITER
The 2017 version of the Cabot Panthers football team may be one that is more familiar to fans that it has been the previous three seasons.
Graduated is quarterback Jarrod Barnes, who Cabot coach Mike Malham said was the best athlete he ever coached. Barnes is currently a wide receiver for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
“It just goes back to what we’ve done since we’ve been here,” Malham said. “We’ve never had a lot of D1 big-time prospects. We’ve just had good kids who work hard. You’ve got to get all 11 on the same page. That’s not easy to do.
“It just gets back to what we call team- work, taking care of the football.”
During Malham’s previous 36 seasons as Cabot head coach, the Panthers have run the Dead T offense, trying to take as much time off the clock as possible with long drives. The past three years with Barnes under center, or in the shotgun, those drives were consider- ably shorter.
“With Jarrod, we had a lot of those quick drives,” Malham said. “He could break it off at any time, and our defense was on the field a lot longer.
“We’re back to the old school now. We’re going to hold on to the ball for 10 to 15 plays and keep that other offense on the sideline, and the defense won’t have to play as much as it did last year.”
With Barnes, the Panthers modified their offense some, with him taking a direct snap
CABOT PANTHERS
SEPT. 1 .................................... @PINE BLUFF SEPT. 8 .......................................EL DORADO SEPT. 15 ........................................... LR FAIR SEPT. 22 .............................. @LR CATHOLIC* SEPT. 29 ................FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE* OCT. 6 ......................................... @CONWAY* OCT. 13 ................................. @LR CENTRAL* OCT. 20 ...........................................BRYANT* OCT. 27 ...............@FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE* NOV. 2 ..........................NORTH LITTLE ROCK*
*DENOTES CONFERENCE GAMES
from basically the fullback position, the coach said.
“We didn’t do a lot different with Jarrod,” Malham said. “We did put in a little shotgun stuff, but he was still just basically the full- back with a direct snap. It gave us another blocker and another receiver. He could make something happen quickly. A lot of those 12-, 13- and 14-play drives that we used to have were 1- or 2-play drives when you got him loose.
“It’s just being patient, going back to the old school, taking care of the football and, hopefully, playing solid defense.”
The Panthers opened fall camp with 101 players, including 56 upperclassmen and 45 sophomores.
“That’s just 28 [upperclassmen] on each side of the ball,” Malham said. “There’s not much depth there, but they are getting
CABOT continued on 8SS
MARK BUFFALO/THREE RIVERS EDITION
Cabot senior defensive back Austin Swakhammer watches the ball during a drill.
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