To help prepare for the upcoming season, the Rockdale coaching staff decided it was better to do something a little more innovative for their second and final scrimmage as opposed to the conventional 11-on-11 a spectator might come and see in any given scrimmage.
Instead of running plays for two hours, the Blue-and-Gold spent the first part of the evening doing drills and practicing with Mexia in what was more like a professional draft workout, with line drills and route workouts between receivers and quarterbacks with coverage. They even had the kickers practice field goals while both teams stood right next to them yelling in order to help replicate a game atmosphere.
“We really worked hard on the format of this thing,” said RHS head football coach Jacob Campsey. “It wasn’t a typical scrimmage.”
“We just wanted to get some smaller team situations and just get the guys a good practice more like an NFL camp. I thought it was great work and better than lining up and running plays,” he said.
The second-year Tiger coach said the idea came from defensive coordinator Ryan Montalvo, who had seen it done at other schools.
“It all stemmed from the fact that we’re pretty thin up front on each side of the ball and we don’t want to get these guys injured,” he said. “We thought ‘let’s do a practice,’ because there’s less bodies running around and people won’t get thrown into people. It was pretty much a typical Rockdale Tiger practice.”
Campsey also said that he liked that the event was more ideal for one-on-one coaching and thinks the film they got from the scrimmage will be “tremendous.”
Later on, the scrimmage also had two live quarters, which Rockdale outscored the Blackcats 3-2.
Campsey said the Tigers have cleaned up a lot of things that needed work from the week before, including their perimeter blocking and catch and throw situations.
He was also impressed with his young team on defense.
“Defensively, we’re getting some turnovers and still giving up big plays,” Campsey said. “There’s a ton to clean up everywhere, but the effort was great. We’re flying around and the young guys are making plays. We probably look a little more mature than we are.” However, he also said that his team
However, he also said that his team didn’t show off anything new to Mexia. “The thing is that we’re staying
“The thing is that we’re staying ultra-vanilla offensively and we’re just not getting into anything we’re doing,” he said. “we want to show that to La Grange next week.”
PRE-SEASON—With the pre-season over, Campsey wants his players to rest up for the upcoming week.
“I told the guys that it’s time to smile a little bit,” he said. “We put them through a grinder over the last few weeks, we’ve probably had the toughest camp since I’ve been here.”
“They’ve answered the bell,” Campsey said.
LA GRANGE—Rockdale kicks off the 2021 season Friday at Tiger Stadium facing La Grange.
The Leopards are coming off a season where they had two quarterbacks go out with injuries and had only one win in District 12-4A-II with a slate that featured consistent powers like Navasota, Cuero and Giddings. They do have 12 of their 22 starters returning and are led by Bravion Rogers, a 5-feet-11, 185-pound junior wide receiver who has offers from University of Michigan, TCU, Baylor and SMU. Rogers has received a lot of coverage over the summer from scouts and football media.
“His potential is a high as high as anybody we’ve had since J.K. Dobbins,” La Grange coach Matt Kates told the Fayette County Record in last week’s edition.
Dobbins, the player Kates is comparing Rogers to, now plays for the Baltimore Ravens and was a 2019 Heisman Trophy finalist while playing collegiately at The Ohio State University.
Game time is 7:30 p.m.
JUNIOR VARSITY— As of Tuesday afternoon, Tiger Stadium will only host one junior varsity football game on Thursday with a one game at 6:30 p.m.
The game was originally intended to be played in La Grange but moved to Rockdale earlier this month since the other school’s field is not ready to be played on.
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