Reporter Staff Writer
Although much of Rockdale’s first scrimmage of the season with Class 4A-II Jarrell was more similar to a NFL draft combine than your traditional football, with position drills for players during much of the evening instead of 11-on-11 for four straight quarters, the two schools went headto- head for the last part of the night.
Rockda le ult imately scored twice in front of their home crowd and the Cougars also put up two touchdowns, to end in a tie.
However, Tiger coaches were not too bothered about the final results of their scrimmage. Rockdale head coach Jacob Campsey said he liked the idea of his players scoring more than their opponent. But for him and his staff, the main priority was their players gaining experience and finding the areas where they need to improve.
“I guess you always want to be on the winning side of the scoreboard, but the two-to-two thing, I’m not really concerned with,” Campsey said. “I just thought we made a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball.”
“(But) I also thought we ran the ball well, especially with a young offensive line,” he added.
The third-year Tiger coach also described the difference between scrimmages and games, and how he was also very impressed with his players in their first time seeing another team this season.
“Scrimmages are hard, because there’s no game pla n n i ng involved,” Campsey said. “We didn’t know what they were going to do on offense and we kind of just got out there and played.
“We do have to clean up a lot on both sides of the ball and we didn’t get to do any of our special teams stuff. (However,) when there’s improvement needed, but the effort is there, that gets coaches excited.”
Campsey also mentioned that some of some of his experienced players, such as Blaydn Barcak and Isaiah Sauls, made some plays. The Devine native also complimented how well some of the younger Tigers played.
“We have a lot of youth at the receivers spot,” he said. “But they’re going to get their feet under them and figure everything out. And it’s going to be scary when they do.”
The Tiger wide-out core includes Robert Owens, a district honorable mention last season, sophomore Timothy Grice, who mainly played defense for RHS last fall and De’Andre Nunn, a freshman whose first high school football scrimmage was with the varsity.
RHS is without Wyatt Windham, a district pick who moved with his family to Ballinger in July. But they now have junior defensive end Riley Spears, who has caught the coaching staff’s attention as a tight end as well. Campsey noted that this will be the first time the Tigers have had someone lining up at tight end since Tyler Lemkuhl on the 2017 state champion squad. The Rockgood Rockdale head coach also said it was good for the Blue-and- Gold to face Jarrell, a school with nearly two times the enrollment of Rockdale High School, in their first scrimmage of the season.
“They’re not the best team with the best (recent) history,” he said. “But skillwise, they’re going to be as good as anybody that we face this season. You like to see that early and especially with our schedule.”
According to Te x as Football insider Matt Stepp, Rockdale’s district, 10-3A-I, is the toughest in Class 3A-I. This district includes Class 3A-I state champion Lorena, as well as Class 3A-II state champion Franklin, who moved up two months after taking down Gunter for their first football title in school history.
EARLIER— Before Rockdale ended their scrimmage in a draw with the Williamson County school, Rockdale players got to work on drills with Jarrell players, similar to their scimmage with Mexia last season.
Wide receivers had an opportunity to practice routes against defensive backs, who had a chance to pract ic e c o ve r ing many of the different r oute s t h at they will likely see throughout the fall.
Linemen on both sides of the ball got to go up against opposing competition in drills that involved obastacles and tackling dummies. Even Tiger kicker Daniel Romero was able to practice field goals with noise in the background, replicating a game environment.
Rockdale defensive coordinator Ryan Montalvo came up with the idea after seeing multiple schools do a combine-style scrimmage. The RHS staff was excited about the amount of film they will have on their players and noted that with individual drills, it is easier to help each individual player.
THIS WEEK— This Thursday evening, the Tigers hit the road for the first time this fall, going up north to scrimmage with Class 4A Waco Robinson.
The Rockets are anticipated to be the odd team out in District 11-4A-II, with Texas Football magazine picking the other RHS to place fifth in a district that features Salado, Gatesville, Waco Conally and Madisonville.
Going into the week, Campsey said his team won’t focus on their opponent, b ut l ooking a t f ilm and being better than the week before.
“Practice is going to be a lot of looking at this film,” he said. “We will spend Monday and a lot of Tuesday correcting the technical mistakes that we made.”
Scrimmaging for the varsity begins at 7:15 p.m.
Left photo, Rockdale senior Robert Owens makes a catch during Friday’s scrimmage with Jarrell at Tiger Stadium. The catch was made during a wide receiver drill where Owens showed his promise, making several catches. Top right, Tiger Landon Pounders tackles a Cougar linemen during a drill on the other half of the field. Rockdale coach Jacob Campsey spoke highly of Pounders after the scrimmage. Bottom right, Tristan Galvan takes a break during Friday night’s action.
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