Scotties gearing up with bigger numbers

By JOHN VERSER
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW July 23, 2008 03:38 pm

— Glasgow is gearing up for the 2008 football campaign — and with bigger numbers.
The Scotties opened camp last week and more than 60 players are out for the team as practice moved into its second week.
“We’re real pleased with our numbers,” Glasgow coach Billy Lindsey said. “We’re in the upper 60s. That’s the most we’ve had out since I’ve been here. And we’ve got, I’d say, probably 40-plus freshmen and sophomores.”
Lindsey said that the early challenge has been sorting out where the newcomers fit into the system.
“Right now, there’s so many guys that we’re trying to give everybody looks,” Lindsey said. “We have an idea of guys that are returning, where they’re probably going to be. But we’ve got a lot of young guys that we’re trying to look at and we don’t want to take away reps from them right now. We’re trying to let everybody have an opportunity to learn and see what we’re doing.
“We’re just basically working on trying to get everybody in an offensive position and a defensive position so that we can work on individual drills and techniques in the spots that we think they’re going to play.”
The 2008 season will bring about a few minor changes for Glasgow. Offensive coordinator Jerry Eubank retired after last season, which means a switch from an offensive system the Scotties have run for nearly 15 years. Lindsey said that the most notable change will be the use of less motion in the offense, which will use many of the plays that Eubank ran.
“The only thing different is that, instead of having the double slots that coach Eubank used and used motion to get there, we’re already there,” Lindsey said. “I set them already over there so we don’t have to worry about the motion and getting something moving that way.
“Coach Eubank has done a real good job. It’s a lot of the same stuff that he’s done. As far as any kind of transition, I’ve moved mostly to the offensive side. On the defense over the last few years is where I really had my primary interest, so I’m going to be working a little more on offense than I am on defense.”
The terminology will be a bit different as well.
“I think he used numbers as his formations and I use directions like north and south or east and west,” said Lindsey. “The terminology is a little bit different because I’ve got to do what I know and it’s hard to do what somebody else knows, the way you call stuff.”
Lindsey said that the Scotties were “about the same” defensively from a year ago but must find someone to take up the slack on special teams play. Drew Kuzma, an all-state honorable mention pick a year ago, handled kickoff, kicking and punting duties for Glasgow.
“The biggest thing we’ve got to do is work on our special teams, because Kuzma, the last couple of years, he pretty much had been handling all our kicking for us,” Lindsey said. “Mason Shives was our JV kicker some last year. We’re going to try to mix it up where sometimes we may come out and go for two and sometimes we may kick it, depending on the situation.
“I do think he’ll (Shives) be better the more chances he gets, especially at extra points, and when he gets a little stronger and bigger. But right now, kickoff, that’s wide open. We haven’t even done the kickoff yet.”
The Scotties lost 10 players from last year’s team due to graduation. Glasgow was 8-3 a year ago with a first-round playoff loss to Metcalfe County.
The Scotties open the season Aug. 30 against Allen County-Scottsville in the T.J. Samson Bowl, which will be hosted by Barren County this year.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. But I do think we can be competitive and I do think we’ve got a good bunch of seniors that played quite a bit last year as juniors,” Lindsey said. “We lost some good ones, but everybody does. We’ve got to find some places to fill those spots, but we’ve got guys that are working hard and that’s all I ask.”

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