The West Marion Trojans will make the 35-mile trek to Purvis Friday night to begin the 2019 season but really have no idea what’s waiting for them on the other side.
The Tornadoes went 2-8 last season and lost a ton to either graduation, quitting or transfers, including their quarterback (graduation), top receiver (quit for baseball) and running back (transferred to Bowling Green). The three players taking their place (Hunter Robinson, quarterback; Ty Badon, running back; Kade Sherril, wide receiver) combined for just 237 yards and two touchdowns a year ago.
“It’s kind of an unknown situation because they did have such a high turnover,” West Marion head coach Brad Duncan said. “I don’t know who all quit; I know he had a bunch quit in January. He said he went from 50 to 33. I know returning wise they have most of their offensive line back. I know they’re going to try to run the football at us and control the clock. That’s what they do. They’re always going to be a physical group, and I hope our guys are up to the challenge.”
What Purvis lacks in experience, it makes up for in offensive creativity. The Tornadoes are very multiple offensively and can morph from the spread to the Wing-T or I-form play to play.
“We’re going to try to get in a base defense we can cover all of it out of, whether it’s spread, double wing or Power-I,” Duncan said. “Personnel wise we’ll try to match it up. As we go along and get some tendencies with different formations and different down-and-distances, we’ll adjust personnel wise.”
Purvis does return about half of its defensive starters from 2018, and Duncan said he plans to try to establish a running game and see if the Trojans can have success as a power team. He said if they need to they will revert back to their quick screen game and get the ball in the hands of Octavious Harvey, Jartavious Martin and Qavonte Swanigan.
“Our guys are still pretty daggum good at our quick game with our slip and bubble (screens), and we’re going to try to mix and match with all of it,” he said.
Duncan said Monday it’s hard to prepare for any Week 1 game with all of the unknowns but that the Trojans have worked on about everything they could.
“The first game is always tough, like we talked to our kids about today,” he said. “There is so much unknown about ourselves as well as the other team so we try to prepare for everything that we can.”
The Trojans beat Purvis 46-14 in Week 2 last year, breaking a six-game losing streak to the Tornadoes. Kickoff is at 7.
Pictured Above: West Marion junior Jartavious “Tater Rabbit” Martin will be half of the Trojans’ two-headed backfield in 2019. They open at 7 p.m. Friday at Purvis. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
