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Young Massillon line grows up
[FONT=verdana,Times New Roman,Times,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By CHRIS EASTERLING[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,Times New Roman,Times,arial,helvetica,sans-serif][email protected][/FONT]
Massillon coach Tom Stacy isn’t surprised he has seen improvement out of his young offensive line. Likewise, he also knows that line can still get even better.
But, as first efforts go, Stacy was satisfied with what was shown by the line during last Friday’s 68-6 win over North Park (Ont.). Certainly it provided a base from which the unit can grow from.
For three members of that line – center Blake Seidler, strong guard Chris Obradovich and strong tackle Steve Johnson – last Friday marked the first start of their varsity careers. Quick guard Cory Shane started all of last season, while quick tackle Reggie Comeaux made his first opening-night start.
“I felt going in, as we felt as a coaching staff, that we had an offensive line that was very green,” Stacy said Tuesday at the Touchdown Club meeting. “We had two experienced guys, and Reggie only really played in five varsity games last year. We thought it would be a group that would get better and better each week.”
Stacy wasn’t about to rule it a flawless performance, though.
“We need to do better on our assignments up front,” he said. “We’re still making some assignment mistakes.”
The next step for improvement comes Saturday night, when H.D. Woodson out of Washington, D.C., pays a visit to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. In between now and then is several more days of practice and chances for the unit to gel even more into the formidable front the players believe it can be.
“We’re still pretty young on the line,” Shane said this week. “We’ve been working real hard in practice to get stuff shored up. We just played better (against North Park).”
The onus for the line’s improvement has fallen on the two “veterans” in Shane and Comeaux, even though the latter didn’t crack the starting lineup until the playoffs last season. Stacy said from the start of two-a-days that the pair would be expected to set the tone for the rest of the unit.
Early on in camp, the second-year Tiger coach expressed some reservation about how the unit was coming together, especially in terms of making the right reads on keys and following assignments. But the improvement started to show in Massillon’s initial scrimmage against Perry, and was quite evident in the final preseason tune-up against Fremont Ross.
“We really came together a lot better,” Shane said. “We finally started to get everybody in sync. Me and Reggie, we’ve been trying to take the reins and work with the younger guys. We’re trying to make something good.”
That something good came last Friday, as the Tigers averaged 8.6 yards on 27 rushing attempts, netting 227 yards on the ground for the game. Not only that, but North Park was only able to sack the quarterback once – in fact, it was the only negative yardage play for the Tigers – and that came on the final play of the first half.
“It feels good knowing that we did our job,” Shane said. “(Quarterback) Bobby (Huth) only got sacked once. We can always do better, though. We’re trying to get no sacks. That’s our goal.”
Certainly, attaining that goal figures to get tougher as the season goes on. The Tigers’ schedule – even with Woodson’s upset of West Virginia state champion Morgantown last week – takes a gigantic leap up in difficulty starting in Week Three with a game against Moeller in Cincinnati, followed up with such teams as Arizona big-school power Hamilton, Mentor, St. Ignatius, Warren Harding, and, of course, McKinley.
“I don’t think we’ve been truly tested yet on that side of the ball,” Stacy admitted. “But that test is coming, and hopefully we’ll be improved enough by that time that we can play good football.”
