Blairsville, Ga. – With western North Carolina known for ground-and-pound, smash-mouth football, it can be hard to know what to take away from seven-on-seven games.
There’s no pads, no contact, no blitzing and no running the ball – basically the exact opposite of how Andrews High School plays. The Wildcats run the veer offense and complement it with a hard-hitting defense that doesn’t give an inch.
For head coach James Phillips, it’s about working on certain things schematically and trying to get younger kids more experience.
“Even if it’s just seven-on-seven and there’s no contact, there’s no shoulder pads, there’s nobody rushing the quarterback – it’s those reps,” Phillips said. “Just getting reps, reps, reps, reps, reps. The research shows you gotta get 10,000 reps to be a master at something. High school kids aren’t going to get 10,000, but every little rep gets you closer to that.”
Andrews has had two 7-on-7s at Union County in the last two weeks. In the first one, they scrimmaged both Murphy and Union County, while they scrimmaged solely the Panthers on June 16. Thursday’s scrimmage was 30 minutes, with each team starting at the opponent’s 40-yard line.
They needed to get to the 25 yard line and then the 10 yard line to pick up first downs. A touchdown counted for its normal six-points, but instead of extra points, teams could try to score from the 5-yard line to get one point and the 10-yard line to get two points.
Though the Panthers came away with a 20-18 win, there were still some positives from the scrimmage. With quarterback Donovan Bateman not attending, sophomore Everett Tatham stepped in and made some good throws, including three touchdowns to Isaac Weaver. The Wildcats also did a good job keeping plays in front of them on defense.
Union County was able to have more success in later series, as their depth and the 90-plus degree heat started to wear down the Wildcats.
“The heat got on us,” Phillips said. “We had 14 kids and they got 44, but it’s like I told them – it is what it is. We got what we got, and we’re going to have to be able to push through and tough through this stuff because it don’t look like it’s going anywhere.”
Andrews is used to playing with a small roster, though Phillips said they’ve had 25-30 kids at workouts this summer, which is the most he has seen in his seven years as the Wildcats’ head coach. They project to have a senior heavy roster in the fall, and there’s already a motto for this year’s team. Leave nothing on the table. Andrews’ four losses last year were all by 10 points or less.