Published: August 21, 2008 10:09 am      

Turning the heat up

Position battles, playing time at stake Friday night

DUNCAN — This week’s scrimmage against Pauls Valley and Ada will go a long way toward establishing a pecking order on the depth chart for the Duncan football team.

The scrimmage, which will be in Pauls Valley, will come on the heels of a slow work week for the Demons, who have been affected by poor weather conditions.

“Monday, we had to practice indoors,” Duncan head coach Jim Holloway said. “We were able to get 25 percent of our practice in. On Tuesday, we went outdoors and got in 75 percent. With the way the weather is, we have lost one full day this week. We are just going to have to hook it up and go.”

The scrimmage will serve as an in-depth evaluation tool for position battles as well as building depth, which will be invaluable for the team this year as many of the players are expected to see action on both sides of the ball.

Practice time will also be on the line as the coaching staff will begin to key on those players who are expected to play a major role this season for the Demons.

“It’s huge,” Holloway said. “Every place we have a battle going on, we’re going to evaluate. In the first scrimmage, everybody is going to get about the same amount of playing time but in the second scrimmage, the ones will get more than the twos and the twos will get more than the junior varsity.

“It starts happening that way in practice. Everyone will get the same amount of work in the individual drills, but in the team part of practice, it will be different.”

The Demons will have more in the playbook than they had in Saturday’s scrimmage but how much they do will be in the coordinator’s hands as the coaching staff will still approach the scrimmage like a practice. Both Pauls Valley and Ada will give the Demons something different to look at as preparations for the upcoming season enters the final two weeks.

Pauls Valley will work out of a no-huddle offense and will spread it out with a fast-paced attack, while Ada will work from multiple formations and give Duncan a good look at a solid running game. Defensively, the Panthers will work out of a 4-3 while the Cougars will line up in a 5-0 set.

“It is going to be a good scrimmage because it will give us different looks,” Holloway said. “And next week, Lawton will give us a different look offensively and defensively.”

The freshmen will hit the field at 5 p.m. with the junior varsity to follow at 6 p.m. The varsities will scrimmage at 7 p .m. The expected format will be freshmen running two series of offensive and defensive series with eight plays. The junior varsity will run 10 plays during its two series and the varsity will run 12 plays during its two series.



Directions to the scrimmage: Go east on Oklahoma Highway 7 to I-35, go north on I-35 to Pauls Valley. Take Oklahoma Highway 19 east exit and go to first stoplight (Indian Meridian Road), turn left. Go to U.S. Highway 77 (one mile), turn right, road will start to curve right, veer to the left on the road that leads into the park. Stadium is just east of the park.