Published: August 27, 2008 01:22 am            

Rebuilt engine

Tigers’ offensive overhaul gets first big test in Thursday’s season opener

When the 2007 football season ended, Tigers offensive coordinator Shawn Purcell scratched all 11 starters off his two-deep chart, one-by-one.

No, not because the Tigers went 5-5 and missed the playoffs.

Instead, because all 11 offensive starters completed their high school eligibility. The rebuilding process of the Tigers’ offense started last November, when the coaches and players travelled into the great unknown.

On Thursday night, the Tigers will unveil their new look against West Mesquite at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.

“We’ve been practicing the game plan for three weeks,” Purcell said. “It’s going to be exciting to see how we do.”

If you don’t recognize any of the names on the backs of jerseys, you shouldn’t, unless they’re your next door neighbor.

But at least stop for a moment early in Thursday’s game and think about the nine months head coach Dave Henigan and his offensive staff spent putting this offense together.

“It’s been a tremendous challenge,” Henigan said. “All of the kids have been very coachable. We’ve changed a lot and they’ve bought into the changes.”

The strange twist is that Henigan was an assistant at Highland Park, which is known for rebuilding its team every year. Highland Park, like Corsicana, has to replace all 11 offensive starters. But in Henigan’s three years with the Scots, he never had the adventure.

He’s had it with this team. The greatest challenge has been on the offensive line, where the Tigers had to replace all five starters. Only one of them, senior center Tyler Wigfall, was on varsity last year.

“That’s five guys that never played,” Henigan said. “The linemen have the hardest job. They have so much to take in.”

Tackles Ryan Arnett and Bryant Jackson and guards Justin McCollum and Garrett Morehead will all put on varsity game uniforms for the first time Thursday. Morehead, a sophomore, is the likely replacement for junior Ben Caton, who could miss the game with an injury.

The coaches will find out in a hurry how much the work in spring football and this summer has paid off.

“That’s the question: None of them have played on Friday night, or Thursday in this case,” Purcell said. “They all played on Thursday night on the JV last year.”

The toughest transition has been adapting the inexperienced linemen to the speed of the game, Purcell said. All while making the right blocks and using the right technique.

“We have two main running plays,” Purcell said. “So we’ve just run them over and over again.”

The other challenge was figuring out where to play everyone. Henigan said the coaching staff started evaluating the starters after last season and slotting the starters into their positions in January.

The coaches have also adapted the offense to the players, and the result could be a power running game.

“We had a general idea where guys would go,” Henigan said. “But you never know until you put the pads on.”

Quarterback Cameron Young was the heir apparent. He started 30 games at the sub-varsity level.

Tailback JaVonti Hines would have been on varsity last year as a sophomore if he lived in Corsicana, so he was shoe-in to start. He will get help from starting defensive players Cody Evans and Tremaigne Dickson.

Senior fullback Chris Humphries is an example of a player who won his job during practices. Wide receivers Matt Ward and Calvin Glover were slotted early in the process. So was tight end Hank Kirkpatrick.

The offensive coaches started working on skills a little earlier than usual with so many players to replace. Then they worked on the playbook.

The eventual starters on offense have obviously had a ton of repititions even before two-a-days. They have used these weeks leading up to Thursday’s opener to fine tune their execution.

The Tigers ran more than 75 plays on Tuesday against different looks they’ll see Thursday night.

Now comes the world premieire.

Is the offense ready?

“They’ll have the whole deal thrown at them on Thursday,” Henigan said. “We’ll see what they’ve absorbed.”

        

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