Madison County Red Raiders

Reprinted from the Madison County Journal May 17, 2007 edition

by BEN MUNRO

        Madison County’s season opener is still over three months away and Raider head coach Randell Owens, for one is thankful. That’s because the spring practice session-which wrapped up with this past Friday’s intrasquad Red and Gray game- hasn’t left him feeling any easier than when it started.

        “We’ve go t long way to go,” he said. “Thank goodness we’ve got another session of summer have to lineup and actually play. it gave us a good indicator of where we are. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” The spring session reiterated that inexperience paired with a lack of physical maturity will have the Raiders trying to get ready on the run this fall. Owens said this group has several young players that are “probably a year away,” but, at the same time, that those players will have to mature as they play.

        “We don’t’ have time to wait for them to grow up,” Owens said. Madison County put on the game jerseys for one night the past Friday-the Raiders won’t put them on again until the Aug. 31 opener with Franklin County- with the Red holding off the Gray late, picking up a late interception from Bracken Turner to preserve a 17-14 victory.

        Madison County’s Reds built leads of 10-0and 17-7, but the Gray rallied to make the game interesting, cutting the deficit to three points late and getting th ball back with just over a minute remaining. Highlights from the game included a 70-yard touchdown reception from Jamal Cooper for the Red and 48-yard touchdown from Kendrick Butler for the Gray.

        Both sides also punched in rushing touchdowns with Baird scoring for the Red and Mack getting into the end zone for the Gray. Jack Orr’s 42-yard field goal in the second quarter proved to be the difference for the Red. Of course, the night included some nullified scores, too.

        “It wasn’t easy on either group, they both made mistakes that called things back,” Owens said. Butler took a screen pass 80-yards for an apparent Gray touchdown in the first quarter, but the score was nullified by a penalty. Later, Cooper took off for another 70-yard touchdown reception for the Red in the third quarter, but that score was called back.

        But Owens did see some things to build on. The coach said he was pleased with the play of both team’s fullbacks, Stacy Mack and Cello Latimer, and praised the performance of both team’s free safeties, Turner and Dusten Randall, who each had an interception. “Fullback and free safety were the two position I felt like we got the most done,” Owens said.

        Owens also noted the physical play of both teams. Specifically, he pointed out to the second efforts of receivers who caught the ball a yard shy of the first down, but battled for the needed yardage. At the same time, he also pointed to the occasions when the defense stiffened up and drove those receivers back shy of the first down marker.

        “I saw things of the nature-just good, hard hitting,” Owens said. But Owens said on the biggest pluses of the spring game is that problem areas are now documented on film and ready for the team to study. He hopes what the players see will create a sense of urgency. But for what the team lacks in experience, Owens said that this team has the right mind set. “I feel good in that I feel like we’ve got a good group of kids,” he said. “I think they work hard.”

        And they’ll be counting on a lot of kids to step up soon, Owens said. “We’ve got a lot of sophomores who are going to have to step and fill in,” he said, “ . . . The future is now. That’s kind of a concern. We’re going to have to depend on some young kids.”

Red and Gray Game: How They Scored

•        Jamal Cooper snagged a screen pass from Spencer Baird and took it 70-yards for a Red score. RED 7, GRAY 0
•        Orr added a 42-yard field goal for the Red in the second quarter.                                 RED 10, GRAY 0
•        The Gray got on the scoreboard in the third quarter when Jacob Owens lofted a 48-yard strike to Kendrick Butler, who shook a pair of tacklers an he crossed the goal line. RED 10, GRAY 7
•        Spencer Baird put the Red up by 10 in the fourth quarter with a two-yard keeper, a score that was set up by a 35-yard jaunt from Cello Latimer down to the Gray two. RED 17, GRAY 7
•        The Gray kept things close with Stacy Mack scoring a touchdown with 5:38 left and the defense mounting a stop with 1:13. RED 17, GRAY 10
•        How the game ended: The Gray netted just one first down on its final drive before Bracken Turner, who missed most of the spring, sealed the victory for the Red with and INT with 42 seconds.

Reprinted from the Madison County Journal May 3, 2007 edition

by BEN MUNRO

Legions of former Madison County head football coaches would have loved to use the words spoken by current coach Randell Owens Monday as spring practice began.
“As far as numbers go, we’re there,” Owens said. “We’re not looking to improve the numbers anymore.”
On the heels of two-straight trips to the state playoffs, the Raiders have thoroughly shored up participation level four years into Owens’ tenure. In fact, Madison County has approximately 95 players in grades 10-12 suiting up for spring practice.
Raider coaches are to the level where they’re just now searching for talent.
“At this point, we’re looking for quality,” Owens said.
Owens had to say say “no-thanks” to late-arrivers wanting to sign up on Monday morning.
Considering the spring roster doesn’t include nearly 50 rising ninth graders that attended last week’s separate spring session for rising freshmen, Madison County could have up to 150 bodies filling uniforms for the 2008 season.
“Realistically, I would expect about a 20 percent attrition from that by next fall,” Owens said. “About the 120, 130 range.”
That level of participation would have been incomprehensible 10 years ago when a sputtering program managed to suit up only 30 players on its varsity roster.
Participation numbers stabilized in the beginning of the decade, but have soared since Owens arrived in 2004.
So why are the Raiders inundating sporting goods suppliers with larger jersey orders each year?
For starters, Madison County is enjoying more success in the past three seasons than every before in the program’s 50-year existence—three straight winning seasons in region football and two trips to the state playoffs—certainly hasn’t hurt interest.
But secondly, Owens’ staff adheres to the philosophy to never run a player off; you never know the kind of player he might grow into.
Owens cites a few examples.
The coach said he never dreamed when looking at L.J. Martin, Chris Jenkins or Anthony Taylor as 10th graders that they’d end up starting as seniors on defense for last year’s 8-3 squad.
Nick Ginn didn’t play football until his 10th grade year, but wound up starting last year at defensive end.
“It’s amazing the difference a year makes of weightlifting and Mother Nature and testosterone doing its normal development and it’s been that way as long as I’ve been in it.” Owens said.
The participation boom stems largely in the younger levels. A successful sub-varsity program, which includes a thriving ninth grade program, allows players a longer time to develop without going through the rigors of practicing against the varsity as freshmen.
Owens notes that there’s a huge sophomore class coming through right now who played as freshmen last year.
“Now, you’ve got a lot of guys who are transitioning from the ninth grade locker room,” he said. “Just teaching them how to work their locker combination is a challenge now.”


Spring Football: The Run Down
Three Goals for Spring
No. 1 Evaluation
Raider Head Coach Randell Owens want to evaluate the team’s talent and where stands athletically.
No. 2 Cover the Basics
Coaches want improvement of fundamentals across the board.
No. 3 Simple X’s and O’s
Offensive and defensive coaches will implement the basic schemes.
How the Raiders do Spring
“We do things a little bit differently than a lot of folks,” Owens explains. Practices don’t involve much contact since Owens feels the players aren’t in condition yet. Practices only run two hours whereas they normally last three hours in the fall.   “You don’t want to go out three and urn them off or beat them up,” Owens said.
Madison County also looks at everybody on just one side of the football. “We look at Spring as a beginning point, a foundation,” Owens said.
On Winning a Starting Job:
Players can move up to the top of the depth chart in the spring, but there’s miles of practice to go before the season opener. “Yeah, it’s a starting point, but it won’t be over,” Owens said of player evaluation.
There are a lot of starting job to be had this year. The Raiders are seeking replacements at quarterback, free safety, rover, middle linebacker, full-back, center, left tackle, two spots wide receiver, three of four secondary spots and two on the defensive line. “We’ve got a lot of gaps to fill,” Owens said.
What Else?
“Truthfully this is a time for them to show off how much they’ve progressed in the weight room,” Owens said.
The Spring Game: Friday, May 11 at 5:30 pm

The game will resemble a regulation game “as much as we can make it,” according to Owens. Fans might see modifications made in special teams and the length of the scrimmage.