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Small, Fast Defense Key For Green Forest
Last updated Friday, August 15, 2008 8:17 PM CDT in Prep Sports
By Brandon Harris
Special To The Morning News
GREEN FOREST - Though Green Forest will have one of the more inexperienced offenses its had in years this season, the defense, for the most part, remains intact.
The Tigers return a core of six defensive starters from their 8-4 playoff team in 2007. They'll be smaller - much, much smaller - and must face an entirely new slate of conference opponents, but there are still high expectations.
And it all comes down to speed.
"We have more speed than we had last year," said senior defensive end Salvador Hernandez. "We have a lot of guys who got a lot of playing time, so they know what they're doing. I feel pretty confident about our defense."
Buster Burns (255 pounds), Kyle Poor (225 pounds) and Cody Howard (225 pounds) have graduated. And in just one year, the average size of the Tigers' season-opening defensive line has plummeted from 211 pounds to 192.
Hernandez will be joined on the defensive line this season by Craig Couey, who started some of last season, Justin Snyder, Gary Smith and Chris Blandon. Linebacker Cody Kilgore and Joel Warren and cornerbacks Austin McCullough and Robbie Ness are the other returning defensive starters.
Though not as big, this defense is faster, and judging from experience, Couey said he thinks that's just fine.
"I don't think it should hurt us too much as long as we fly to the ball," Couey said. "We played Charleston in the state playoffs, and they weren't very big, but they all just flew to the ball. We couldn't do anything because they were so fast."
The Tigers lost the game 33-7.
"We like our quickness up front," defensive coordinator Jay Martin said. "Some of our defensive lineman are as fast as our defensive backs. You look at some of the good defenses last year, like Charleston, and they weren't very big, they were just quick. The (lack of) size doesn't bother us."
The Tigers' lack of size will, however, force some changes, especially once conference play hits. Green Forest's conference opponents no longer include pass-happy Shiloh Christian and other Spread teams like West Fork, against whom Green Forest sometimes branched out into a 3-3-5 stack to defend the pass. Now, they're faced with the very run-oriented 3A-4.
Perryville, Atkins, Paris, Yellville-Summitt and Marshall stick to their guns with the ground game, which could keep Green Forest, even with its smaller players, more anchored in its 5-2 base.
"I think we can still do well," Hernandez said. "When you're stopping the run, you can just hold on to someone and a whole lot of people come to help. Size won't matter too much. We just need to have quickness."
Team Profile
GREEN FOREST TIGERS
Coach: Bill Gotto
Last Year: 8-4 overall, 4-3 3A-1
Players To Watch: Austin McCullough, QB/DB; Salvador Hernandez OL/DE; Craig Couey, TE/DE; Robbie Ness, RB/CB
Newcomer To Watch: Miguel Pedraza, DL
2008 GREEN FOREST SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Time
Sept. 5 at Reed Springs (Mo.) 7 p.m
Sept. 12 Lincoln 7 p.m.
Sept. 19 Berryville 7 p.m.
Sept. 26 at Perryville* 7 p.m.
Oct. 3 Paris* 7 p.m.
Oct. 10 at Atkins* 7 p.m.
Oct. 17 Lamar* 7 p.m.
Oct. 24 at Mountain View* 7 p.m.
Oct. 31 Marshall* 7 p.m.
Nov. 7 at Yellville-Summitt* 7 p.m.
* - 3A-4 Conference Game
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