PLYMOUTH – Officially NLC champs Plymouth’s Rockies have ample excuse to have a slight let down against NorthWood in the season finale at Plymouth.
However Plymouth has had ample excuses for a post big game let down on several occasions this season and the opposite has been the case.
“I think it shows the character of our kids particularly the senior class,” said Plymouth Head Coach John Barron. “They are tremendous leaders. They’ve taken the entire team on their backs and they love to work. I think it all starts in practice. They practice hard and they hold each other accountable.”
The Plymouth defense continued to attack and the offense evolve in week eight at Goshen and the result was a win going away to clinch the conference title for the Rockies. This week another team that has been evolving under it’s new head coach Nate Andrews.
While a new head coach Andrew is hardly new to NorthWood. A standout player for the Panthers he is also the son of legendary Panther coach Jim Andrews.
“Everybody wants to be playing well at week nine headed into the playoffs,” said Barron. “It’s another new head coach another new staff and they get better every week. They put 48 points on the board last week against Warsaw and that scares you. They run well. They aren’t very big but they have good team speed.”
While the option was the Panther mainstay offense of the past, there is a new approach.
“(Offensively) they’ll go empty, they run jet, they’ll spread you out. I haven’t seen a traditional tight end two backs on any film I’ve seen,” said Barron. “They are spread with a lot of formations and a lot of guys on both sides of the formation so our rules in the secondary will be challenged.”
Defensively NorthWood has several looks.
“They will probably have some sort of four man front,” said Barron. “If I were defending us I would probably try to make us throw the ball. I don’t know if the weather is going to predict anything on what we do.”
“We’ve always had the philosophy that we’d like to run the football. It’s not just about Jack. It’s about the receivers running routes and the lineman protecting. The decision making is better with Jack. The ball has velocity and I think that.”
After all, why pass the ball if you don’t have to?
“And that’s kind of what our philosophy is,” said Barron. “And with the weather we’re going to have in the next month – hopefully we’re playing into late November it’s not going to be good weather.
“We have to take care of the ball and we can’t let them throw the ball over our heads. They throw the ball a lot and we can’t jump routes. We need to play like the conference champions and get after them and not let them get excited.”
