BEARVILLE — “Our guys are ready to hit somebody else.”
Those are the words of Pierce County head coach Ryan Herring with his squad awaiting the first game of the 2024 season.
It’s been two weeks since the defending Class AA champions have played under Friday night lights, a 35-0 scrimmage win at Glynn County Stadium in Brunswick against Class 5A Glynn Academy.
The top-ranked Bears open the year hosting Class A Private School Coosa Christian School of Gadsden, Ala. It will also be the first game for the Conquerors, who have finished the last two years as state runner-up.
“They have some good looking guys,” Herring said. “They’ve got four players who have offers. I’ve looked at all their film from last year, but it’s hard to gauge how good they really are because we don’t have a common opponent to compare with.”
The game marks the first-ever home game against a team outside of Georgia.
“We had a good week of practice heading into game week,” said Herring. “The guys are tired of beating on each other and are ready to see another jersey color and helmet.”
Herring and his staff used the open date to work on themselves focusing on a rebuilt offensive line decimated by graduation. Senior Colson Gambrell (5-foot-9, 210 lbs.), an All Region 3-AA honorable mention in 2023, is the lone holdover. The five missing parts are All-Region First Team right tackle Bryson Hutcheson, All-Region Second Team right guard Hudson Boatright, All-Region First Team left tackle Elijah Howard, All-Region honorable mention center Cole McGatha and tight end Carson Sloan, the Region 3-AA Player of the Year and Class AA Defensive Player of the Year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“That’s (offensive line) the group we’re focusing on,” Herring said last week. “Those guys are almost all new except for Colson (Gambrell). We’ve made some mistakes (two scrimmages), but that’s expected because of the inexperience we have.
“They still haven’t played in a real game yet, so they’re not going be perfect. This is a work in progress.”
They will work against a defense that is multiple with its fronts.
“It looks like they (Conquerors) want to be an odd-man front,” Herring said. “You get a lot of crazy looks from Class A teams in Alabama and funky defenses. I’ve seen them in a 3-3 stack, a 3-4, a 4-2, five-man walking down the outside backers. They run everything. “We’ve just got to be sound against whatever they line up in by executing and being efficient. We’re not going to be perfect in this game, but we have to be efficient and protect the ball.” Coosa Christian is also multiple on the offensive side scheming from a two-tight end set in the I-formation, to two-back and spread.
“They (coaches) use a lot of different groupings with what they do,” said Herring. “They (Conquerors) are going to mix things up. They also do a lot of play-action.
“We’ve got to be sound in what we do and just react to the crazy stuff. That goes for our special teams as well.”
