The Warren County High School Pioneer football team travelled to Tullahoma on Friday night for a game-type scrimmage against the Wildcats. 

The varsity teams scrimmaged for the first half, and the JV/freshman teams scrimmaged for the second half. Tullahoma dominated both halves with the Wildcats winning the first half 24-0 and winning the second half 18-0.

Both head coaches said the scrimmage was an opportunity to evaluate their individual players and team performance. Tullahoma’s head coach told his team after the scrimmage he was pleased with the progress they made from last week’s scrimmage against Giles County. Specifically, coach John Olive praised his players for knowing their assignments better than they did a week ago.

One the other end of the field, Pioneer coach Matt Turner encouraged his team to work harder in and out of practice. The heart of Turner’s message was that the players need to come to practice and learn their assignments. The Pioneers are suffering from varsity inexperience, and consequently, many players do not have the luxury of experiencing what they have briefly learned in practice during games. The challenge for the Pioneer football team is to study their playbooks and study game film.

The bright side for the Pioneers is the effort to compete was there. However, as coach John Olive said after the game, “If you have a player who knows his plays and a player who does not know his plays, who will you start? That is why competition on a team at each position is important. It forces players to learn their plays if they want to start.”

SCRIMMAGE ANALYSIS

The Pioneers were unable to stop Tullahoma on offense in the first half. Tullahoma was able to score four times. The Wildcats drove for a touchdown on their first possession, made a 44-yard field goal on their second possession, and they scored two more touchdowns on their final two possessions. 

The Wildcats used second-string players on their final possession of the first half and still looked impressive. The Pioneers had some positive yardage on offense, but their kicker, Beckham Scott, never entered the game to kick-off or attempt an extra point. Tullahoma kicked off to start the scrimmage. One Pioneer special team player who was active was punter Harley Hernandez. 

The Pioneers had some bright spots on offense. Nate Elrod connected with Eli Cantrell and Braylon Grayson on two passes each. 

Cantrell was surprisingly wide-open on his receptions in the flat for approximately 16-yard gains. Grayson had a big reception for 27 yards over the middle on a play that had 15 yards added for a personal foul against Tullahoma. 

A Tullahoma defensive player had his hands on a Pioneer facemask during a pass rush. The Pioneers made it to Tullahoma’s 25-yard line, but were not able to get closer to the goal line.

The JV had some bright spots. Quarterback Alex van Vuuren gained significant yardage on some designed running plays around the end. Coach Matt Turner praised Jax Patterson for his performance in the JV game. Turner said, “He probably had the most positive yards in the scrimmage tonight because he trusts his coaches, his steps of the plays. He comes to practice every day. He has not played football before and he hit the hole better tonight than any running back we have.”

PLAYER COMMENTS

Junior quarterback Nate Elrod shared some thoughts about the scrimmage. Elrod said, “We have to do better. I have to get better. We have to put more work in outside of practice … study film. You have to study your position and learn how to get better.”

Senior tailback and linebacker Eli Cantrell was direct about his response to the scrimmage. Cantrell said, “We have a lot of things to get done. We have a lot of work to do. Our defense has to work on tackling. Whenever you are in practice, you have to practice just as hard as you play during a game. The tempo was up there tonight against Tullahoma.”

HEAD COACH

COMMENTS

Head coach Matt Turner said, “The guys got after it tonight. We got in our own way tonight. We just didn’t execute well. That is part of having young kids, new kids getting that feel in a game. The bright spot is that we can fix a lot of these things. It was a scrimmage against a very good team. I did see improvement this week from last week.”

FINAL OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS

The Pioneer football team needed a scrimmage in game-type conditions. The upcoming scrimmage in the Sequatchie Jamboree will be more experience under the Friday night lights that will benefit this team. Film against opponents is very helpful for this young team. For example, coach Turner mentioned there were plays on defense the coaching staff will correct once they show the team the Tullahoma film.

The Pioneer coaches are teachers in an educational athletic environment. They are teaching many young teenagers who have not played in varsity games how to execute football plays. There will be a learning curve. 

The players cannot learn if they are not at practice and do their homework outside of practices. It takes a village to make a football team. In the short time left before the first game day on Aug. 20, this young Pioneer team needs to prepare themselves for the season. Parents need to make certain their children are not absent for any practice. 

There are no shortcuts to winning football games for Pioneer football. If Warren County wants to establish a winning football tradition again, everyone connected to this football team needs to chip in and make a contribution from patting a Pioneer football player on the back to purchasing season tickets.