By Drew Herron - NT Sports Editor / Aug. 30, 2013
ANITA – There is enduring belief in football that the greatest improvement over the course of the season takes place during the period from the first game to the second.
Although last week’s 55-40 loss to Adair-Casey brought its share of bright spots, the Cougars are counting on breaking through with a victory Friday night before its home crowd.
“We had a great week of practice, the guys were ready to get back on the field again,” CAM head coach Joe Wollum says. “We know that we are still a good football team despite coming up a little short against Adair-Casey, and we will keep working on the little things that will help us get better.”
Last week in Adair, CAM fell into an 18-0 hole and fought back from multiple three-touchdown deficits to make it a one-possession game twice. The Cougars were never able to tip the scales in their favor, but will take and apply the lessons learned against a very good AC team.
After watching game film, the Cougars think they’ve got a decent handle on what they are, and what it is they want to fix.
“It came down to four or five plays, we made four or five big mistakes that cost us that game,” coach Wollum says. “Those are all things that are very correctable, and we will learn from them. We feel like we’ve already gotten better, and we are ready to show we’ve made big improvements from Week 1 to Week 2.”
Offensive line play is priority No. 1 on the “Needs Improvement” list for CAM, perhaps something that was to be expected as the Cougars ran out an entirely new group as they rebuild the front line due to heavy losses to graduation from a year ago.
Better communication, cohesion and line calls are all areas CAM looks to work on moving forward.
On the other side of the ball, Wollum says AC wore down the Cougars defensive line, and that’s another area the team will work to improve upon, perhaps by rotating more players into the mix. Better tackling and wrapping up are also priorities.
One big bright spot for CAM was the play of its new quarterback, Trace Ticknor. Ticknor, also a middle linebacker, brings a physical presence to the position, and his bruising running style has the team excited about what the Cougars offense might become.
Last week, Ticknor ran for 97 yards and two TDs, and completed 10 of 23 pass attempts for 234 yards and three passing TDs.
His performance against a top tier team has the CAM coaching staff excited.
“We expect his progression to be off the charts, he’s a kid that is only going to get better,” coach Wollum says. “He’s really only played two whole games at quarterback, and as he becomes more familiar, he’s going to become more effective. We are developing receivers that can go up and get the ball from him, and when he runs, he is more like a fullback than a quarterback. Trace is very coachable, so we feel like the sky is the limit for him.”
Another bright spot was the versatility shown by senior running back Dylan Amdor, who finished with 79 yards on the ground (4.9 YPC), and hauled in six catches for 137 yards through the air.
Wollum says after watching film from last year’s game that AC was not spending much attention or energy to stop Amdor out of the backfield on the pass plays, and that was something they had hoped to exploit. That year old scouting report worked pretty well last week, and getting Amdor the ball through the air is something the Cougars want to make a regular part of their offense.
“Dylan keeps getting better and better catching the ball out of the backfield,” coach Wollum says. “As a sophomore, he wasn’t too great at catching the ball, and last year he got better. This year, he’s much better already, and we are expecting a lot of improvement out of him in that regard.
“It makes us less predictable, and it will make Dylan a more explosive player. When he gets the ball out in space, he’s going to have less traffic to go through. And it’s going to take some pressure off our offensive line as well.”
Coming to Anita this week is River Valley, a playoff team from a year ago.
For the Wolverines, it all starts and ends with their senior quarterback Brennan Riedemann, who threw for nearly 2,000 yards last season, and ran for 1,825 yards and 34 touchdowns on the ground.
Keying in on Riedemann is going to be a top priority for CAM as they hope to contain the quarterback and try to make the Wolverines predictable.
“They like to throw the ball, and they like to run it with their quarterback, so we really need to focus on him,” coach Wollum says. “On the pass plays, we need to spy on him and make sure he doesn’t get out of the pocket and keep contain on him.”
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