After eight days of practice, the T.R. Miller Tiger football team ended their 2011 spring training with their annual Red and White game Thursday afternoon at Brewton Municipal Stadium.
The game roster saw 86 players with 42 on the red team and 44 on the white.
T.R. Miller Tiger head coach Jamie Riggs said the game and days of practice saw some good things but also saw some things that he didn’t like.
“I thought the game Thursday was competitive,” Riggs said. “The weather was much better for us the second week, but I think our guys were there and they gave us some effort at practice. Part of what you try to do in spring training is teach the guys how to practice. We made a little progress with that, maybe not as much as I would have liked, but we made some progress.”
Riggs said the other thing you do in spring training is see who is ready to help you out in the fall and play on Friday nights.
“You usually look towards the ones who will be seniors and juniors who were not ready to play last year and see if they will be ready to play this year,” Riggs said. “Also, you want to find some younger guys who look like they will be ready to play even though they are in the ninth or tenth grade. Some of that certainly happened, but not as much as I would have liked. I was certainly disappointed in a few seniors and juniors, who after eight days of practice and the game, don’t look like they are much better than they were in the fall. So, they concerns me a bit and we will have to do something about that.”
Riggs said other things you do in the spring is you work on your fundamentals—blocking, tackling, throwing and catching, and taking care of the ball.
“Based on the game, I was not pleased with that,” Riggs said. “We made some progress but not as much as I would have liked. You also try to work on your offense and defense some and with a little more time and some more understanding of the players of knowing what they can and cannot do and our offensive and defensive strategies.”
Riggs said with all that, right now what he sees is “we have a long way to go.”
“We need to learn to practice and block and tackle,” Riggs said. “But more than all that, we need to develop a lot more consistency. Also, after watching the film, we need to develop a lot more discipline about our style of play. That just takes hard work, coaching, and repetitions to do that. Right now, it is just a little hard to say.”
Riggs said there is still three months until the end of school to do some off-season work and he thinks his team will be able to get stronger and faster in the weight room.
“We will get tougher about some things and grow up heading into the summer and then make some progress in the summer,” Riggs said.”
As for players that will need to be replaced this year for the Tigers, one noticeable name missing is four-year starter at quarterback Wil Riggs and the running back and fullback combination of duo Anthony Herbert and Jaren Jackson.
“We do have to replace Wil, but Kevin Davis had an excellent spring (at quarterback),” Riggs said. “We all know Kevin can throw the ball well and I think he made some progress at some other things. I was also impressed with his leadership skills so that part has been fine. I think that at fullback, Kameron Coleman did some good things and was real physical for us and also a good blocker. That is good and Eric Maye had a really good spring for us at tailback.”
Riggs said there are other guys at that position that he thinks will help them out and are capable, but there has to be a better job of taking care of the ball and being consistent with the blocking.
“Those are the two guys right there that showed they are capable at helping us replace the guys that left on our offense,” Riggs said.
Riggs said he thought Hunter Jernigan had a good spring.
“Hunter plays one of our tackle positions,” Riggs said. “I was pleased with him. Hunter did well and I think he won that spot and did better.”
As for the amount of players this spring, Riggs says he dressed about 75 in the game.
“We had several injured that did not participate in the game,” Riggs said. “Tyler Nelms, Tyler Etheridge did not play. Nelms was hurt the first day with his shoulder and Curtis Glaize and Etheridge just had surgery around Christmas and were not ready to go yet. We have a few of those guys that we know can come out and do some things, but they were not here, but they can help out.”
Riggs said the numbers were average for him.
“Normally, with ninth graders, we have about 75 so this was probably normal for us,” Riggs said. “We will not have that many in the fall so I look for about 70-75 players.”
With spring now over, Riggs said his team will stay with their off-season workout program.
“We will stay in the weight room and run and try to develop some speed,” Riggs said. “We will develop some toughness and grow up towards summer and then we will do things similar to the way we have done in the past for the summer. We will have a month of practice and go from there.”