“We got a lot of work to do.”
A sentiment that Grayson County head coach Bryan Jones found himself reverting to following a disappointing start to the preseason football schedule on Tuesday evening.
The Cougars would go 1-4 on the day with the lone win coming in their final contest against Russellville.
“A good thing is it’s July 16th,” Jones said. “But in the next three weeks, three and a half weeks, before we scrimmage, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Grayson County enters the season coming off one of its best in the 50-year history of the program. The team finished with over 10 wins for only the second time before losing in the second round of the playoffs. It was a year that the community will discuss for generations to come.
The success didn’t carry over to Tuesday as they struggled early on. Logan County would win 3-2, Glasgow 3-1, South Warren 2-1, and Allen County-Scottsville 3-0 before the last game went in the favor of the Orange and Blue.
Chaffins pulls in his third touchdown of the game to put the Cougars up 18-0. pic.twitter.com/uyKOfli3h5
— Cougar Sports on K105 (@K105sports) July 17, 2024
“I think it could, after coming off of a 10 and 2 season, these kids haven’t experienced success like that, in my opinion,” Jones said on whether a struggling start could be a good thing. “There could have been a little bit of inflated like, ‘hey, we’re coming off 10-2 district champs. This is just going to happen all the time.’ And so I think this is a good opportunity for us to reflect and say, hey, we still gotta work, it’s still a new team.”
It is no secret that the team will have holes to fill from the impressive run a year ago. Most of the team’s eight graduated seniors were impact players on both sides of the ball for multiple years.
An aspect that Jones specifically mentioned that needs to be improved upon is leadership from those stepping into the roles voided from last year’s squad.
“I think that’s an area that we need some people,” he said. “I think, again, we lost some really good leaders. Sawyer Drake was not afraid to call somebody out in practice. One of the bigger, stronger guys. There weren’t a whole lot of people that were going to disagree with what he said. Same thing, Matthew Phillips from time to time would get on to people. Jeren VanMeter, nobody is going to say anything back to him. And right now, we’re searching for somebody to fill those spots too, that’s going to hold their teammates accountable.”
While the group from last season was historic, it didn’t come without its issues, especially early on. The year started with a close win in the Tobacco Bowl before a disappointing loss to Marshall County on Homecoming; a team that would win only one other game on the field the entire season.
That moment of disappointment flipped the switch for that team in a way that Jones hopes it could for this group early on.
“I don’t know that if we win that game, we rattle off nine wins straight,” he added. “I would say that we probably don’t, because I think we roll into McLean County feeling good about ourselves. We lost the Marshall game, and we didn’t like it, and we made a change. And we became much more physical out of that, we worked really hard. We made a decision that we were going to be able to run the ball, and we’ll run at people, and upfront, we were going to control the line of scrimmage.”
From there, the mantra “Be The Hammer” was born, and the rest, well, is history.
Some of the struggles on the field Tuesday came from the quarterback position as the trio combined to complete only 46.8% of their passes.
Kolby Chaffins, the returning starter, struggled early before having a strong finish against Russellville. Those early struggles forced Jones to become more aggressive with the substitutions.
“I would like to see Kolby take the first drive or two of every game, and let’s go right down and score. And then we get the other guys some work because he’s in tip-top shape,” the Cougar head coach said. “I don’t think that’s where we’re at. So there were a few times that I pulled him because sometimes he struggles to let the last play go. And then it compounds, and builds, and snowballs.”
Both of the backups, Jake Bratcher and Trigg Payne, showed signs of strong play. Bratcher threw three touchdowns while the freshman Payne passed for one on his first drive of his career.
Grayson County ties the game at 6 on a touchdown pass from Jake Bratcher to Lane Beasley. pic.twitter.com/sQJjSRCx9F
— Cougar Sports on K105 (@K105sports) July 16, 2024
“I think Trigg’s got a chance to be a special talent,” Jones said on the quarterbacks. “He’s a big kid already for a freshman and throws a nice ball. He’s got a lot to learn as far as reading defenses and different things like that. And Jake, I think, is just a really, really good athlete. I think he runs well, throws the ball hard, throws it well. And he’s still got a lot to learn as far as reading defenses.”
It wasn’t all bad for the Cougars.
Senior Greyson Chaffins pulled in 16 catches for 225 yards and four touchdowns while also intercepting a pass on defense. Matthew McCallister came away with two picks on the defensive side of the ball.
Another standout was sophomore Jett Hawkins who was the first name mentioned by Jones postgame. He had eight catches for 86 yards and a pair of touchdown grabs.
“I thought Jett Hawkins looked good, I will say that. But I think he’s worked extremely hard in practice. But on both sides of the ball, I think he did really well today. So that was nice to see. He’s an insane athlete and something that we’re going to have to keep in mind as we approach the season, because he’s somebody that I think showed today that he’s going to have to touch the ball a couple of times a game just because he’s so dynamic and agile and, again, the speed.”
Cougars tie Glasgow 6-6 on a 15 yard touchdown pass from Kolby Chaffins to Jett Hawkins. pic.twitter.com/cSJUfDgCHu
— Cougar Sports on K105 (@K105sports) July 16, 2024
The performance, as a whole, was not up to Grayson County standards but like Jones mentioned, the season is still well over a month away with plenty of opportunities to get to the point they need to be. The question now? How does the team take this time?
“That’s kind of what I told them afterward, is how do we respond from this? Do we keep up and keep showing up and doing the same thing? Or do we get to work and say, my gosh, I gotta get my butt in gear, because the season is upon us, and we’re not where we need to be.”
The Cougars will play a pair of scrimmages before opening the regular season on August 23 at home against Edmonson County.
On August 9, they will play in a “jamboree” style scrimmage at John Hardin. This will feature multiple teams in action with a rotation between different matchups to give the most different looks.
Then, on August 16, they will play host to Spencer County in their final test before the regular season starts.
By Sam Gormley, Play-By-Play Announcer/Local Sports
Reach Sam at sam@k105.com
(Featured Image: Senior Kolby Chaffins attempts a pass during the game against South Warren)
