CougarDave Corner Franklin County Preview by CougarDave Cougars Prepare To Face Eagles The Pulaski County Cougars have had a rough start to the 2005 season, and the competition isn’t going to get any easier as the Cougars travel this week to Rocky Mount to face the Franklin County Eagles. This is a continuation of the…. not one of….. but THE toughest out of district schedule in the River Ridge District, and possibly in the entire AA ranks. Last week is in the books, and nothing can be done to erase what happened in the prison camp like confines of Victory Stadium. While the Cougars did see plenty of problems while facing the Colonels, they also saw some things that give them a little hope for the rest of the season. Some of the younger players who make up this team are starting to play better, and some of the returning starters are getting back from injuries. To start with, junior running back Kevin Crouse will be back to full game speed when the Cougars take the field on Friday night. Crouse will be back to playing on both sides of the ball this week as well. Last week, after begging and pleading his case to the team trainers and doctors, Crouse was allowed to see “LIMITED” action on offense only. He was told he could have 20 plays against the Colonels. This week expect to see Crouse at full speed, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him try to make up for lost time. Standing on the sidelines has been rough for him. Expect to see a change at quarterback this week too. Sophomore quarterback Shay Dunnigan and Senior Austin Twine have been sharing the job this year, mostly to give Twine a breather since he is a two way starter. While Twine has been doing a fine job for Pulaski, the Coaching staff is going to be asking him to take more of a leadership role on the defensive side of the ball and help them get a focus after giving up 64 points in the first two games of the season. Make no mistake, this is no demotion for the senior leader. Let's face the facts here though, our offense hasn’t been a problem over the years. Twine could continue running both sides of the ball full time and the offense, with a healthy crew of running backs returning, would do a fine job. But with Twine providing more of his senior leadership and abilities to the defense, and not being as tired from running full time both ways, the defense can only get better. Also, let's take a look at what this means not only to Pulaski this season, but in the future. How long has it been since we’ve had a sophomore quarterback at Pulaski County? I can remember one in particular, because he’s an assistant with the Cougar Coaching Staff now, and I see him when I look at the picture of the State Championship team on the wall in the field house. Dunnigan has shown he can handle the snaps and smoothly run the offense for Pulaski. It’s been some time since we’ve had the depth at this position to be able to do this, and to not take advantage of it would be crazy. You can still expect to see Twine in at quarterback some, as he does have the speed and the arm to do a fine job at it, and to not put that to some use would also be a waste. For years, fans have screamed for the Cougars to throw the ball more. In case you haven't really been keeping track, this season Pulaski has thrown the ball much more than normal Last week alone, PC quarterbacks threw the ball nine times. That’s 9 times, in case you thought you read it wrong. There have been times when we didn’t throw that much in a season!! One thing Pulaski is going to have to improve on though is the ability to CATCH the ball. Several times this season, (most of them in fact) one of the Cougar quarterbacks have passed the ball well, hitting the receivers right in the hands or chest, only to have the ball fall incomplete. In a couple of other instances, the receiver has gone long, but either dropped the ball or didn’t finish out the route to make the completion. Experience and concentration are the only things that are going to fix those problems, and with as many young players as we have on this years squad, things can only get better. So now we look at taking that long drive to Rocky Mount, where our Cougars will face longtime friend and foe Franklin County. The Cougars share a special bond with the Eagles, for several reasons. Our very own Head Coach, Jack Turner, got his start in coaching as an assistant for the Eagles before coming home to the Cougars. It was the Franklin County team and community that honored the memory of lineman Lee Cook in the 1998 TD Classic. I’ve done this before, and I think it needs to be posted again. On August 23, 1998, Jeff Wolfe posted this paragraph in his post TD Classic report:
The Cougars have faced the Eagles 29 times on the football field. Pulaski County leads the series 25 games to 4, winning the last 15 meetings in a row, and 23 of the last 24. The Eagles are currently 1-1 in this young season, starting off with a loss to E.C. Glass and then a win over Jefferson Forest. The Eagles have been going through a “program building” stage the past few years under the leadership of Head Coach Billy Miles. The Eagles have been finding success of late, making the playoffs in both 2002 and 2003 before being left at home last year with a 5-5 record. Expect to see them back in the hunt quickly. This summer, the Franklin County community made a large investment in the future of its team. Anyone who makes it out to the game will see big time improvements to their already nice stadium, including an expansion of the home side bleachers, a newer/nicer press box, a new field house and weight facility, as well as other improvements and additions. The Eagles are a team on the way up, and I know of several folks “in the know” who feel confident that Franklin County is going to soon emerge as the next powerhouse team from this part of the state. So can the Cougars beat the Eagles this time? Yes, if they start playing like Pulaski County. As much as we’d all like to get out there and help them do it, this is something that the team has to figure out on their own. There has been a spark missing from Cougar Football this season, ever since the first play of the Liberty Scrimmage in the TD Classic. Maybe it was the shock of losing Crouse and so many others in the backfield, maybe it was just the fact that Pulaski faced a team that wasn’t afraid to hit them back, but the Cougars have been flat. It’s time to get that spark back, and it’s time to make a stand. For those that make the trip down to Rocky Mount, let’s make sure the boys know we’re behind them!! Expect to see some changes this week, but lets hope that the main change we see is for the Cougars to come out and play like I know they can, and to see the PRIDE return to this team after a rocky start. Everybody be safe on the ride down, and lets get ready to make some noise!! GO COUGARS!!! BEAT THE EAGLES!!! Cougars
by the Numbers
Friday, September 16 - Franklin County Eagles (Away): Series:
PC
leads 25-4.
Region III District Standings Unofficial VHSL Ratings 2005 Cougar Team Statistics 2005 Cougar Individual Statistics
LINKS Roanoke Times High School Sports Page (These links go into the archives after about a week) Southwest Times Sports Page (Check early and often - the stories disappear quickly, and are not archived.) Virginia Preps AA Message Board Matt
Gilliam's Ratings (Full access requires a subscription to VirginiaPreps.com.)
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