Story by Rusty Ellis
The Monterey Wildcats have wrapped up their preseason slate, and now it’s on to Cannon County for head coach Scott Hughes’ squad.
Coming off the heels of a 7-0 showing against Upperman in the Bees’ jamboree, Hughes says the thing he liked most was the fight his guys showed against a bigger school.
“I thought we competed and we played hard,” Hughes said. “The good thing is that we played hard, but the bad thing is we didn’t play hard the week before. That worries me the most about the consistency of this group, but that was the key thing, that we competed.”
Junior Quarterback Matthew Montgomery helped account for the lone score in the jamboree when he found Chandler Bowden for a 29-yard touchdown late in the game. The situation presented to the young signal-caller was something Hughes hopes prepares him for in-game scenarios this season.
“Because of depth, we can simulate those (situations),” Hughes said. “Trying to get into field goal range or even trying to score, we weren’t in a hurry-up offense…we were field-goal ready because you can’t simulate that. Chandler makes a good play, breaks a couple tackles and scores. Matthew threw a really good football, so I was excited to see that against a really good football team in a really big spot.”
The Lions come into this week one matchup following an 0-10 season in 2020, boasting a defense that gave up 38 points a game and an offense that didn’t score until week four. Even with that, Hughes says he’s preparing for an 0-0 team because that’s everyone’s record right now.
“When you see them on film, they do some things really well,” Hughes said. “The purpose of what they are trying to do is really good. They’re huge up front…they’re long on the perimeter with some really good athletes. When you watch, you can tell the work that their coaching staff puts in to get them in the right position.”
That size in the trenches means that the Wildcats will have to be more creative in using their versatility, something Hughes says will bring his receivers and tight ends into play because of their ability to help the team in different ways.
“We’re one of those teams that are really multiple, so that really dictates what we’re trying to do at any given time,” Hughes said. “We do have some bigger bodies on the perimeter in Bowden, Eli Saylors, Byron Borjas and Carter Charlton. We’ve got some length that we haven’t previously had…we’ve got some guys that can play multiple positions, so we’ve got to be creative and find some matchups and not let them bully us with sheer size.”
The Wildcats and Lions will battle in Monterey this Friday, Aug. 20 at 7 P.M. The game will be live-streamed on the Upper Cumberland Reporter 2 Facebook page.