Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The White County Warriors capped off their spring practice with their annual Maroon and Gray game on Tuesday night.
As far as what he saw from his guys on the field, head coach Mark Fraiser says there’s still plenty to work on, but he’s seeing some good progress.
“We’ve tried to move some guys around to some different spots, so that was interesting to see,” Fraiser said. “We’ve got some senior losses in the secondary and at linebacker, so we’re moving some guys around…there was some good things and some bad things, but that’s normal. You take the good and the bad, all in all, it was a good spring.”
Fraiser says he’s pleased as a whole with the progress he’s seen, but that doesn’t change that there’s still a long way to go until week one and there’s plenty he says the team can still do to improve.
“There’s a lot of guys that are playing for us that we think have a lot of talent, but they haven’t gotten to play a lot,” Fraiser said. “Especially in the offensive line, there’s some good players, but they just need to actually play. You see some dumb mistakes, but the effort’s there. As long as that’s there, we think we can point them in the right direction.”
Tripp Pinion is going into his sophomore campaign at quarterback after being the starter for most of his freshman season, and Fraiser says he can already see a difference in how the signal-caller carries himself.
“It’s night-and-day,” Fraiser said. “His confidence is there, and he’s added some touch on his passes…he’s just not had a lot of time to throw with these guys, so this summer will be really good for that. I’m not worried about Tripp at all.”
And lastly, Malaki Dowell returns for his senior season after an electric junior campaign that saw him rush for over 2,000 yards. He looked every bit as good as he did a season ago, as he accounted for two touchdowns on Tuesday.
“We know he can run,” Fraiser said. “We threw him the ball a little bit, and we actually played him at linebacker for a bit. That’s the first time he’s ever done that, but he’s bulked up. Right now, he’s pushing 190, so he’s one of the most physical kids on the team. We’re excited about that.”
