The Brownwood Lions’ final dress rehearsal before the start of the 2021 high school football regular season takes place Thursday evening at Godley with the last of two preseason scrimmages.
The Lions scrimmaged Salado at Gordon Wood Stadium last week and had their share of ups and downs.
Offensively, the Lions scored once and produced 267 yards of total offense on 46 snaps, but turned the ball over twice.
Defensively, Salado’s slot-T offense – for which the Lions did not scheme – generated six touchdowns, 20 first downs and 524 yards of total offense on 47 plays.
As for what Lions’ fourth-year head coach Sammy Burnett wants to see out of the Lions in Godley, he stated, “Defensively, it’s real simple – we have to be physical. We were out-physicaled last week but this is a totally different week, totally different team, totally different style of offense. They’re more of a passing team that will run the football. I want to see our kids line up properly and go out and be physical. That’s the one thing we haven’t been. We have to have someone rise up and show passion and be a leader of that defense and let us create an identity.”
On the offensive side, Burnett wants to see more consistent execution.
“Through the first series we’re looking at getting touches and spreading the ball around,” he said. “We want to see what the defense is doing and see our the quarterback adjusting and doing our RPOs off that. We’re not concerned about scoring touchdowns that series as much as we are moving the football, being consistent, being able to run the ball which will set up our play-action passes, which will set up our vertical press down field.”
Assessing the offense’s performance against Salado, Burnett said, “We had a few turnovers after big gains that we need to fix. We stopped ourselves there. Other than that, we ran out of plays and in a scrimmage, sometimes you run out of plays.”
The Godley Wildcats, members of District 5-4A Division II, are picked to finish second to Glen Rose in league action, according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Godley returns 18 of 37 lettermen, including four offensive and seven defensive starters, from a 7-5 playoff team a year ago. Curtis Lowery is head coach of the Wildcats.
The varsity squads will take the field at 6:30 p.m. with a controlled scrimmage based on a set number of plays set to start the action. Brownwood and Godley will then take part in a simulated live half to conclude the scrimmage.
The JV and freshman teams will hit the field at 5 p.m. with 25 minute sessions of offense and defense for both squads.
Brownwood will kick off the 2021 season at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 27 as they host the Lampasas Badgers.