The final horn sounded Friday night, leaving the Cougar football team with an impressive 43-0 win over the visiting Northside Vikings. Before the team walked off the field and into the locker room, Head Coach Cam Akers congratulated his team, but was also very honest with them.
“It’s only going to get tougher from here,” Akers said.
Fast forward to Monday. The coaching staff has now had a chance to review the game film and critique how the Cougars graded out individually and as a team.
“We were happy with some things, but we know there is still a ton of room for improvement,” Coach Akers said. “It was great to see us go out and play with a little physicality. I thought our linemen showed a good deal of improvement from last week. Our backs hit the hole and pushed hard for yardage. Our quarterback made good decisions and showed a gritty edge we’ve been looking for. Chris (Gallimore) doesn’t always get credit for being a tough kid, but he is.”
Defensively, a shutout is always a sign that someone did something right, but what did the film show?
“We moved to the ball well,” Akers said. “We tackled a lot better and again we showed a little bit of a physical nature about ourselves. I thought we were aggressive when we needed to be, but not at the cost of making big mistakes. I thought the Northside game was a good example of taking a step in the right direction.”
Akers didn’t hesitate to point out some areas he hopes to see pick up quickly.
“Our secondary didn’t get a big test last week because our front wasn’t allowing Northside many chances to get the ball off quickly,” Akers said. “That is the area we’re going to need to see the most from moving forward. A lot of the teams on our upcoming schedule have some incredible athletes and can really put the ball in the air. I also expect us to continue cleaning up our mistakes on the line and in our blocking. Mistakes are going to happen, but consistency is going to be our key. We just need to keep growing.”
Before getting into the upcoming game, Coach Akers talked about the atmosphere Friday for his first game as the Head Coach.
“Not gonna lie, I had to keep my emotions under control at times,” he said. “This program, the school and the kids mean everything to this county. If the football team is doing well, everybody else seems to do well. It also means the world to me. I grew up here. I played here. This place means something to me and our coaches. This is home. We want to be the best representatives for Pulaski County that we can possibly be every single day. That’s the way it was when I played here. It was drilled into us that we had a responsibility. Our coaching staff has done a great job of holding our players responsible and accountable to the program. We’re seeing some internal leadership from the players holding each other accountable as well.”
While fans who payed attention will have noticed many excited emotional moments on the field Friday, one thing they also noticed was a lack of showboating and what seemed to be a return to a very blue-collar, business-like approach to the game.
“Talk with your pads,” Akers said. “We want our guys to line up, execute the play, hit hard, get back in the huddle and do it again. Celebrate when the final score is in your favor. We know we may not win every game, but we want an effort that leaves no doubt in the other team’s mind that they were in a dog fight. Teams used to know that they were going to leave the field against Pulaski County sore and tired. That’s what we want to bring back. That’s our mindset.”
This week the Cougars will face off with an opponent they’ve never played before.
The Tennessee High School Vikings come from just across the state line in Bristol, Tennessee. They are a member of the Tennessee Class 5A, Region 1. The school was first opened in 1919, which was 103 years ago. Their all-time record in football is 641-388-23. An interesting side note is that the school had not team in 1943, as World War II was raging across the Pacific and Europe.
The program has a long history of success, including a National Championship in 1972 and back-to-back state titles in 1971 and 72.
The Vikings play their home games in “The Stone Castle,” which was built starting in 1934 and completed in 1936. It was built as a part of the New Deal by the Works Progress Administration, the same project that gave Pulaski our historic Calfee Park. The two venues have many similar features, including the stone used throughout.
Pulaski County was set to visit the Stone Castle last season, but then things went south. Off the field, COVID-19 reared its ugly head within the Viking program, forcing the game to be cancelled. The Vikings tragically lost a player and a coach to the pandemic.
On the field, the Vikings finished the season under Interim Head Coach Matt Chandler with a record of 3-7. A new head coach was hired, but he quickly departed. April 5, Head Coach Josh Holt was hired to lead the program.
Coach Holt is a United States Army Veteran who preaches discipline, simplicity, consistency and physicality. He has 15 years of high school coaching experience, most recently serving as the team’s defensive coordinator. Before that, he was an assistant coach at Abingdon, Holston, and John Battle high schools. He played football for Tennessee High School and then college ball at Emory and Henry.
“The Vikings are going to be a step up in competition,” Coach Akers said. “They’re getting started under a new coach, but they’re a group that’s hungry. They’re not afraid to hit you and they move very well. They have their running backs playing defensive end because they like to fly to the ball and attack. They have a group of kids that have the potential to be very dangerous. If we don’t play better than we did last week, we’re going to have some issues.”
The offense is led by junior quarterback Jimmy Phipps. The running backs and Josh Bell and Josh Green, with both being tough and speedy runners. Wideouts include seniors Maddox Fritts and Logan Tudor. The center is junior Dorian Suggs. The guards are senior Evan Bedwell and Micah Norton. The tight end is senior Austin Degears. The other tackle was not clear. Junior Josh Sizemore will line up in the slot.
Defensively, the Vikings will line up a front of seniors Chris Wilson and Marquis Phelps, along with junior Jashun Hernton. The linebackers will include Nick Osborn and Jackson Elliot. The secondary will be manned by Fritz, Tudor, junior Mason Mays and a few other younger players.
The Vikings opened their season Aug. 19 with a 31-0 loss to Dobyns-Bennett.
“A big test for our offensive line,” Coach Akers said. “If we can do our jobs up front and control the line of scrimmage to move the ball, good things can happen. If they shut that down, we’re going to have some problems. It’s going to come down to who wants it more and who makes the least mistakes.”
Cougar Lineup
For Pulaski County, things will look a lot like they did last week against Northside.
On offense, sophomore Nolan Dalton (6’2”, 263) will line up at center. Sophomore Aiden Moore (5’10”, 246) will be at one guard. Senior Deigo Turner (5’10”, 219) will be at the other. The guards will be senior Evan Alger (6’3”, 197) and sophomore Hunter Hill (5’11”, 197). The slots will be senior Zach Parker (6’, 146) on one side and a mix of junior Brett Jones (5’10”, 161) and sophomore Tanner Mace (6’, 139) on the other.
Junior Chris Gallimore (6’2”, 182) will be the quarterback. Senior Trevor Burton (5’11”, 185) will be the running back. Wideouts will be senior Neel Davis (6’4”, 204) and junior Marcus Reed (6’4.5”, 193).
Defensively, the Cougars will have a front line featuring senior Alan Fernandez (5’10”, 208) at nose and senior Turner and junior Jack Allen (6’1”, 212) to the sides. Junior Tyler Underwood (6’1”, 188) will be on one end with Alger lined up on the other. The middle linebackers will be Burton and junior Nicholas Woolwine (6’, 170).
The corners will be a mix of Parker on one side with senior Kyle O’Neil (6’1”, 150) and junior Trey Landreth (6’1”, 165) on the other. The safeties will be Jones and Mace.
Senior Nathan Pratt will handle the kicking and punting duties for the Cougars.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium/Joel Hicks Field. The game will be aired on 107.1 FM WPSK beginning at 6:30 p.m. with the pregame show featuring Steve Adams and former Cougar player and coach Randy Dunnigan.
Program Notes
The Cougar junior varsity squad is off to a solid start. After impressive showings in scrimmages with Franklin County and at Lord Botetourt, the younger Cougars traveled to Roanoke Thursday for a JV matchup with Northside. The game was called at the half due to lightning, but the Cougars had already built up a 31-6 lead before the break.
Several Cougar players who could be on the JV squad have already been pulled up to the varsity, making the accomplishments of this team even more impressive. These players got into a little varsity time Friday, with freshman quarterback Bryant Nottingham looking calm under pressure and freshman running back Cole Boone racing for a big score. His touchdown was made possible in part by a solid offensive line effort, combined with the freight train blocking of freshman Kaden Hatch.
The Pulaski County Middle School Cougar football team is also off to a hot start. In their first scrimmage action of the season against Eastern Montgomery and Auburn, the Cougars scored a combined 15 touchdowns while allowing just one score, which came against a mixed group of second and third team backups.
The following week at Read Mountain Middle School, the Cougars faced off with two much tougher squads in Cave Spring and Brookeville. Tougher competition brought on tougher results. The Cougars only scored 14 touchdowns on the day and allowed two scores.
Middle School Head Coach Hunter Thomas and his crew were again successful in their season opener, defeating Andrew Lewis 46-6.