Lions match up with strong Coleman team
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions held their own in their first scrimmage of the 2022 football season, matching and sometimes surpassing the Coleman Bluecats on Friday, Aug. 12 at Robert Nail Memorial Stadium.
The Lions make their second preseason outing Thursday, Aug. 18 (tonight) against the Early Longhorns, again at Nail Stadium, starting at 6:00 p.m.
Against Coleman, Albany matched the Bluecats with one touchdown as each team scored in the second segment with starters on the field.
“We were pleased with what we saw,” Lions head coach Denney Faith said. “We hadn’t done anything live in practice, so that was the first time we saw some actual football.”
Faith said one factor that stood out for him was the willingness of Albany players to engage in contact at full speed.
“I was pleased with how physical we were against a very physical football team,” Faith said. “I think we were able to match their physicality. To be able to do that with Coleman, we feel pretty good because they’re always a really physical football team.”
Albany held a 221-177 edge in total yards gained, passing for 207 yards and nine first downs to Coleman’s eight. Starting quarterback Cole Chapman completed six of 13 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown, while backup Lute Wheeler was 3 of 6 passing for 49 yards. Wide receiver London Fuentes caught four passes for 116 yards and a score. Branson Beal had two catches for 42 yards, Wyatt Windham had two for 23, and Cason Fairchild had one for 26.
“For the most part for the first scrimmage, I felt like we moved the ball pretty well, especially in the passing game,” Faith said. “We have some really good receivers, and Cole is coming off a really good year at quarterback. I think he’s going to be able to have a good year.”
Chapman was also Albany’s leading rusher last week as Coy Lefevre was held out with an ankle injury.
“We’re going to have to be able to run the ball better, but Coleman has a really physical front seven,” Faith said. “They’re going to keep people from running a lot. We’re going to have to do a better job of run blocking, and there were a couple times where our protection broke down when we tried to throw the ball, so we’re going to have to get better in that area.”
Defensively, Albany was able to keep Coleman contained most of the night. The Bluecats had three gains of more than 20 yards, but Windham intercepted two passes for the Lions.
“We came out and played physically, and I thought we tackled really well for our first scrimmage,” Faith said. “We flew around and played with a lot of intensity. We caused a couple of turnovers and forced them into some penalties.”
Coleman’s biggest threat, quarterback Jadin Jackson, rushed for 62 yards and passed for 95.
“Their quarterback is an unbelievable athlete,” Faith said. “You can’t expect to make plays on him all night. To do as well as we did against him, we’re really pleased.”
Faith said Albany came out of the evening relatively healthy. Senior Keatin Russell suffered the worst injury of the night, rolling an ankle that he previously injured last year. The biggest concern, the coach said, was the team’s physical conditioning.
“We’ve got to get in better shape,” he said. “We’ve got so few kids, and our numbers are so low. It was hot and humid and the first time we’d gone live.”
Faith said he expects that to improve this week.
“The second scrimmage, we’ll always be in a little better condition because we’ve been in that situation,” he said. “This time of year, you’re just trying to play yourself into shape. We’re going to have to get to where we can finish out four quarters, and we’re not there yet.”
Junior Varsity
In the JV portion against Coleman, the Lions gave up the only touchdown after Coleman converted on third-and-23 to get inside the Albany 10-yard line.
The Lions totaled 28 offensive yards with Brody Oliver quarterbacking the first team and Calhan Fairchild directing the second.
Coleman managed 92 total yards and six first downs.
Next Step
Albany gets its second test tonight against an unfamiliar opponent in Early.
“It’s going to be a completely different type of scrimmage from what we’ve had,” Faith said. “We haven’t seen them or played them before, but from what we know about them, they have a good quarterback who can move around and throw the ball well. They run a spread offense and will challenge our secondary and our guys up to make sure we’re containing and keeping pressure on the quarterback.”
Action will get underway at 6:00 p.m. with the JV. Each team will run 10 offensive plays with the starters and 10 with the backups.
In the varsity portion, starters will run 15 plays with backups running 10, followed by a live quarter.
“We will have a kicking game, and that will all be dead ball,” Faith said.
Faith said facing a relative unknown in Early will be good for the Lions as they prepare for a regular season that has six games against teams that weren’t on last year’s schedule.
“We will have to make some adjustments as we go,” he said. “We’ll run a live quarter this week where we’re not on the field coaching, so that’s going to be a little different situation than we’ve been in. We’re playing with some guys right now who’ve never played on Friday night before, so that’s going to be another dynamic.”
