Quick Thoughts from the Willis Scrimmage

On Friday, the Cypress Woods Wildcats traveled to Willis to scrimmage the Willis Wildkats as they get set to finally begin their 2020 football season. Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Starting Quarterback?

When I spoke with Coach Neill last week, he informed me that a good battle was brewing between Dylan Cormier and Trey Craft. DC is entering his third season on the varsity and he's done well in his limited action over the last two seasons, so I feel that he has earned the first opportunity to start. 

After what I saw in Willis, however, I came away with the feeling that Dylan's hook might be a little shorter than I expected. I feel that this battle will continue through the two non-district games and we'll see the winner take the field first when the Wildcats open district play against Falls in three weeks. Don't count the loser out of the running, however; Cormier and Craft both demonstrated that they can commandeer this offense effectively during this scrimmage and whoever winds up as the backup should still see plenty of playing time.

2. Trayse Holmes

Is a wrecking ball. His form last year was inconsistent and he would probably be the first person to admit that. His work ethic, however, has never been doubted. Trayse played his best football as the stakes got higher last season and he should be in line for a huge senior year. I believe that he has a great chance to rush for 1,000 yards this season. 

3. Defense

After graduating almost every starter, the Cy Woods defense would have plenty of questions to address heading into this season. With all due respect to Willis, they aren't a great team, so there are probably a few more questions that will require an elaborated answer. However, the kids stepping in look like they are capable of handling the huge expectations they will have to uphold. We know about Chris Agnew and what he brings to the table on the defensive line. He and Tyler Sherrill will be a handful for opposing offensive lines this year.

Josh Jones and Brenton Frizell acquitted themselves well as the presumptive starting cornerbacks. Josh's progress has been particularly impressive considering he missed pretty much the first half of last season due to injury. I've heard (from a bit of a biased source, admittedly) that out of the three Jones brothers, he's the most athletic of the trio. 

The one name to know now and for the future, though, is Dylan Rogers. Dylan got his first taste of varsity football last year as a playoff call-up after dominating at the freshman level. He showed that he could excel on offense and defense, but his upside is clearly higher on defense, and on a team that's retooling on that side, he has a prime opportunity to shine. In all my years being around this program, the one person who I've seen work harder than Dylan Rogers has up to this point probably has to be Daylan Skidmore, and Daylan turned out to be a pretty decent player in the end.

4. Offense

There will be no shortage of firepower from the Wildcat offense this year, no matter who's at the helm. Woods will need to replace almost all of the production from last year's A-backs, but again, Connor Morris, Charlie Bain, and J.J. Williams seem to be up to the task. J.J. should enjoy a breakout year now that he's moved over from B-back to A-back. Ryan Faulk, Casey Cogdill, and John Niles have also made strides at the wideout positions and they'll have to come together to replicate the big-play impact that Cam Sowell had last season. 

All in all, I was pretty satisfied with what I saw in Willis on Friday night. I would love to be a massive homer and say that Cy Woods will successfully defend their district championship in 2020, but that's not my style. The 2020 edition of the Cypress Woods Wildcats will enter with a huge target on their backs and certainly plenty to prove. The intriguing mix of new faces and veterans should keep this team in the playoff hunt in what is shaping out to be a tough District 16-6A.