Southwest Mississippi Community College opens the 2016 football season against a team with a new leader, and head coach Tucker Peavey is unsure what to expect when the Bears travel to Coahoma Community College at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Peavey is going into his fourth season at SMCC, while Steven Miller is the new head coach at CCC. The Bears won 17-10 at home against the Tigers last season.
“We have to just try to be as simple as we can in turn to be able to react to whatever they do,” Peavey said. “Now certainly we have stuff we’re going to do no matter what, and we adjust to their formations defensively.
“Not a big difference, but through practice we’ve tried to go against a little bit of everything both offense and defense for whatever they come out in.”
Peavey said when the offense and defense come off the field after one possession, he usually implements adjustments and makes his athletes aware of what the other team is doing.
Freshman Neil McLaurin is the quarterback. He suffered an ACL injury in the 2015 season opener , was out for the year and received a medical redshirt. Freshman Nakia Trotter from North Pike is a running back, sophomore Ravian Pierce is a tight end, freshman Javian Jackson from North Pike is a receiver and sophomore Trey Fleming and freshman Fred Trevillion are also receivers.
Peavey said the key in the first game is his players calming down and doing the things the same as in practice.
“It’s just a matter of protecting the football, eliminating turnovers, and to me the biggest thing is no unforced errors,” he said. “If we’re not going to do well at something it needs to be because they did good at it, not that we messed it up.”
While the Bears’ injuries are not nearly as serious as last season, Peavey said he expects three athletes to be unavailable for the opener. Trevillion and sophomore defensive lineman Justin Hathorne have knee injuries and freshman defensive lineman Von’Darius Freeman has a hamstring injury.
Peavey said he expects all three players to be back in the next week or two. He added one of many athletes who will have to step up with the injuries is sophomore defensive lineman Duke Dantzler.
The head coach said he wished he had more depth going into the opener but also felt injuries would provide other plays opportunities to step.
Peavey said he would be evaluating players weekly.
“I think you’ll see some guys that react positively at game time, and then other guys that it may make a little nervous,” he said. “They’ve got to get used to it.
“You see those kind of things. Usually your biggest improvement is from Week 1 to Week 2. Now a lot of times the opponent has something to do with that.”
