BY SCOTT POWER
Seemingly everyone is counting Woodland out this week at Cartersville on Oct. 21 — except for the Wildcats themselves.
Asked if he is offended if he is called an underdog this week, Woodland Coach Brandon Haywood said that everyone in the state considers Woodland an underdog — but he is trying to change that.
“I’m trying to change the culture and the mentality here,” Haywood said. “They have got the underlying thought of being the little brother in Bartow County to Cartersville, Cass and Adairsville … I’m trying to get them out of that.”
The Wildcats are 1-7 overall and 0-3 in Region 7-5A, but Haywood said the team is better than the record shows. The biggest thing hampering Woodland is turnovers and penalties.
Haywood went back to last week as an example, both as to the problems Woodland is having, but also that progress has been made from last year.
The Wildcats lost 49-0 to Calhoun last week, but they also had three punt team miscues that gave the ball to the Yellow Jackets on the Woodland 15, 9 and 1.
“That’s practically gift wapping points,” Haywood said. “The score does not indicate the type of game it was early. I’ll tell anybody we came out and played hard against Calhoun and we played hard against Dalton. These are two traditionally rich programs. They may not have the recent tradition of Cartersville, but the tradition of Dalton and Calhoun is just as big a the recent tradition of Cartersville and they played hard against both of those.”
Haywood said mistakes, especially turnovers and penalties, continue to plague the Wildcats. Woodland drove the ball 70 yards on their first possession against Calhoun and then fumbled the ball. Then there were the three special teams miscues and a couple of other fumbles. Without the mistakes, Haywood said, Woodland may have only been behind 14-0, or even closer, at the half.
“But we aren’t good enough to overcome self-inflicted wounds,” Haywood said, pointing out that Calhoun was ahead of Woodland 49-0 at the half last year.
That’s the positive that Haywood has taking from the losses to Dalton (28-7) and Calhoun, that both were closer games than the final score indicated.
Now the Wildcats turn their attention to Cartersville, who is back in the region title race after beating Hiram, just one week after Hiram defeated Calhoun.
Comparing Calhoun to Cartersville, Haywood said the Hurricanes are a more balanced team with a few more weapons.
“They are a good football team,” Haywood said of Cartersville. “They carry the weight of tradition. They play with a different swag. They have a really good quarterback who uses his legs and is fairly accurate. Jabari Brice, at receiver, played at Woodland Middle. No. 11, Collin Fletcher, is really good. They have a good running back (Malachi Jeffries) that is really explosive. He’s a pretty good back. He wears you down, but he can pull away from you, too.”
Jeffries is third in the region in rushing with 716 yards rushing and is behind only Tyson Greenwade of Dalton and Jemarion Whatley of Hiram. Because of all those weapons at quarterback, receiver and running back, Haywood believes the Hurricanes may be harder to defend.
“Cartersville might be be the better team when you talk about all around pieces, and way can spread you out,” Haywood said. “Calhoun throws it to keep people honest. Cartersville is more balanced. You don’t what they are going to do. With Calhoun you know what they are going to do.”
One of the bigger issues Woodland has had is sustaining drives, though too many turnovers is a big part of that. But the Wildcats tried to change their fortunes by switching quarterbacks from Brelace Williams to Chase Carson.
“We tinkered with it at Dalton,” Haywood said. “In this offense, you really need a dual threat guy. It helps to keep the defense honest if the quarterback and run it and throw it and now the defense is responsible for everybody. Brelace has one of the strongest arms in the region, but we need him to do more with his legs.
Carson is one of our fastest kids. It makes it apparent that I will do what it takes to win. There is no quit in me and there is no quit in this coaching staff.”
Haywood, who noted that Williams is getting reps at both quarterback and receiver in practice, said Williams has handled the situation well.
“I think he handled it really well, he handled it maturely,” Haywood said. “I’m sure it hurt him emotionally because he knows he can do it. But he is a good teammate. He is buying into what we are doing. What a coach wants is guys that know their roll, play hard and not care about stats and things like that.”
To pull off the upset Haywood said his team has to execute, limit turnovers and keep the ball away from Cartersville. Most importantly, the Wildcats have to sustain drives, meaning turnovers, penalties and doing the small things right will make a big difference.
Despite the Wildcat’s record, Haywood said things are starting to turn around.
“I fairly like our progress,” Haywood said. “I like that we are competing. They are willing to fight in the fourth quarter. I like the way the kids are playing and the core group is returning next year. They just started picking up (the scheme) against Dalton and Calhoun. The light bulb has gone on and they are understanding what we are doing.”
Haywood said he expects everyone to be healthy enough to play on Friday night.
