- April 23, 2024
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Spring football practice is officially underway, and that means the 2023 season is not far behind. As area teams reassemble and get their first looks at what they may look like come fall, here is one question to ponder for each program. The answers may not come quickly — or at all — this spring, but they will help determine how teams fare in the 2023 season.
The Rams have an incumbent starting quarterback in Jeremiah Dawson, a 6-foot-4 rising senior who threw for 759 yards, seven touchdowns and eight interceptions in 2022. Dawson could win the job again in 2023, but he'll have to fend off competition from new additions to the school's QB room.
Anthony Miller, a rising sophomore, came to the Rams from Venice High after quarterbacking the Indians' freshman team, and has an electric arm: he launched a ball 66 yards in the air at the Jacksonville Jaguars High School QB Skills Challenge on April 23.
Also new to the Rams is Braxton Thomas, a rising senior transfer from Desert Vista High in Chandler, Arizona, who threw for 2,275 yards, 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 2022.
The starting position likely won't be settled this spring, but it will be a chance for all competitors to show the coaching staff — including new offensive coordinator Brody Wiseman, the former head coach at Sarasota High — what they can do. A bonus: whoever wins gets to play alongside five-star defensive back/wide receiver Charles Lester III.
The Sailors hired Phillips in January after Wiseman and the school parted ways following the 2022 season. Phillips, who served as the Manatee High defensive coordinator last season, has an eclectic background within the sport: he played college ball at Yale, played for the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe in 2002, spent a training camp with the NFL's Houston Texans, then played two seasons for the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League before getting into coaching.
Even on the sidelines, Phillips' influences and experiences are vast. He had stops with California as a strength and conditioning coach, with Wagner as a defensive backs and special teams coach, and with Granada High in Livermore, California, where he was the defensive and passing game coordinator, prior to Manatee.
How will that experience meld together now that Phillips has a program all his own? Time will tell. In January, Phillips said he believes in the running game and the passing game working in tandem, especially when trying to make concepts like play-action passes as effective and believable as possible. On defense, Phillips said talent dictates scheme even more than it does on offense.
Now that Phillips has had a few months to evaluate what talent he has, spring will be a chance to see how his plans have come together. It won't be the full playbook, but it will give a rough idea of how the Sailors will aim to play come fall.
For a Class 1S school, the Cougars generate a lot of football talent. Several Mooney players currently hold scholarship offers from NCAA Division I teams, including rising senior running back Carson Beach (South Florida, Tennessee), rising junior defensive back Chris McCorkle (West Virginia and Michigan State among others) and rising senior defensive back Teddy Foster (Tennessee, Southern California among others). Last year's team also featured defensive end Jack MacKinnon, who signed with Michigan as a preferred walk-on, and linebacker JR Rosenberg, who did the same with Texas A&M.
Yet the Cougars finished 4-7 in 2022 and lost 38-7 to John Carroll Catholic in the first round of the postseason. It was not what Head Coach Jared Clark and his staff envisioned at the beginning of the season, especially after going 8-4 in 2021 and returning all that talent. Offense was especially troublesome, as Mooney was held to less than 20 points five times.
Can the program get back to its winning ways in 2023? A strong spring would be a good start. If the Cougars can figure out how make its individual talent gel into a cohesive team, there's reason for Cougars faithful to be excited about the fall season.
The 2022 season was a large step forward for the Tornadoes. After going 0-8 in 2021, Booker finished 2022 at 6-5 in the first year under Head Coach Scottie Littles — and Littles believed the team was capable of more. Coming within a few plays of beating Frostproof High (10-3) in the first round of the postseason before losing 34-31 was a sign of how close.
There will have to be answer to looming questions in 2023, like who plays under center following the graduation of senior Will Carter Jr. But Littles' dedication to discipline and getting the details of the game right has already paid dividends; in year two, Littles can continue to shore up those aspects of the team while more of his preferred scheme.
Having a weapon like rising senior wide receiver Josiah Booker helps: Booker, who caught 58 passes for 957 yards and nine touchdowns in 2022, holds offers from 10 NCAA Division I schools.
The Booker offense is also expected to feature a heavy dose of Karaijus Hayes, a rising sophomore athlete who recently picked up an offer from Miami. And on defense, the Tornadoes have another player with a Hurricanes offer in Kevontay Hugan, a rising sophomore defensive end who also has offers from Maryland and Penn State. Having young players like Hayes and Hugan that Littles can mold into productivity machines is a boon to the team's outlook.
