By Staff
Charles Prince, Hartselle Enquirer
Coming off an emotional win over a longtime rival, the biggest challenge the Hartselle Tigers face this week may be keeping their attention on the Curry Yellow Jackets.
"It's a concern that we get ourselves ready to play this week," Tiger head coach Bob Godsey said. "Coming off an emotional win, we need to make sure we're ready to go back to work and forget about last week."
The Yellow Jackets, coming off a 34-0 win over Carbon Hill last week, will bring a familiar offense to Hartselle this Friday night.
"They look a lot like us on offense," Godsey said. "They run shotgun quite a bit. They do several things that we try to do."
The Curry defense will feature a traditional look up front and safeties deep in pass coverage.
"They look a lot like the Bob Jones defense we saw in the jamboree," Godsey said. "They use mostly a 4-3 front and play cover two behind it."
Curry head coach Eric Woodley says the Tigers present a huge challenge for Curry.
"They're really big from what I've seen on film," Woodley said. "They've got big boys up front and they push people around. I think it's going to be really hard for us to compete with their size."
Besides the Hartselle linemen, Woodley was also impressed with several other Tiger players.
"That back (Justin) Youngblood, he's a special runner," Woodley said. "Then the (Chris) Wiley kid, who plays safety and receiver, he really stands out, too. Those two have speed, like we don't think we normally see. We don't need to let them get loose if we can help it."
Woodley believes the coaching the Tiger receive make them a threat in every game they play.
"Coach Godsey does a great job," Woodley said. "We played against his teams when he was at Brooks High. His teams always did two important things. They played hard and they protected the football. Anytime you get your kids to play hard and they don't turn the ball over, you've got a chance to win. His teams always hard to deal with."
Godsey feels the Tigers showed improvement in two areas during the Austin game over their preseason play.
"We tackled a little better in the open field," Godsey said. "But we still need to improve that area. Curry will test our tackling ability."
"We've seen an improvement in our offense's blocking. But, we still need to get better."
"We're a work in progress," Godsey said.
"We're by no means a finished product. There's room for improvement in many areas. We've still got plenty of work to do."
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.