The Mynatt Minute
2010 Spring Football Practice Review Powell returns 8 players who started on the offensive side of the ball in its last game, the playoff loss at Sullivan South, in 2009. Included in those players are the quarterback, Dustin McPhetridge, running backs Dy’shawn Mobley and Darian Logan, tight end Drake Ownby, and the entire receiving corp. The three losses, however, are big losses – all on the offensive line. This spring will be a golden opportunity for some young linemen to get a leg up in the quest to join returning linemen Austin Smith and James Ussery as the starters in the fall. DEFENSE Defensively is a different story from the offense. The Panthers graduated 5 key players who started against Sullivan South, including defensive player of the year Cameron Petree, Hunter Cook, and Dalton James. Also departing are secondary starters Alex Booth and D.J. Hamilton. Up front nose tackle Tony Foster and Austin Benson should anchor the defensive line, along with Stephen Ross, who started several games at end as a junior. Spring will be a golden opportunity for young d-linemen to catch the eye of the coaches. Linebackers Mobley and Nick Webb, who will also likely miss spring drills in favor of track and baseball respectively, give the Panther defense a solid foundation, but just who will join those two at linebacker in the fall is yet to be determined. While there are several good candidates to fill those slots, it will be interesting to see who emerges as potential starters from spring practice. In the secondary, Jonathan Strozyk started the entire season as a freshman a year ago, and Jonathan Staggs came back from an injury to have a solid sophomore season. Spring will be big in determining who will be the favorites to join the two of them in the secondary come fall. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The kicking game – both placement kicking and punting – is wide open going in to spring. Long snapper Drake Ownby was flawless a year ago, but who he will be snapping to is one of the biggest question marks going in to the spring. FINAL LOOK Despite the losses of the 8 starters, Powell returns as many “game experienced” players as they have since the early 2000s. When a team starts ten sophomores and a freshman most of the season, and then backs those starters up with young players, they should be a more experienced football team and the Panthers are. Given the players who will be missing from spring drills due to baseball and possibly track, there will be no shortage of opportunity for important repetitions for just about everybody on the roster. Spring drills for the Panthers will begin on Thursday, April 29. The major scrimmage of the spring will take place on Friday, May 7, when the Bearden Bulldogs come to Scarbro Stadium. Bearden returns a solid nucleus of players from a class 6A playoff team of a year ago, including a highly recruited “athlete” in Devrin Young, a running back/wide receiver/defensive back/kick returner. Young has a scholarship offer already in hand from Stanford, and expects to see that list grow as he attends prospect camps this summer. Like Mobley, he is involved in track, so whether we might see him scrimmage against the Panthers is a question yet to be answered. Spring drills for Powell will wrap up with the Black and White game on Friday, May 14. Exact times for both the Bearden scrimmage and the Black and White game will be posted on this site when they are confirmed. Kyle Blackburn and I will do our best to keep you up to date on happenings with spring practice at Powell. I hope to attend as much spring practice as possible, but there is a chance that I may have to be out of town part of the time as my son will be deploying to Afghanistan with his unit of the Army’s 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell sometime in the next few weeks. I ask for your thoughts and prayers for he and his unit during their year long deployment. If I am unavailable to bring you updates, Kyle will keep you abreast on spring practice happenings for the Panthers.
By Bill Mynatt, Radio Voice of Powell Panther Football
OVERVIEW
Coming in to spring practice a year ago, the biggest question Panther head coach Matt Lowe and his staff had would be how to replace the offensive juggernaut of the previous two years. After all, quarterback Kier Houston had set the PHS modern day records for both passing yards and total offensive yards in a season, and Devin Collins left as the single season and career receiving leader. Fortunately for Lowe and his staff, replacing skill position players isn’t the biggest task facing the Panthers going in to this spring practice.
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OFFENSE
With key offensive players McPhetridge, Smith, and Ownby most likely to miss most or all of spring practice due to baseball, the spring will offer young players the opportunity to get meaningful first team snaps. With fellow rising sophomore Austin Byrd also out of spring drills due to baseball, Jordan Abba will likely get a bulk of the snaps at the quarterback position during spring practice.
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SPECIAL TEAMS
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