Football

MCCRAY LEADS CRUSADER FOOTBALL INTO FIRST SPRING GAME SAT. APRIL 14

April 12, 2012

Tigerville, SC -- Coach Carroll McCray, the new North Greenville University football coach, will guide his squad into its first spring game Saturday, April 14 with kickoff going at 9:50 a.m. at Younts Stadium.

SPRING GAME SCHEDULE

9:50 A.M. – Spring Game
11:00 A.M. – Lunch for NGU Community at Younts Stadium
12:00 noon – 2011 NGU Football Team receives NCAA medallions inside the stadium

McCray said that the Crusaders will go through a final culminating workout for the fans and then, following lunch at the stadium, NGU will honor the 2011 team that went 11-3 and advanced to the NCAA Division II quarterfinals against Delta State University. “We’ll have a short scrimmage and then following lunch, we have invited back all the players from last year’s team who was so successful,” he said. “We’ll have 90% of last year’s team back and they will receive their medallions from the NCAA honoring their achievements. We’ll be able to play in front of the parents, our signees and NGU fans and then we’ll recognize the 2011 team, call them each by name and hand out last year’s awards. We want them to know how much we appreciate them and challenge our present players to carry on the standard that was set the last two years.”
McCray assessed the final few days of his first spring practice by stating that the spring has ‘met his expectations.’ “It’s been a pretty good cycle of practice,” he noted. “We’re only a couple of days behind what the staff had planned, and we’ve tried to stay on schedule for the guys. We’re probably going a week longer than I wished, but with Easter falling late, we would have finished last weekend. With the players we have on the field, it looks like they’re headed in the right direction. We’ve worked on just getting acquainted with the players so far and we’ll address further needs in the summer and into fall practice.”
“Spring practice has been fun,” McCray exclaimed. “You get to look through the face mask thinking of the names of the guys you’ve gotten to know, and they look a whole lot different in their uniform than they do in their street clothes, which is good. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been a little difficult because we would practice for a day, take a day off, and then practice again. That has been the best for us because we get a whole day in between to plan, and a whole day to lift. The guys are coming by and talking to the coaches, so it’s been great to get to know them by name. It’s been real exciting to be out there with them.”
“What we really are looking forward to is our first practice, probably on August 6,” McCray said. “Now that we have our basics in, I’m looking forward to adding our freshman class to the guys we have now. So we will go quickly from high 60’s and 70’s to 100 guys again. Then, the lines for drills get long, and we can scrimmage longer and practice longer; we’ve got depth and we can see who’s ready to play out of that young group.”
“The attitude of our team has been very good.   It was that way in the weight room when I got here and on into winter conditioning and the older guys certainly moved faster on the field. The young guys are still picking up the system even though we’re similar to what the team did last year. Defensively we’re a little ahead of the offense. We haven’t changed much. We’re tweaking things a little defensively, so the Sharpes (Jonathan), the Isaiah’s (Johnson) and the Jones (A.J.), are all certainly very comfortable on defense.   We’ve moved along defensively and have jelled with Coach Hickman and what those guys had already done. Coach (Rocco) Adrian and Coach (Issac) Mooring have moved along nicely. Offensively, Coach (Kenneth) Ray has come in and kind of molded our offense to what we feel like we need to do. We’ve changed a few things and worked backwards to work on some fundamental things. What we’re doing now looks a lot like what was done in the playoffs last year. We’re adding our option package and that will be very good. That will give us a few more options to go to involving all of our backs and receivers and the running game.”
“Our biggest challenge will be learning the new system and doing the little things like how you call plays to how you get them called in the huddle, to how you communicate if you don’t huddle, to the tackles being down in three point stance instead of a two point, and getting ready to take a snap under center rather than the shotgun. “We’ve got to learn how to do simple fundamental things.”
“We’ve got a lot more depth on defense.” Some spots are a little deeper than others, and as spring has progressed, we’ve had a few bumps and bruises, but we’re deep at inside linebacker, and three deep on the defensive line. Offensively, we’re probably a little thin, but we will continue to move forward toward the fall.”
One of the biggest areas of concern for McCray is at quarterback, where he has to replace All-Region quarterback Willy Korn. “We have two working this spring right now as Aaron Seigler is struggling with an arm problem, and hasn’t practiced as much the last two weeks.   We’re taking an in depth look at Nelson Hughes and Joey Carter are doing well. Nelson (Dorman HS) is running the first group; He’s young, but he is improving every day as is Joey.   Aaron was getting a lot of reps, but his injury has allowed the other two to get more in.   I think the other guys from the lineman that are back, to the receivers like Freddie (Martino) and Sean (Wright) are gaining a lot of confidence in the younger guys.”
“We’ve got some depth in receiver.   We can throw a pretty good bunch out there and we’ve had some guys step up.   Thomas Weeks has come on and challenged Sean a little bit. Troy Jones has done well, and Freddie is exceptional, but he’s been running track, so when we’re all there, we’re really solid.”
“We’re a little think at running back right now, but we’re going to have to have some young guys step up. Once we get healthy, it will look thick all of a sudden. We signed several very good running backs and then we’ll have a full stable. I have never been at a place where we’ve had too many RB’s. I’m hoping that the new guys can complement the guys that we already have here.”
NGU released its 2012 schedule last week, and McCray and the Crusaders will have a difficult three game road trip to open the campaign. “We certainly challenged ourselves going to Albany State to open the year on September 1.   That’s a good way for us to start, and with two playoff teams coming together without their seniors will be something completely different. We’ve got to go down to Georgia and play well. It’ll be a big test for us, and we’re very excited about that opportunity. Then, we’ll travel up to Tennessee Tech on Thursday, September 6 to play the defending Ohio Valley Conference champions (Division I FCS).   Maybe they will be looking ahead to playing Oregon, but we’ll play them on a short week and challenge them. That will give us 10 days to prepare for our South Atlantic Conference alliance opener on the road with Tusculum on September 15.”
“It will be very exciting for us all for that first home game in something like three months rather than three weeks (NGU opens at home against Mars Hill on September 22 at 7:00 p.m.).”