Dan River football evolves a winning attitude

By Abe Nelson

Published: August 6, 2008

RINGGOLD — It’s not exactly like developing the ability to walk upright, discovering fire or learning to use tools. But it is an evolution nonetheless.

With a new head coach in Ferrell Edmunds and a revamped offensive system in the spread, the Dan River Wildcats will try to morph themselves from a team that has racked up a 10-50 record during the last six seasons — including 1-9 marks in 2006 and 2007 — into a contender this year. To change from a team that was outscored 297-54 a year ago into a squad that is disciplined and motivated enough to find the end zone on something other than an accidental basis.

“We’re not trying to invent the wheel out here,” Dan River offensive line coach Kevin McNeill said. “We’re just trying to make it roll a little bit.”

Some may think that Edmunds has bitten off more than he can chew, trying to turn around a program that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs in seven years. But others believe that sort of improvement is coming and that it’s only a matter of time before it all comes together at Dan River.

Thanks to the efforts of Edmunds and the other Wildcats coaches, that time may come sooner than many realize.

It’s a process that has started with an attitude adjustment for the Wildcats players and it’s most prominent in an offensive line that is trying to reinvent itself through the spread offense.

“Last year we were like an easygoing offensive line,” senior guard Cornell Ferguson said.  “(The coaches) didn’t work on us as much last year.”

Said McNeill: “They would come off the ball and make contact with the primary defender, but they wouldn’t bounce off to get the secondary defender. They weren’t holding their blocks to the whistle.”

That was one of the first things to change.

Exhibiting the tough love that has become the modus operandi from the Dan River coaching staff, McNeill made it clear to his lineman that slacking and taking plays off wouldn’t fly this season. That if the offensive line breaks down, so too does the entire offense. That they have to play smart, adapt to different defensive fronts and that there was little to no room for error to be had if the Wildcats are going to fight their way back to contention in the Dogwood District.

“We can’t have an ‘oops’ because that means that somebody has gotten beat, that we have lost yards or that there may even be an injury,” McNeill said. “We don’t get recognition like the quarterbacks or wide receivers. They don’t call our names in the newspapers. But miss a block, and everybody throws their hands up.”

McNeill is hard on his players, as are the other coaches — including wide receivers coach Brian Womack, who threatened one player with a trip to the bench after he lined up in the wrong spot during practice on Tuesday. But the approach is already paying off. Ferguson, for one, claims that the offensive line is already performing “20 times better” than they were last season. He loves that the spread fits the athletic nature of the Wildcats’ players — opening up the game with more of an emphasis on speed than size. And he believes that the extra attention and detail to plays that is threaded in along with the coaching staff’s message of discipline has made the scheme switch that much easier to take.

“It’s harder, but it’s better,” Ferguson said.

And it will be Ferguson who helps anchor the line as Dan River tries to live up to what Edmunds called a “safe” projection of a .500 season, who will do his best to protect first-year starting quarterback Kevin Eldridge (up from the junior varsity team) and who will be a stable, 278-pound block to build on as the Wildcats get ready to put their new look and attitude to the test on Friday in a 7:15 p.m. scrimmage against Park View.

“I’m giving our kids an opportunity to be taught this year,” Edmunds said. “My biggest task is coordinating it all.

“It’s unbelievable how we’re bringing this together.”