By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



Successful high school football programs often have senior-dominated lineups. In Morris this fall, it’s likely the Mortimer Jordan Blue Devils starters will likely feature plenty of seniors on one side of the ball, but a may be a little less experienced on the other side.

“The way it looks right now, we’ll probably have as many as eight seniors starting on offense,” Mortimer Jordan head coach Greg Watts said. “Now, defense will be another story. We’ll be younger over there. We could have as many as seven juniors start on that side.”

Watts wants a better offensive output this fall.

“We’re working on our weak-side offense,” he said. “We want to see better play out of our offensive line over last year’s performance.”

Watts and the Blue Devil’s coaching staff have several key players to replace from the 2007 squad.

Two of the seniors from a year ago, the Blue Devils must replace, include halfback Brent Nation and defensive end John “Jabo” Burrow.

“Those two are college players,” Watts said. “One signed with UNA (Nation) and the other with Vanderbilt (Burrow). Those guys will be hard to replace.”

Skylar Myrick, who will be a junior this fall, will move to Nation’s half back position in the Blue Devil’s Wing-T offense.

“We think Skylar can do the job, but we’ll also give freshman Marquis Dobbs a chance to see some time there,” Watts said. “We’ll just have to see how he develops.”

A replacement for Burrow has yet to be decided upon, and may not be until fall.

“We thought we had the answer to replace “Jabo” at end, but after moving a kid over there for a while, we knew it wouldn’t work out, so we’re back to square one on that one,” Watts added.

Watts must find a replacement for two-year starter at quarterback, John Paul Motte. According to Watts, the coaching staff is sure they’ve found the player to step into Motte’s shoes.

“It’s probably Blake Renshaw, who’ll be our quarterback,” Watts said. “He’s been our B-team quarterback for a while and did a great job. We’ll also look at Justin Mack over there.”

Mack, who is expected to be one of the leaders of the defense at free safety, could be one of several players who see action on both offense and defense.

“We’ll be working lots of kids on both sides of the ball,” Watts said. “We’re concentrating this spring on consistency and if we have to play kids on both sides to get it—we will.”

On defense, Watts is counting on linebacker Chris Hardin to have a big year.

The Blue Devils will conclude spring drills on May 13 when the host Fultondale for a spring game. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Jimmie Trotter Stadium.