Metro Prep Football Media Day: Great expectations

Compared to last weeks Southeastern Conference Media Days in Hoover, the metro Birmingham edition of that event is sedate.

That’s more than can be said for the issues some of the attending coaches face, such as Mortimer Jordan’s Greg Watts — who is still not sure exactly where his season opener against Pinson Valley will be played.

Jordan was one of four local teams — including Gardendale, Corner and Fultondale — among the 30 or so AHSAA schools from Jefferson and northern Shelby counties to take part in the annual meet-and-greet session with sports reporters, held again this year at the Gardendale Civic Center.

By this time, Watts and his Blue Devils were scheduled to be enjoying their brand new facility on what used to be called Bone Dry Road, now Blue Devil Drive in Kimberly.

But schedules have a way of changing, and now he’s wondering if a certificate of occupancy will be granted in time for the August 26 opener, or if they’ll be forced back to Trotter Stadium in Morris.

“I pulled up the other day in my truck and saw 80 rolls of sod, so I’m thinking we’re good,” Watts said. “The superintendent pulled around and said that if we don;t get the red rubber [surfacing] sprayed on the track, then we can’t get a certificate of occupancy before the first game. We’re a team without a field right now. We’ll play at the old school if we have to. I’ve been cutting [that field] every day.”

Watts has a big hole to fill at linebacker, with the loss of standout Rod Washington to graduation. “I don’t know that we’ve got a Rod Washington replacement,” he said. “Rod did a really good job for us. Defensively, we’re going to have to be creative.”

The Devils have junior Orion Recke returning as the starting quarterback, but he has some help from sophomore Devlin Hodges.

“I don’t guess we’ve ever been as blessed as we are right now … at quarterback,” Watts said. “Recke is 6-2 and smart as a whip. We also have Hodges, who may be the most competitive kid I’ve been around in a long time. Now we have two competitive quarterbacks, when in the past we didn’t have any. I want to play both.”

For Gardendale, the hole to fill measures 6-foot-7. Quarterback Dallas Tidwell is gone to Troy, and the Rockets coaching staff hasn’t picked a replacement yet.

“We have a quarterback-friendly offense, so we believe we can just plug in the next guy and keep going,” said assistant coach Rusty Rouse. “We’ll have a lot of new faces on offense. We have four returning, two wide receivers and a tight end.”

Among those receivers is Ja’Michael Willis, who tied a state record for most touchdown catches in a single game when he and Tidwell connected for six in against Bessemer City.

Fultondale brings back its two stars from last year, quarterback Ardarius Stewart and running back/receiver Deundrea Marshall. Stewart gained fame last year for being the first Wildcat to run and pass for 1,000 yards each in a single season.

“We’re going to spread it out, and we’re going back to a wing-T out of the shotgun,” head coach Keith Register said. “We’ve got a junior that didnt get to play last year, Dante Stanley, who will play in our backfield, and that’ll give us a bit more depth than last year. Our offensive line is better, too.”

That line was an issue in 2010, despite Stewart’s gaudy stats.

“We’re younger, but we have two seniors on the line. We’ve had some kids come up from our junior high program, and we’re getting a couple of kids back due to grades,” Register said.

Corner returns quite a few starters from last year — more than anytime since coach Brent Smith did his first stint at the school. But one big loss is graduated linebacker Jared Causey.

“We really don’t have anybody that’s stepped up to do what he could do,” Smith said. “But our offensive line has three- and four-year starters, every one of them.”

Blake Byrd assumes the starter’s role at quarterback, after sharing the spot last year. Receiver Cary Smith moves to become Byrd’s backup. Nick Webb, the Yellow Jackets’ leading receiver the last two years, is also back. So is junior kicker Troy Elliott, who won two games late for Corner last season, and whom Smith says is a NCAA Division I college prospect.

The season begins with jamboree games on August 18-19, followed by regular season openers on August 25-26.