Mustangs face 6-0 Steers - Sweetwater / Graham Preview Article

[Phantom Stang]

Mustangs face 6-0 Steers
Written by Ron Howell
Thursday, 15 October 2009


It’s doubtful the two have talked to each other about it, but Sweetwater coach Craig Slaughter faces the same dilemma this week as Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops.
Their dilemma? How to contain the McCoy kid who plays quarterback for the other team.
Of course, Stoops will be dealing with Colt McCoy on Saturday in the annual Texas-OU shootout, while Slaughter’s thoughts are on younger brother Case, who has helped propel Graham to a 6-0 start this season and No. 6 state ranking.
Sweetwater, of course, must find a way to slow down the Steers’ talented senior QB who has thrown for 1,591 yards this season and has already committed to the University of Texas to join his older brother.
Despite a disparity in their overall records, the 1-5 Mustangs are identical to Graham — 1-0 in district play — where it counts and are pumped after beating Breckenridge 41-14 last Fri-day in their 2-3A opener to give Slaughter his first win at Sweetwater.
And Slaughter has had success in facing McCoy, who played against his Clyde teams the past three years and came away with a single win back in 2007. Clyde defeated Graham 33-14 in 2008 en route to an 11-2 record.
“We’ve had some good battles with them and I’ve seen Case develop as a quarterback,” said Slaughter. “They’re loaded with seniors this year and they are a very solid football team with only one two-way starter.
“They paid their dues last year (Graham was just 3-7) with all those underclassmen and now they’ve grown up. They think this can be their year. We have to take care of the ball and play well to have a chance to win the game, and we need to limit their possessions.”
Slaughter said his team would also have to contain the Steers’ explosiveness, as Graham is averaging just over 35 points a game and has exceeded 40 twice this season.
“It needs to be a dogfight type of game,” he said.
Graham rallied to beat Snyder, 28-14, in its 2-3A opener even though McCoy was held to 10-of-20 pas-sing for 142 yards and was picked off three times. The Steers found locked in a 14-14 tie for 3 1/2 quarters as Snyder was able to apply effective pressure with its blitz package that helped limit Graham to 279 total yards. But the Steers went ahead to stay when McCoy threw a scoring pass of 51 yards to Dylan Fulford with 6:48 remaining and added a late score on a 7-yard run by Cameron Bailey.
Sweetwater racked up a season-high 410 yards in beating Breckenridge last week. The Mustangs got a season-best 140 yards rush-ing from B.J. Walker to go with a 176-yard passing effort by sophomore quar-terback Taylor Jones. The Mustangs also had a number of defensive standouts who limited Breckenridge to 181 total yards. A.J. McCoy and Zach Wetsel had pass interceptions while McCoy, Cole Rhoades and Cameron Fox either forced or recovered fumbles.

[Rustler]

If Grahams Offense plays as sloppy as they did against Snyder Sweetwater will win. I have seen Graham play a couple of times this year. They will need to pick-up the blitz better this week and will need to spread the ball around better.

[Phantom Stang]

Here's what the Graham paper has to say:
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Steers to meet Sweetwater
by By Clay Stewart
(Posted Tue 11:48 am)
The general consensus before the season started was there were four teams in District 2-3A that were capable of making the playoffs. Graham, Snyder, Abilene Wylie and Brownwood are all teams capable of making an impact in the postseason.
Graham coach Brad McCoy doesn’t understand why the Sweetwater Mustangs were not included in the conversation or why they’re only 1-5 at this point in the season.
The Mustangs picked up their first win last week and it was a big one. A 41-14 victory over Breckenridge gave the Mustangs the same 1-0 record the Steers have after week one of district play.
“I guarantee their telling their kids that if they beat Graham this week, they’re in the playoffs,” said coach Brad McCoy. “It could be true.”
Two wins in an extremely competitive disrict could slide a team in in third place if the cards fall exactly right, but the Steers are banking that a victory over Sweetwater will put them in the playoffs as well.
It won’t be an easy victory, however. While Sweetwater might not be as talented as Snyder was up front on both offense and defense, the Mustangs will trot out several skill players that will be dangerous.
“I don’t know how they’re 1-5,” McCoy said. “They haven’t played to their potential. They’re very strong and have great skill players. They may be weaker up front and not as athletic, but they’re every bit as athletic in back.”
Coach Craig Slaughter took the reigns at the beginning of the season and has brought the same sort of offense he ran and had success with at Clyde in recent years. The Mustangs will run some I-formation, some spread and some shotgun with two-backs.
“They’re trying to find what works for them,” McCoy said. “They’ve got a good quarterback to run things. He’s young, but good.”
Running back B.J. Walker is one of a few returners on offense. The Mustangs will feature a 6-4, 225-pound back who has great speed.
“If they decide to give him the ball 25 times, someone is going to be in trouble,” McCoy said.
But the Mustangs hang their hat on defense. After watching the Snyder game film, there’s little doubt that Sweetwater will bring blitzes from all parts of the world to try to rattle Case McCoy.
“They haven’t been a real blitzing team so far,” McCoy said. “But they will be. From here on out, all we’ll see is blitzes. They rely on short fields and they’ve gotten several defensive touchdown.”
The Steers will see a familiar look. Sweetwater will run an odd-man front, mostly with a 3-3 stack defense.
“They run a lot of zone coverages,” McCoy said. “They have two kids who have been all state and really understand how to play defense. They get to the ball. Their safeties are really good.”
The big question for the Steers is whether they can get away from the turnovers that plagued them Friday. If Graham can control the ball, they’ll put up points.
Since they’ll have to sell out on defense to stop the run, they’ll try to make the Mustangs beat them another way. McCoy said they are capable of that.
“All their skill guys are capable of making catches and having long runs,” he said. “We can’t take them lightly at all.”
But for the Steers, a victory puts them in the driver’s seat, so a lot is at stake. If the district race somehow ends up in a three-way tie, Graham holds the maximum 14-point advantage over Snyder in the points tiebreaker. It remains to be seen how the rest will shake down.

Graham Leader (http://grahamleader.com/index.asp?Story=17073)