All hands on deck.
If Friday night’s scrimmages were any indicator of head coach Tony Vance’s new-look Tigers, then all hands on deck will be a theme during the 2019 season. The Tigers took both one-quarter scrimmages in the Hattiesburg jamboree Friday night. Hattiesburg defeated Seminary 9-0 in the first of their two scrimmages on the night. In the second scrimmage, quarterback Jermaine Powell lobbed a ball into the endzone that was caught for a touchdown with just two seconds remaining on the clock and defeated the visiting Collins Tigers 7-0 after a successful PAT.
While it was nice to come out on top, Vance was more concerned about coming away healthy and having film to look over
“Hopefully everyone came out healthy. That is always the number one goal is to come out healthy. Get some competition against guys in different colored jerseys, get a chance to hit some guys, and get hit by some guys in different colored jerseys. All in all though when playing a scrimmage is to come out healthy, get the film, and evaluate it. We will point out the good, correct the bad, and get better as a football team,” said Vance.
Speaking to his team as the night concluded, Vance was encouraged by what he saw from his team.
“Good job, way to compete. A lot of good stuff. Some stuff not so good. I saw some guys that made some plays and it caught my eye.”
The recurring narrative all offseason has been the loss of over 50 starters for the Tigers in two seasons, but Vance believes he has a young, talented team that can grow, gain an identity and be competitive down the stretch.
“I like this football team. We have a lot of guys that I like. They will grow a lot as the season goes, and we expect big things from them. As the season goes. We have a lot of youth, and it is what it is. It doesn’t matter, they have to grow and continue to get better. That’s been our goal is to get better every single day. Let’s get better today than we were yesterday.”
Hattiesburg rotated two quarterbacks in-and-out Friday night, with Jermaine Powell throwing the lone touchdown in the Collins scrimmage. Vance has still yet to name a starter and expects both candidates to see them continue to get better.
“We had two guys play tonight. We will go into next week letting both of those guys compete. We will see what they do going into next week. We have about a week to get ready, so we will see.”
The Tigers face a tough test week one as they go across the river to face the Petal Panthers this Saturday night. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.
