Daryl Patton has coached some tremendous offenses since he became a high school head coach at his alma mater in 1998. Some of those great offensive teams were at Bryant but since he moved to Fayetteville — well, the two quarterbacks at the top of the depth chart at the University of Arkansas are former Bulldogs.
But none of done some of the things that this season’s offense has done. For one thing, they average 55 points a game and 445 yards per outing. Quarterback Taylor Powell has thrown for 2,987 yards and 44 touchdowns with just five interceptions over 11 games. Top receiver Tyson Morris has caught 50 passes for 781 yards and 11 touchdowns while five other receivers have 20 or more receptions. Running backs Javontae Smith and Luke Rapert each has 94 carries on the season. Smith has picked up 737 yards and 10 touchdowns. Rapert has rushed for 733 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“We’ve played unreal this year,” Patton acknowledged. “We’ve got playmakers at every spot. If you look at our stats on the year, I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ve got a lot of weapons.
“It’s just crazy,” he continued. “We don’t go into a game trying to get the ball to certain people; we go in to take what the defense gives us. We’ve done a good job of that all year.”
So this week, in the quarterfinals of the Class 7A State playoffs, Patton brings his juggernaut to his hometown to take on Bryant’s Hornets and longtime friend and former assistant Paul Calley. Both coaches insisted it’s about their players and their teams, not them going against each other.
“I look forward to coming back home and seeing everybody,” Patton said.
The Bulldogs, 9-2, are coming in off a 67-36 beat-down of West Memphis. Their lone losses this season were to league rivals, Springdale Har-Ber 47-43 and Bentonville 37-26. Bryant, as the top seed from the Central Conference, had a bye last week. Two weeks ago, the Hornets wrapped up the regular season with a 17-10 win over rival Conway. Bryant’s lone loss was 38-7 at undefeated Greenwood.
Few give Bryant much of a chance of winning. The Hornets, of course, would like nothing better than to shock them all.
“It is a supreme challenge,” Calley acknowledged. “Offensively, they’re so good up front, they can man protect with five and that makes it hard on a defense. They’ve got a quarterback that can throw pitch screens from one hash to outside the numbers on the far side of the field. Making the defense cover the entire field from sideline to sideline, that’s college ability.
“Their receivers are so hard to tackle,” he added. “They’re so fast. They’re so good in open space. Everybody I’ve talked to that has played them — that has given up a lot of points — were not able to tackle those receivers in space. We’re not going to keep them from catching balls. We’ve just got to make sure that we wrap them up.
“People talk about their defense giving up points,” Calley continued. “But their defense spends a lot of time on the field because their offense’s scoring drives average about two minutes or less. So their defense is right back out there. Their overall team speed is just impressive. They’ve got a defensive lineman that’s been offered by Mississippi State, is probably going to be offered by Alabama and Florida State before it’s over with. That’s been a major concern of ours. They’ve got a couple of good d-ends. I know they’ve had injury problems at linebacker but they’re starting to get those guys back. The secondary, they’ve got two corners that are very, very good.”
“I think it’s going to be a heck of a football game,” Patton said. “Bryant’s got a great program. Paul and those guys have done a great job. It’s remarkable to see them lose so many good players over the course of a season and they don’t miss a beat. They’re very, very talented in what they do and they are a great concern for us. We know it’s going to be a battle for four quarters.”
On the way to their 9-1 record, the Hornets, indeed, have lost two top running backs, their starting middle linebacker and a starting safety among others.
“Their size on the defensive line and offensive line is really impressive,” Patton continued. “Every one of their kids runs really well and they tackle well in space. That’s kind of what our game’s always been here is to try to create match-up problems with our playmakers in space.
“Offensively, I’m sure they’re going to try to shorten the game, running the football, three yards and a cloud of dust type stuff, and keep our offense off the field,” he related. “That’s what most teams have tried to do this year. And that’s a concern. We’ve got to get them off the field.”
Calley acknowledged that, saying, “That’s what we have to do. We’ve got to take time off the clock. But we also have to score. The last couple of weeks, we’ve not been good in the red zone. We move the ball up and down the field then we struggle in the red zone. We’ve spent a lot of time over the last two weeks on short yardage red zone plays. Hopefully, we can execute those. It’s imperative that we put points on the board. Fayetteville is going to score. We’ve got to try to stay with them. I don’t know if we can.
“We’ve got to hope that we can win the kicking game,” he stated. “Our punting game has been suspect all year but, as far as kickoffs, kickoff-returns, we’ve been solid. We’ve got to make sure that we can at least flip the field in the punting game if we don’t score. A big key is field position. I know that they can go 80 in one play. It’s going to take us about 10 but that’s also to our advantage if we can continue to make first downs.”
The Hornets’ ground game, despite the injuries, has produced 2,543 yards on the ground, led by junior running back DeAmonte Terry, who comes into the game with 927 yards rushing on 145 carries. Quarterback Gunnar Burks has rushed for 476 yards and passed for 1,091 yards and 10 touchdowns. Top receiver Aaron Orender has 27 catches for 462 yards and five scores.
The Bryant coach also knows that his defense will be challenged like it hasn’t been all season. The Hornets have been the stingiest defense in the 7A/6A-Central, giving up an average of 273 yards a game, just 112 yards per outing on the ground. Nine different players have been in on over 40 tackles with safety Jaelyn Jones leading with 78.
“I think we’ve gotten much better on defense, just the amount of time on the field after we finally settled on who the better defensive backs were, the guys that can really do it, and they got more reps. We’ve gotten much better.”
Though he said he still would’ve rather played a game last week to keep his team in its routine and rhythm, Calley mentioned, “I think knowing that we were probably going to play Fayetteville gave us a jump. Normally, we’re kind of in limbo knowing who to prepare for but we weren’t really in limbo. We’ve been able to get two good weeks of work in. We were able to add a few new wrinkles and do some things, which was good.
No doubt a Bryant win would shock the state football world but, of course, every once in a while the state football world needs a good shock.
The Arkansas High School State Playoffs are administered by the Arkansas Activities Association. Only AAA passes will be accepted. (District passes and Senior Citizen passes will not be accepted; reserved seating is not allowed.) Ticket price is $6. Gates open at 5 p.m., kickoff is at 7.
