Dragons looking strong on both lines
The Carroll football program incurred heavy losses at its skill positions after the 2015 season, but head coach Hal Wasson is optimistic because most of his offensive line and his entire defensive line return.
To start, Carson Green, who was playing right tackle in 2015, has moved to left tackle. Justin Lee, who made several starts last year, is the center. Matthew Leehan is at left guard. Henry Kling, who was dealing with a broken leg, is at right guard. Jackson Campbell moves up from the junior varsity to play right tackle.
“I really believe this has a chance to be one of the best offensive lines we’ve had in years,” Wasson said. “They’re strong. They’re athletic. They’re really good and they want to be really good. They have the makings.
“It’s one thing to want to be good. But they really are putting in the work to do that. That’s going to help.”
Considering that Carroll is breaking in a completely new wide receiver corps and needs to find more answers at running back, an experienced offensive line can allow those players to develop at a normal pace.
Moving Green from right to left tackle was one of the first things new offensive line coach Zach Bryant did. The move seemed like a no-brainer since Green was taking over for Lucas Tribble. Green verbally committed to Texas A&M in April after previously being committed to SMU. Plus, an offensive line wants its elder statesman to protect the quarterback’s [Mason Holmes] blind side.
“When [Bryant] put him there, I didn’t have any issues with it,” Wasson said. “I trusted that decision completely. If these guys are not good, we’re in trouble. They’re going to have to be good. But I really like them.”
Defensive line
Everything that nose tackle Ryan Miller (6-2, 235) and defensive ends Lucas Jeter (6-2, 225) and Jackson Cantor (6-3, 230) experienced in 2015 was a trial-by-fire scenario. But now, it’s all coming second nature.
Each came to camp 15-20 pounds heavier than last year. What Wasson is hoping for is that each can hold up his part of the front, play in and play out.
“They’re much more confident,” Wasson said. “They have 12 games under their belt [from 2015]. They were undersized last year. But now they have everything going for them this year. We need them to be more active in the base this year. We blitzed too much last year. If we don’t blitz as much this year, we’ll have a better season.”
The difference
With Mark Humble moving from running backs coach to offensive coordinator – Humble is also coaching the quarterbacks – there have been some differences in the way he calls the offense as opposed to how Clayton George did it. George became the head coach at Tyler Lee earlier this year.
“I can already see his blueprint on things,” Wasson said. “I know Mark. I trust what he’s doing and how he’s doing it.”
Humble and Bryant weren’t the only assistant coaching changes made. Wasson hired Clint Nelson from Northwest Byron Nelson to coach cornerbacks and Russell Phillips from Denton Guyer to coach running backs. Wasson also promoted Justin Feaster from the freshman team to wide receivers coach. Feaster came to Carroll from Colleyville Heritage in 2015 after Darren Allman left to become Carroll’s new AD.
Notable
Carroll’s spring game is 7 p.m. Wednesday at Dragon Stadium.
This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Dragons looking strong on both lines."