By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports
As Year 2 of the Dillon Barrett era of Many Tiger football begins Friday night, Barrett hopes the Tigers can build on last year’s quarterfinal finish.
But with perennial Class 1A power Logansport coming to town Friday night, Barrett will need to see more from his Tigers than he did in last week’s jamboree loss to Jena in the Bayou Jamb at UL Monroe’s Malone Stadium.
Barrett said he was “really pleased” with his team’s showing in a scrimmage against Class 5A Huntington two weeks ago, and he liked the energy the Tigers played with early against Jena in the jamboree.
“I thought we played well the first several drives of the game,” Barrett said. “We were matching their physicality up front. We were moving the ball offensively. Obviously, we didn’t convert and score, but we were moving the ball fairly decently.”
Jena converted a fake punt that led to its first touchdown and took a two-score lead into halftime. Barrett said he wasn’t pleased with the way the Tigers responded in the second half, and the game got away in a 30-0 loss.
“When we got down, I felt like we lost our morale,” Barrett said. “We lost our energy and our enthusiasm. We’ve got to improve in that area.”
Another area the Tigers must improve is finishing drives offensively.
That begins with senior quarterback Levi Booker, who returns after missing all of last season with a broken collarbone to trigger the Tigers’ spread offense. Booker’s top weapons will be senior receiver Ky Warren and sophomore running back Daniel Thomas.
Defensively, the Tigers will run a base 3-3 Stack, but Barrett said they have the ability to present multiple fronts. Senior middle linebacker Jonathan “J.J.” Anderson will anchor the defense along with junior outside linebacker Payton Hyden and junior safety Jonas Hendrickson.
“We want to be the aggressor, not just defensively but offensively as well,” Barrett said. “We want to be the aggressor in every game. We want to be smart while doing that, but we’re going to send pressure.”
Barrett said his team will feature more guys playing both ways this season, which will present some early-season challenges as they learn the expectations on both sides of the football.
The Tigers play a challenging non-district schedule featuring a pair of 1A teams in Logansport and St. Mary’s at home with a pair of 4A teams sandwiched between in DeRidder and Leesville before traveling to Class 5A Alexandria in Week 5.
It all begins Friday night with a team that Barrett says is well-coached and has a chance to play for a state championship in the Superdome every year.
“They’re really good at what they do,” Barrett said of Logansport. “They know their identity offensively and defensively. That’s very important in the success of a team.”