Latest / Houston County Football Coach's Show Jeremy Edwards / 2023: Outstanding Young Men

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2023: Outstanding Young Men · Houston County Football Coach's Show Jeremy Edwards

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  All right, welcome guys to our first conversation of the twenty twenty three high
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  school football season with Jeremy Edwards, of course, the head coach of the
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  Houston County Bears. This will be the first of many conversations we have every
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  week this twenty twenty three high school fotball season, as we've talked with Coach
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  Edwards about what's happening with the Hoko Bears, how the games have been in
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  the season as a whole, and of course we'll preview the upcoming game.
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  So without further ado, let's so welcome in Jeremy Edwards kicking off his second
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  season as the head coach at Houston County. Coach. How are you and
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  thank you for doing this with us, Yes, sir, I'm good,
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  Phil, it's it's it's good to be back talking with you during football season.
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  Same here, coach, Same here. Weather may not exactly feel like
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  football weather, but I don't think anybody can deny if the fever pitch is
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  in the air, everybody's ready to get going. And I say ready to
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  get going. I guess that's mainly from a fan standpoint, because you guys
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  have always been going, y'all have been going all summer long. Let's start
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  there and kind of bring us up to speed. How has this all season
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  been and kind of fill us in on what the Hoko Bears have been up
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  to. I'll tell you what, Phil, it's it's been a about as
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  good offseason as I've been a part of. You know, we've had a
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  pretty busy summer. Obviously, just like everybody else in the state. We
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  go in June about three three times a week. In July we go four
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  times a week. So you know, we kind of build towards the season.
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  You know, we're gonna get our our OTAs in. We went to
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  vald Austin and Fitzgerald to take part with some good competition down there in South
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  Georgia, and you know, did a couple of seven. All seven's had
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  some success and just you know, continue to try to get one percent better
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  every day and and kind of our motto for this year is to keep chopping
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  wood. That's that's what we've been trying to do. And leading up to
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  our our scrimmage coming up this week against Mary Persons. Coach you kicked off
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  of course to coming from one of Robbins, you come across town, you
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  get the head coaching position there at Houston County and immediately you seize on the
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  opportunity. And you guys had a really good season. Talk about last year
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  and it's truth is you've got a lot of guys coming back from that team.
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  Yeah, we're we're pretty excited about this season with the amount of seniors
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  that we have, and not only just seniors, but a bunch of great
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  kids and great leaders. We have thirty six seniors. We've added a couple.
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  We had thirty four, we've got two more now, so we're up
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  to thirty six on the with the seniors, and uh return a good bit
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  on both sides of the ball. You know, we lost a couple of
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  d linement, lost the safety on defense, lost a two alignment on offense,
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  but pretty much the core guys are back and so that that obviously leads
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  to a lot of excitement. There's a lot of experience on both sides of
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  the ball, so, you know, not a lot of learning, just
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  trying to fine tune, you know, what we do and and and try
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  to make it to where we you know, we're not having to think.
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  We're just playing fast and and most of all, kids are having a good
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  time. So you guys advanced to the quarter finals of the Class six A
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  state playoffs last year. He had an amazing run. What are the things
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  that you hope man, listen, I know last year is this you know
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  is in the rear view mirror. I get it. But you can't help
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  but be proud of what your team did. And I would think that you
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  certainly want to carry over a lot of that momentum that led to what was
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  eleven win season last year. Coach, we were ten and three, uh
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  obviously to the to the third round, Yeah, ran up against Gainesville.
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  So yeah, I mean, we're we're super excited about the foundation that was
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  paid last year with you know, with my first year being here and get
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  this program back on the on the map, so to speak. You know,
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  obviously there was a lot of excitement when Jake from played here and and
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  so we want to try to recapture that, you know, and we were
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  able to to be pretty successful right out of the gate, and which leads
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  to expectations going into this year. But honestly, that's I wouldn't have it
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  any other way. Well, and again that's kind of the way I look
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  at things. You know, some coaches really don't want to go back and
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  reflect. I think it's important, especially when you've had a lot of pauses,
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  which you guys did, and when, as you mentioned, as we've
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  talked about briefly, got a lot of guys coming back, and of course
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  it all starts with the two guys that touched the ball every down and you're
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  centering your quarterback. Let's start there and kind of give us an overview of
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  the offense. Yeah, well, we're gonna have to replace our center.
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  You know, they graduated. We had two actually our starting center in our
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  backup. We're both seniors. So coming into this season, we've got a
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  couple of guys that we're working at that position. Hazellerbe who will be a
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  junior, and then Khalil House who has started at guard for us for for
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  last year and started at at guard his sophomore season before we got here,
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  so he's got a lot of snaps and so we're kind of rotating both of
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  those guys in at the center position, trying to figure out, you know,
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  depending on the scheme that we're facing, it could change, and you
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  know, there's a lot that goes into it. Got to be good at
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  snapping the ball because we're in the gun one hundred percent of the time pretty
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  much. So you know, those those two guys have done a great job.
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  We've got some young guys that will also be able to step up if
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  needed. And then obviously at quarterback, we've got a J. Hill who
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  this will be his third year as the starter after starting his freshman sophomore years
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  and really kind of had a breakout year last year. You know, what
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  we do schematically I think helped him. But he's a he's a football guy,
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  and no matter what you run, he's gonna be successful. I just
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  think that after his freshman year, getting that experience leading into a sophomore year
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  help. And then you know, he's just he's really good at what we
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  do and he's grown more as a leader in the off season and so I'm
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  real proud of that, and I think he's gonna have another great, great
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  season this season for sure. Joch, you got one of the best quarterbacks
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  in the state in uh in A J. Hill. We hear a lot
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  about how good he is. Of course, you have a chance to work
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  with him every day, and not only that, but you work intimately with
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  him because you are the play caller, you are the offensive guy. Talk
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  about just how good he is when you see him up close and personal every
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  day. Well up close and personal, he's gigantic, that's for sure.
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  You know, I'm not a very tall guy, so I like it seems
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  like I just come up to the dude's waist to me and uh, but
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  yeah, he's in person, he's he's impressive, about six five, put
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  on some weight, really filling out on his body. Just turned sixteen last
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  month, so he's a young junior, but he can make all the throws.
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  He's the guy, extremely strong arm. You know, he's really done
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  a good job of working this offseason and kind of polishing up his release.
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  You know, it's getting out a little quicker than than when he was younger,
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  he was a little he was along with the way that he was he
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  was throwing. So he's you know, he's done a great job on his
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  fundamentals, you know, and studying our offense. I mean, he's he
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  he knows it inside now, so we're able to kind of do something more
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  things with him checking plays and getting us into good looks and and ultimately you
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  know, uh, leading our offense. And it's just uh it's a blessing
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  to have a guy like that's I mean, he's kind of a generational guy.
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  I mean, he's really really good and gonna have a great career after
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  high school. And uh, but we got him for two more years,
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  so we're happy about that. We're talking with Houston County hit football coach Jeremy
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  Edwards as he gets ready to take his beers. It'll be the second season
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  for coach Edwards after taking over the program. Uh, last season had a
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  great run Class six A h State quarterfinals and this year, of course,
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  hopes are high once again. All right, So take us through the defensive
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  side of the ball. Yeah, defensively, you know, we were short
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  a coach on that side last year, so we we've made some hires,
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  had to replace some guys that moved on. We had some coaches. Actually
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  it's pretty rare. We had some coaches move on the past season, not
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  to go to other programs, but to go into administrations. So was that
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  and that was their goal in their career. So we were happy for them
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  to get those opportunities. But defensively, we were short of guy, so
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  we we hadded a couple of coaches on that side of the ball, which
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  I think are that have already paid dividends for us. But you know,
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  nothing really changing schematically from what we do. It's just getting more eyes out
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  there, more guys get coached. You know. We've got a couple of
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  guys that have gotten some offers and committed. Xavier Ryan, he's gonna play
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  line outside linebacker Forrest, committed to Army. Jacarry Brown has committed to Georgia
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  Southern. He's one of our corners. But we've got a handful of guys
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  in the secondary that I've played a lot of snaps. J D. Smith
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  and safety obviously, Decarry Brown at corner, Darius Patterson at corner, and
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  Deronte de Nard is gonna do a great job replacing Arthur Brown who's went on
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  to play at Charleston Southern, as well as jay Neeley who will also play
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  some some corner for us. So all those guys in addition to Xavier Ryan
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  at linebacker, and then Brandon Walden's had a great summer in spring who's moved
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  into inside linebacker and he's really done a great job transforming his body and feel
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  like he'll have a great season for us as well. On defensive Jaden Jackson
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  on the D line, is a is A is a good player. Nate
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  Langham on the D line, and I could go on and on. I
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  had to brag on our players now, don't They're phenomenal kids? Yeah?
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  And will you should Yeah. So it's you know, there's a lot of
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  guys that are that are making this uh, making this defense what it's gonna
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  be. I'm very excited about that side of the ball, in the progress
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  they've made and what we've seen all summer. We're wrapping up with Houston County
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  hit football coach Jeremy Edwards. We'll be talking with the coach every week as
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  we give you an update, looking back on the previous week's game and of
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  course looking ahead to the upcoming game. And coach, I tell you before
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  we do that, I want to make sure we get in our kickers and
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  punters, give us an update on where the Bears are as far as your
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  kicking game and punt team. Yeah, Benjie Malcolm is gonna be our kicker
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  this year. He's gonna be a senior, so we're excited about him.
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  I misspoke that on my safety and I hate to do it because I love
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  the kid, but it's j D. Smith. I screwed that up,
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  Phil, It's j. D. Smith is our safety, Okay, gonna
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  be it. He's gonna be a two year starter. He's a great player
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  at safety. So I want to make sure that I get that right for
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  you. But you got it. Welcome is gonna be our kicker. And
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  Jaden Jackson, our d lineman, is actually our punter. He's a crazy
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  he's a freaky athlete. Now he's very fast to be so big, about
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  six foot two fifty, but he can really punt it. So it's it's
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  kind of a rarity, but uh, well but it's it's exciting to watch
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  him. Hopefully we don't have to punt a lot though. Yeah, that's
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  one guy that you love to have him, but you just don't don't want
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  to use him a whole lot. Absolutely, that's right. All right,
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  So coach, we'll wind up with this. So what's the deal with the
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  preseason scrimmage? When is it? Who is it? And then take us
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  uh as far as your first first apparent of the year. Yeah, we're
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  going to go to Forthsith Friday night to play Mary Persons in our scrimmage game.
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  Uh, we're gonna go about a half with our our varsity guys and
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  the second half of our JV guys. Uh, quarterbacks aren't live. Special
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  teams aren't live. So it's it's it's a true scrimmage. It's gonna be
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  a good test for our defense. They got a really really good running back
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  there, Mary Persons. Uh, Duke Watson. He's really good. I
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  think he's committed to Louisville now. So that's gonna be a good, good
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  challenge for our defense right out of the gate we get a chance to see
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  him. Uh. And then going into our first game, we play Sumter
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  County Americas Sumter and they got a new coach. Uh, it's their DC
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  took over. Uh, So I assume they'll be very similar defensively as far
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  as their scheme goes. And then uh, you know, we'll just have
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  to see. We'll trade some films with them. With their they'll play their
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  scrimmage Friday night and then we'll we'll trade film and it'll be our home openers.
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  So it'll be exciting here at Freedom Field, and it's gonna be it's
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  gonna be an exciting season. Indeed, it is that I tell you can
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  just hear the excitement and the enthusiasm in your voice, and it certainly carries
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  over to the team. I'm sure, Jeremy Edwards, head coach of the
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  Houston County Bears. Coach, We're gonna look forward to having these conversations every
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  week, Yes, sir, I always enjoy it, Phil, Thank you
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  so much. Yeah, thank you, coach, and I do too,
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  Thank you so much. All right, all right, there is as Jeremy
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  Edwards, head coach of the Hoko Bears. We'll be doing this every week,
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  guys, so fans of the Houston County Bears, a great treat to
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  hear from your head football coach as he breaks it down for us. Who
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  they just played, Who's coming up? Grug great individual accomplishments and so on
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  and so on again, our weekly conversation with Jeremy Edwards, head coach of
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  the Hoko Bears, right here at it g next and with me your host,
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  Phil Jones. You guys, have a great week and until next week,
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  see you guys.