‘Let’s play some football!’: 4 notes from Chester, South Pointe, Ridge View scrimmage
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misidentified a South Pointe football player who participated in Saturday’s scrimmage. The Herald regrets the error.
Football fans were asked to social distance in the stands and coaches had to deliver play calls through masks — but by 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at Chester High School’s football stadium, the excitement of a new season of South Carolina’s favorite pastime was palpable.
“Let’s play some football!” a voice bellowed over the public address system.
The crowd cheered. The scoreboard horn sounded, which was heard by fans who had to park on side roads and curbs because the stadium’s parking lot was full.
And the football began.
Chester hosted 4A/5A giants South Pointe and Ridge View (of Columbia) for an intentionally structured and productive preseason scrimmage on Saturday: From 9:30 to 10 a.m., the three teams practiced defending and scoring against “inside runs” (with run-pass-options allowed). From 10 to 10:30 a.m., they worked on “perimeter” plays (which featured a lot of passing plays and some speed options). From 10:30 to 11:15 a.m., the three teams rotated through special teams competition. And then the scrimmage began after that.
“You can coach each part separately,” Floyd told The Herald when asked why the scrimmage was scheduled like it was. “Now, if I go inside run, the defensive line, your front six, are going to get coached up really hard because you know you gotta be able to stop the run. The offensive line knows that you’ve gotta be able to run the ball. Those guys get coached up really hard. The receivers gotta block. The corners have to come up and be run support. Every phase of the game gets coached.
“It allows you to break it down. And now when you put it together, you can go from there.”
Here’s an observational breakdown of Saturday’s scrimmage.
1. South Pointe has (at least) a dual threat at quarterback. And they pass the eye test.
The Stallions from Rock Hill had two players take substantial reps under center on Saturday.
One of those players has a reputation that precedes him: O’Mega Blake, a South Carolina Gamecock commit and South Pointe’s punter/corner/receiver/backup QB in 2019, was on the field for most South Pointe plays on Saturday. On offense, he split time as a wideout and behind center.
The other quarterback was junior Zaveion McCrorey, who played well, too, on Saturday.
But there’s another quarterback South Pointe has who the state of South Carolina might soon hear about: Nebanye Moore (6-3, 205 pounds) — who played at Statesville High School in Iredell County, N.C., last year. As a junior at Statesville, Moore played in 13 games and threw 24 touchdowns, nine interceptions and for over 2,800 yards, according to MaxPreps. He also added eight rushing touchdowns.
South Pointe head coach DeVonte Holloman told The Herald he was happy with how each of his quarterbacks played on Saturday, and added that Moore is still learning the offense.
“(Moore) is still learning the offense,” he said. “We’re still working him in. But he’s going to be a big help. He’s competing for the job. Right now, O’Mega is our starting quarterback, so we’ll see what happens.”
2. Chester has a few players who can ‘play-play.’
Saturday confirmed a lot of Coach Floyd’s intuitions. The most obvious one? He has some athletes.
Khamani Tobias, as a defensive back and on offense, found the football many times on Saturday. He caught two interceptions and found the endzone twice as a receiver — both times with a double move that turned around his defender.
“He can play-play,” Floyd said.
Last season, Floyd had Tobias only play corner, rationalizing that he wanted Tobias to “hone his craft” for his individual development before being asked to play both offense and defense for the team.
But this season, he’ll be busy, Floyd said.
“He can go,” Floyd said. “I have three in the NFL right now. (Tobias), he can play. I’ve had 27 defensive backs play FBS football. He can play.”
Chester quarterback Zan Dunham — who also took reps as the team’s long-snapper and free safety — showed off his arm strength and improved accuracy on Saturday. Dunham picked up offers from Virginia Tech and West Virginia this offseason. The junior is going into his third year as the team’s starting quarterback: In his first year, he led the Cyclones to a 3A state championship.
Chester ended Saturday’s scrimmage with 26 players in pads, Floyd said, but still hung tough against its deeper competition.
3. South Pointe linemen impressed their head coach.
One of the biggest question marks for this South Pointe team heading into the 2020 season was its offensive line — a group defined by its youth.
That said, Holloman was pleasantly “surprised” by the unit’s performance on Saturday.
“To see that young group, a couple tenth graders on the line, holding up against some really good defensive fronts, it makes me feel good as a coach,” he said, adding that he’s trying to keep “six or seven” linemen ready to play “at all times.”
Also of note: South Pointe junior defensive lineman Logan Daye caught an interception and almost took it for a touchdown early on in the action on Saturday. Afterward, the South Pointe sideline exploded in excitement, and players and coaches rushed Daye as he walked off the field.
5. This isn’t the last competition for South Pointe and Chester this preseason.
South Pointe will host an intra-squad scrimmage on Friday, Sept. 18, on South Pointe’s campus in Rock Hill. It’ll be an early chance for the school’s community to see the team in a year when coronavirus capacity restrictions will likely limit Friday night football fan turnout.
Holloman said Saturday’s competition was productive and helpful in an offseason with limited live competition opportunities.
“We missed so much time,” Holloman said. “We missed 7-on-7 work. We missed a lot of the summer work where we already have the little things kind of installed. You know, we repeat them over and over in practice, but it’s our first time with a referee crew. We just gotta clean it up. I keep harping on the little things, but like I said, I’m overall pleased with our play.”
Chester will travel to Blacksburg on Wednesday to scrimmage Blacksburg High School and Woodmont (of Greenville). That’ll be the last competition for the Cyclones before the regular season begins Sept. 25.
Despite the truncated offseason, Floyd said the team’s preseason scrimmage schedule has allowed his team to thoroughly prepare for the season.
“I wanted to play two athletic spread teams, and then I wanted to go against two teams that are just going to” — Floyd punches a fist into a handful of paper — “do nothing but that at us,” he said. “So athletically, we found out where we’re at. Now, we’re going to see how tough we are Wednesday. Then we’ll take nine days off, get healthy. And we’ll go.”
Added Floyd after Saturday: “We won’t see better athletes. I don’t care who we play. We won’t see better athletes in 3A football in South Carolina. That’s why I wanted this scrimmage.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 5:52 PM.
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