Barbaree moves Cobras back to run offense

The Sentinel-Record/James Leigh COBRA CHATS: First-year Fountain Lake head football coach Brandon Barbaree, second from left, speaks to reporters during the second annual 7-4A Media Day at Joe T. Robinson High School Friday. Barbaree was joined on the stage by senior quarterback Ian Lacy, senior tight end Brett Barbaree and junior multi-position athlete Jack Wurz.
The Sentinel-Record/James Leigh COBRA CHATS: First-year Fountain Lake head football coach Brandon Barbaree, second from left, speaks to reporters during the second annual 7-4A Media Day at Joe T. Robinson High School Friday. Barbaree was joined on the stage by senior quarterback Ian Lacy, senior tight end Brett Barbaree and junior multi-position athlete Jack Wurz.

LITTLE ROCK -- First-year Fountain Lake head coach Brandon Barbaree was among the eight head football coaches who spoke at the 7-4A Media Day at Joe T. Robinson High School Friday.

Barbaree, who took the reins of the Cobras football program in February after two-year head coach J.D. Plumlee was hired by Malvern in December, is moving the team back to a run-based offense after two years in the Spread.

"We're going to take the air out of the ball," he said. "We're going to try to keep it on the ground. We're going to keep that clock moving, be as sound as we can on defense, fly to the football and just try to -- we want to shorten every game. We have a guy who can make plays; we have two of them that can make plays with their arms, but the thing is, we want to control the game as much as we can."

With the graduation of running backs like Andrew Roberson and Kyle Fortner and a shift in focus to the running game, Barbaree said that he has six running backs who can pound the ground for the Cobras.

"Right now, Asa Westerman is probably our top running back coming back," he said. "He was a receiver for them last year. He's a tough, great, hard-nosed, football-minded kid. After that, we've got five other guys who are all very similar. I believe we'll just have to use them, keep [to the] ground and pound and rotate those backs through."

With the introduction of a new coach as well as a new system, one might assume there has been some resistance, but Barbaree said that is not the case.

"I did get to replace two very good coaches, two very popular coaches," he said. "But, as I say, our kids have an understanding of 'We're going to have to do something different.' ... The playmakers we've got coming back are a different type of kid. I think all six of our running backs are very capable.

"They're going to have to tote the load for us a little bit. Ian and Jack [Wurz] are going to have to make plays with their arms. I know that we're just going to have to do it a different way. The guys kind of understand that."

Barbaree said that he currently has 33 players on the team, and that "is what we have."

"That's what we're telling our kids," he said. "We're not going to find anybody else. We're the guys in the room, and we're going to fight every day. That's how we're going to have a chance to compete in ball games."

Plumlee, who has been at Malvern since December, followed the Cobras, and he pointed out that his team has nowhere to go but up after finishing 0-10 last year under Mike Scarbrough.

"We're in the process of revamping the culture, changing our minds and kind of going back and, like coach Barbaree said, doing things the right way," Plumlee said. "We're taking a step back and making sure that we're doing things daily that's going to help us be a better person and then let the scoreboard take care of itself along the way."

Malvern has a long-standing history of strong football, and Plumlee has gone back to talk with some of the team's top former players and coaches, looking for nuggets of wisdom to help turn the team around.

"I think it's dusting off the tradition that was there," he said. "I've had conversations with Madre Hill, Harold Harris. I've called those guys, and those guys have come in and we've talked about it. Coach [David] Alpe, I've gone to lunch with him four or five times and talked about the tradition there, back when I was just a little boy. I'm still a young head coach, going into Year Three for me, so I'm learning every day what it means to change the culture."

Arkadelphia head coach J.R. Eldridge, who in December led the Badgers to their first back-to-back state title, was the final coach to speak. He noted that his team has not won a conference title since 2013, despite winning two state championships.

"I'm really excited to be in this conference," he said. "It's a really, really tough conference. We haven't won the conference since 2013, and we've won two state championships since then. I think that says a lot about how tough our conference is."

The Badgers have a few key positions to fill as well with the loss of several defensive starters, three-year starting running back Zion Hatley and three-year starting kicker Gabe Goodman.

"The majority of my time at Arkadelphia, we were a two-platoon team," Eldridge said. "Last year, we started using guys both ways. Defensively, Kyren [Harrison] is one of the best linebackers in the state, but Kyren's going to play a lot at running back. ... Cannon [Turner] is a really good safety for us. He played safety and corner in some games last year, so he'll be able to fill in in the secondary where we're losing some of that experience with Victor [Tademy] and Carlos Haynie.

"Gabe was a really good football player, and he was really good because he had an outstanding work ethic, and I can't wait to see what he does in college. To be able to fill his role -- he was a great punter for us and a great field goal/PAT guy for us -- so what we're going to do right now is really allow Cannon to take over the punting duties, and we've got a young man named Ethan Savage, who in spring football has done a great job."

Among the other coaches at the press conference were Robinson's Todd Eskola, Nashville's Mike Volarvich, Bauxite's Daryl Patton, Ashdown's Matt Richardson and Haskell Harmony Grove's Mike Guthrie.

Sports on 07/20/2019

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