The Skinny
Coach Zito’s Ola Mustangs enter the 2018 season without the services of All-State OL Austin Smith and All-State Honorable Mention Running Back, Chris Rodriguez. Smith led a line that helped pave the way for a 1,669 yard season for Rodriguez. We asked Coach Zito about this new crop of Mustangs.
“(We) are very young and inexperienced in a lot of positions,” Coach Zito said.
The Mustangs will look to senior tackle Daniel Campbell to anchor the offensive line. Junior Chandler Durham, will also be asked to step in and compete on both the offensive and defensive line this season. Junior Hunter Kautz is poised to take over at quarterback. He saw limited action under center last season, appearing in 3 games at the position.
Ola does boast a trio of talented wide receivers that should be able to relieve some of the pressure on the new starting signal caller. Jourdan Cooper led the team in receptions last season and returns for his senior season ready to improve on last year’s performance. Joseph Miller and Dillon Scott look to add depth at the receiver position.
Similar to the offense, the Mustang defense will need to replace seven of their eight top tacklers from a year ago.
Junior linebacker Baylen Sanders, (5thin tackles last season), will be called upon to help fill the void left by graduation. Nose guard Clay Sumner, lineman Jonathan Puckett and the aforementioned Chandler Durham join Sanders as players that should step in and replace the production from a year ago.
There is no one particular game circled on the calendar for Coach Zito. He knows that all of the region games are important.
“Ask the Mustang players,” Zito said, “they would say Locust Grove and Stockbridge”.
We asked Coach Zito how he believes success will be defined this season.
“I think every year the goals are consistent…. compete for a region championship, make the playoffs, host a home playoff game, win a playoff game. We made the playoffs for the first time in school history 2 years ago,” he said.
It seems that Coach Zito has the blueprint in place, we’ll see if his young Mustangs can learn fast and get back to the playoffs.
