NOTE: There are only 36 days left until the start of the 2015 high school football season -- both around the state and right here in northeast Georgia. With that in mind, AccessWDUN is already in full preparation mode. Over the next three weeks we will give you a sneak peek of what’s in store for 2015 with our "Two-A-Days" series. We will bring you two key questions -- and answers -- for each program in our coverage area, twice a day. Each morning will start a new program, with another highlighted each afternoon. And at the end of each week we will also provide some video footage and commentary from area coaches. Programs will run in alphabetical order.
Lanier will go from the hunter to the hunted in 2015. And the Longhorns and coach Korey Mobbs seem just fine with that.
The Longhorns are less than a season removed from posting a perfect 10-0 regular season and winning their first-ever Region 8-AAAAA title. But a gut-wrenching loss to Sequoyah in the first round of the playoffs left them feeling unsatisfied and they come into 2015 with the dual pressure of being considered the early favorite to repeat and having perhaps the nation's No. 1 prospect in defensive end Derrick Brown.
We caught up with Mobbs to find out how they are handling the newly-discovered pressure that comes with heightened expectations and distractions.
QUESTION: You are having to replace four guys on the OL and your two best WR, including Timothy Leazer, on offense. How are things looking as fall practice approaches?
ANSWER: We’re going to build off our QB, Tahj Tolbert, who returns for us, and three RBs, inlcuding Ashton Barnes. But we will have to replace four of our five linemen, which will hurt us in the experience factor, and you can’t discount the impact that Tim Leazer had on this team. Every time we needed a big play deep to stretch the field, he gave us one, so that is a much bigger loss than people realize. But we’ve had a good summer where we’ve started from nothing and after every 7-on-7 and every practice we’ve gotten better on the line and at receiver. It’s still going to take time to be able to have the kind of plays Leazer gave us so we’ll have to rely a little more on our running game. But I feel we’re making progress in addressing both of those areas.
QUESTION: You posted a perfect regular season before getting upset in the first round of the playoffs in 2014. This year you will have the added pressure of being considered the team to beat in 8-AAAAA, not to mention having perhaps the nation’s top prospect in Derreck Brown. How are y’all handling the newfound expectations and distractions that come with that?
ANSWER: It almost really began for us after the playoff loss last year. It left a terrible taste in our mouth even though we had a great season to go undefeated in the regular season. The first thing we feel like we need to address is being tougher. As far as expectations, we want to be one of those teams that people point to every year. With that comes having to live up to those expectations. But this is not last year’s team. We told the kids in the spring we were done talking about last year. That’s over and done with. As for Derrick, he has done a great job of handling the pressure that comes with something like that. He’s a tremendous kid that hangs out with the guys that bring him up. He works his tail off. But he has helped Lanier with exposure for other guys on the team and exposure for the school. It’s exciting for all of us to be involved with that and we’re very proud of him.
COMING UP NEXT: Lumpkin County
