JEFFERSON — Perhaps fortunately for the Jefferson football team, not everything went according to plan last week.
The Dragons planned to use their experienced and talented offensive line to open holes mainly for senior Darrian Hill and sophomore Colby Wood. Early on, things were running smoothly with the Dragons leading Rabun County 7-0.
“Our plan was to give Darrian and Colby about 10 to 15 carries each and let our line kind of wear them down,” Jefferson coach ben Hall said. “It’s early in the season and you don’t want to overuse someone in the first game. I thought we were doing a good job of rotating them.”
Then Hill’s legs began to cramp up forcing Hall and his staff to devise a new plan.
“Darrian needed liquids and we decided to try and save him more for defense and Colby just really stepped up for us,” Hall said. “It wasn’t how we wanted to do it but that’s what was needed.”
Wood responded with the best performance by an individual Dragons running back in seven seasons. He finished with a whopping 27 carries for 264 yards and three touchdowns to help lead Jefferson to a 19-7 victory.
“When Darrian went down I just tried to fill in,” Wood said. “I was just thankful they believed in me.”
“That’s a lot of carries in one game, especially the first game, and that’s something we really didn’t want to do,” Hall said. “But Colby was running hard and the guys up front were opening big holes so we just kept giving the ball to him. He shouldered the load and did a fine job.
“Colby is a very smooth runner and is good at setting up and using his blockers. He knows what he’s doing out there for a sophomore.”
Wood, however, gave praise where he knows it was due.
“The guys up front did a fantastic job,” Wood said. “I don’t know where we would be without our offensive line. They just did a great job all night.”
Wood said he is ready for whatever happens the rest of the way. Hill is expected back at full strength when the Dragons play host to Winder-Barrow on Friday night.
“I’ll do whatever the team needs me to do,” he said. “It was just game one. We have nine more to go. I just want to get better and the team to improve each week.”
Hall said little will change from their original gameplan. They would like a little more balance but understand that there are no more new Shirreffs -- Bryant and Evan -- in town.
“We were more balanced the last few years but had experienced quarterbacks,” Hall said. “We came into the other night not looking to be balanced. We wanted to run the ball. We’ll have the same plan this week and do that until we find the balance we want.
“We feel good about our running game with the line we have and Darrian and Colby to run the ball. We just don’t want to put a load like that on them every game. We want balance between the number of carries per guy. Hopefully things will work out the way we plan it this time.”
