LAKELAND − Lesson No. 1 for Lakeland in the spring jamboree — be ready to play.
Every two or three things the Dreadnaughts were doing right in the first matchup were negated by inconsistent play and dropped passes on offense and allowing big plays — in the air and on fourth down — on defense.
The result of the entire jamboree was a split decision as Gainesville Buchholz defeated Lakeland, 17-0, in the first matchup. Lakeland, however, regrouped to defeat Port Charlotte, 14-7, on Friday night at Bryant Stadium.
“When we want to lock in and execute, we can be a pretty good decent team,” Lakeland coach Marvin Frazier said. “First game, we’ve got a billion mistakes that we just got to fix. It’s really execution, and the kids got to see you come out flat. We’re going to have to look at some different things that we do to make sure that this is a team that doesn’t come out flat. It might be coach led more so than player led, but that’s why you have the spring so you can live and learn and know what you’re going to do.”
Offensively, Lakeland was looking for quarterback Kelin Hendrix to take more time looking for receivers and not take off running, and the passing was especially the emphasis against Buchholz
The results were mixed as Hendrix went 12 for 20 for 148 yards.
“We’re more disappointed with the, the drops,” Frazier said. “We had some, wide-open incompletions, whether it was a high ball or he hit somebody in the hands or a deep ball in the end zone. There were two of those, so we just were more disappointed with the incompletions than we were the fact that we didn’t just pound and run the ball like we feel like we can.”
Here are three more take aways from the jamboree.
The Good: Cooper will be a handful
When Lakeland got the ball in Ahmari Cooper’s hands, good things happened.
Cooper rushed for around 65 yards on eight carries and had a 16-yard reception in the first game. He only rushed three times against Buchholz.
After a scoreless half against Buchholz, Cooper jump-started the offense with runs of 23, 15 and 16 yards on the first drive then scored on a 1-yard run.
“He’s got really, really good balance,” Frazier said. “He’s really, really strong. He runs north-southwest. We’re really excited about him. We think that he can be pretty special. We think Steward Butler can be pretty special too. So we’ve got two good ones, and we’re trying to take the licks off of our quarterback. We don’t want him having to run, nearly as much as he did last year. Just distribute the ball, be a point guard for us.”
The Good: Defense makes goal-line stand
Lakeland might have gone 0-1-1 on the jamboree were it not for a goal-line stand for the defense. Port Charlotte drove inside the 5 on its final possession and had first-and-goal, but Lakeland’s defense held.
On defense, the Dreadnaughts return two highly touted defensive ends in Drew Sapp and Santana Harvey along with multiple defensive backs although they did lose defensive back CJ Cresser. The big need is at linebacker where three stellar linebackers, Malik Morris, Ziggy Riley and Zephaniah Rogers, graduated.
Frazier used the game to get as many players in on defense to see them in game action.
“Defensively we did waves of subs both games really because we’re really just trying to figure out who we are, who we’re going to be, and get film on kids so we can make a really good determination when those lights come on,” Frazier said. “Defensively it was just waves and waves and waves of bodies. Some probably outplayed the others, but they still got the same reps because we really at to make a good diagnosis on where we’re going to go.”
Danta McCoy had a couple of big stops before he went out with an ankle injury, and DeShawn Smalls, Jeremiah Bennett and converted receiver Clint Anderson have been good, Frazier said.
The Bad: Penalties and big plays.
While Frazier has high hopes for the defense, there is a lot of room for improvement. Against Buchholz, the Dreadnaughts gave up big plays on fourth down twice and in both games allowed long touchdown passes, including one where the defensive appeared to have an interception before the receiver stole it back as the came down.
“I think defensively penalties were killing us left and right,” Frazier said. “Every time I looked up it was a penalty that hurt us, but you know those guys can lock in and play some good ball.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Split decision: Here are 3 takeaways from Lakeland’s jamborees
Reporting by Roy Fuoco, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
