Caldwell County head coach Will Barnes likes the way his defense is playing, and says the offense is starting to show signs of life.
The Tigers played their final preseason football scrimmage Friday night at Owensboro, and Barnes said he was encouraged, despite being outscored 21-0 by the Red Devils in the varsity portion of the scrimmage.
“I felt like we played pretty well defensively. They scored on their first drive and did about whatever they wanted, but our varsity defense only gave up one touchdown after that, and that was late in the first half.
“One of their scores was on a pick-six. It was 14-0 just before halftime and they went down and scored again. They basically just ran right at us on that drive, but we were missing some people on defense. So, overall, that’s not too bad against a 5A team that’s probably top three or top four in the state.
“We had some guys out there that had never played varsity football before, and they made some mistakes. But they gave good effort. And those three guys up front on defense played really well again.”
Caldwell was unable to score in the contest, but Barnes noted, “We did some good things offensively. I thought we played a lot better offensively than last week against Owensboro Catholic. We moved the ball some on our first drive and had some first downs.
“We were able to run the ball some against a defense that was probably better than the one we saw last week. Logan Smiley had some nice runs and Jack (Stevens) made some nice plays in the passing game. We had some dropped balls that would have kept some drives alive.
“The main thing was, we competed. And, again, that’s a really good Class 5A team.”
The Red Devils went 12-1 last year, losing only to Bowling Green 17-7 in the state championship game.
Owensboro also won the junior varsity portion of Friday’s scrimmage at Rash Stadium 21-0.
Caldwell opens the regular season next Friday, Aug. 20, when it hosts Christian County at Tiger Stadium in Princeton.
