Time management is an important part of most people’s lives. For the Grenada Chargers, they have to turn their attention from last week’s 32-26 loss at Winona to playing Class 7A foe Oxford High School on the road this Friday night.
“We got a lot to clean up from last week’s loss,” head coach Michael Fair said. “If we spend too much time on the past, we will not have enough time to prepare for this week. Our coaches have done an outstanding job of correcting those mistakes and getting ready for another good opponent this week.”
Two areas of emphasis this week were tackling and finishing drives.
“We missed too many tackles in the open field and we got in the red zone in the next-to-last drive and didn’t get any points,” Fair added. “Our guys played hard – we just made some mistakes. Winona has a really good football team and they had a lot to do with those mistakes. We have a number of starters on both sides of the football, who have not played a lot at Grenada, but there are no excuses. It’s Week Two and we should be a lot better than we showed. As a staff, we feel like we will be better.”
An area that continues to show improvement is the offensive line despite still looking to develop some depth at the position, according to Fair.
“There’s a progression going on in the offensive line,” he said. “The offensive line is like any other position – it takes time – maybe more time than we want to give it. We are better than we were earlier this season. I see it in practice each day – they are starting to gel and become better. You can’t put all this on them because I thought our pass protection was better from the first week to second week. What gets lost in this conversation is that we have played against some players that have a chance to play after high school.
Oxford is 2-0 on the season, coming off a 31-14 road win at South Panola. The Lafayette County Chargers are led by Coach Chris Cutcliffe, who is in his eighth season leading the program. He is the son of former Ole Miss and Duke head coach David Cutcliffe. Last season, OHS finished 5-5 and failed to make the playoffs.
Fair knows about Cutcliffe-coached teams having faced him seven times while at Lafayette.
“They are all about formation and tempo,” Fair said. “They will run plays faster than anyone we play this season trying to catch you out of position. The quarterback has built in checks and tries to take advantage of you leaving someone uncovered. You have to play really sound football and tackle well in space because they will stretch you from sideline to sideline.”
On offense, Oxford depends a lot on senior tight end/H-back Jack Harper (6-foot-5, 230). Under center, the Chargers are using sophomore Mitchell Grandjean (5-foot-11, 175).
Defensively, Oxford is coached by Stan Robertson, who had a brief stint at Grenada as an assistant coach. It’s also a talented group of players on that side of the football, according to Fair.
“Coach Robertson does a good job on that side of the football – they have always been solid there and this year is no exception,” he concluded. “They don’t ever have two guys in the same gap and run to the football, which good defenses should do.”
Sophomore free safety Collin Flanigan (6-foot-1, 155) leads the team with 20 tackles, while senior linebacker Kylan Mathis (5-foot-11, 185) has 17 tackles, and junior free safety Kamar Houston (6-foot-1 185) and senior linebacker Jabari Turner (5-11, 170) both have 15 tackles.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Oxford.
