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Coogs come close, but let the Hawks steal the win

Happy Homecoming to any alumni that might be reading this blog, and a not so happy one for our Cougar football team. We knew it was going to be a shoot out and a very tough test for both teams and it did turn out that way. Pimpton who was definitely the MVP in this game, made a statement to everybody that our run offense is good to go for the regular season. This game in my opinion really came down a very costly mistake by Ryan Heslep in the beginning of the 3rd quarter. It let the Hawks have the ball in a very good place and they made the Coogs pay for it in a big way. That was the game changer and without it I think this ends up being a win for the Cougars. This was a pretty typical game with another very good team, and the Coogs have got to learn to finish off teams. With all that being said, the Coogs are learning some valuable things about themselves and I would much rather Ryan make his mistakes now then later.

The Cougars are going into a bye week and so they will have some time to rest tired muscles and have extra time to prepare for their first regular season game Hereford. The Coogs have many advantages coming into this game besides the extra week of rest. They also get to play in the cozy confines of Shotwell while the Hereford team gets to make a very long trip. Looking at the Hereford stats they seem like a pretty average team on offense and defense, they are coming off a loss this week and who knows what there in for next week. Another loss would not hurt my feelings any, and some vengeful Coogs would also make my heart swoon. Cooper is 2-0 against 4A teams this season and In my opinion I believe that this game is going to go pretty quick in Coopers favor. If anything just from an exhaustion standpoint, the Coogs are going to have more players on the sideline then anybody they play in the regular season. With a very fast top notch receiving corp, I think your going to have some very winded defensive backs, that will have to run a constant nickel defense on the Coogs or give Pimpton the chance to run all over them. The main key is that coach Spradlin is going to have to realize that he has a bigger team and start using the spread to its fullest against what I feel is going to be a very tired team without as many backups. The grueling pre-season run that Coogs have made have done two things, it has given them much needed confidence that they can still hang with playoff bound 5A's. It has also helped them that they have seen a lot of coverages and offenses and so their should be no big suprises for them.

With no Cougar game happening if you want to get your fix I would say go check out any of the 3A games in the surrounding areas. That has been a very fun division to watch and its only going to get better. Hopefully, ARN will move our blog up to the active ones, so tell your friends that the Cougar blog is going well. I'm going to do some research on Hereford and will be able to give you a little better break down on what the Coogs are looking at for their district opener.

• Jason McGrew
• September 27, 2008 11:51 PM
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Restoring the ROAR!!!!! 2008

Welcome all to 2008 blog for our Abilene Cooper Cougars, a bit of delay with ARN but we are finally ready to go and I'm ready to start typing. Hard not to be excited this year with the monstrous defense led by Will Ford and company, and believe you me even listening on the live feed you know when Will Ford has hit somebody. The offense still has enough new faces that its going to make the last game of the pre-season very interesting. The Coogs suprise, suprise to most of us life long die hard fans have fallen out of the top 10 poll again. I do believe that after the grueling 3 game string of rumored playoff bound 5A's and one more tough test ahead, that the Coogs 2-2 record is definitely misleading to say the least. So by all means drop the Cougars out of the poll because the waiting storm that is the Cougars is ready to hit a very unprepared 4A division.

That doesn't mean that the Coogs do not have some work to do before district play starts, and first things first is all the penalties. The Coogs have basically given away some wins to some teams that I felt really fell short of the hoopla that is bestowed upon them. I think that as the offensive line gets more and more used to Ryan Heslep's cadence a lot of the false starts are going to fade away as time goes on. The team as a whole is going to mature and so I expect to see very few penalties in the homecoming game against Lewisville Hebron. The offense is also going to have to get on track, and start producing in the red zone and watching the fumbles. Some people have called it bad play calling but I think the offense as a whole needs to be confident that every time there in the red that there going to score. They will gain that over time and Cougar fans need to give them that time. I would still like to see our receiving corps unleashed though a little bit more than what they have been. Sonnier, Bowman, and Powers are going to beat most corners down the field. I also think that the Spradlin has been in the game long enough and has been holding them back to a certain degree to have a few suprises left. I expect when district play starts your going to see a very productive spread offense in action.

Lets get excited about Saturday's game and everybody where there red and blue and lets show the doubters in Abilene that Cougar pride is still strong, and that we do not need rude t-shirts to make a point. We have been there before and we are going to be there again, so lets make some noise on Saturday and remember your faithful blogger listening to live stream up here in Indianapolis wants to be able to hear the screams.

If anybody sees any mistakes definitely let me know this is my first time doing this and if I miss something I would like to know about it so I can fix it. Lets get this blog going again.

• Jason McGrew
• September 26, 2008 8:00 AM
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