AHS to travel to face Wilcox Central tonight

Monday’s football practice for Andalusia wasn’t the norm for the Bulldogs.

After a devastating 9-6 region loss to Clarke County on homecoming last week, the Bulldogs did a lot of full contact work on the day where they were supposed to work on the game plan for Wilcox Central.

“No disrespect to Wilcox, but we haven’t really concerned ourselves about our next opponent,” AHS head football coach Brian Seymore said, noting that the focus has been on his team only. “They’ve struggled this year. They’ve been dealing with some suspensions due to a game against Linden.”

Due to a brawl between Linden and Wilcox Central, 16 Jaguars were ejected after a fight broke out during the game. One Wilcox player has been suspended for the remainder of the season and five players got suspensions of up to five games, WAKA reported.

“We did a lot of full-contact work (on Monday),” Seymore said. “We’ve got to make those tough yards when it counts. We did a lot of first offense against first defense. We will take some guys on defense this week and play them on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve got to get the best 11 players on the field to be successful, whether they start on defense or not.”

Andalusia enters tonight’s road contest in Camden 4-2 overall, and 2-2 in Class 4A, Region 1.

In last week’s game, the Bulldogs put up 114 total yards on offense, a number Seymore wants to forget quickly.

“In my 10 years as a coach, that’s the lowest output I’ve ever had,” he said. “I felt disappointed (after the game). I felt like at times, we might have got caught up in the vibe of homecoming — it cost us and put us in a bind as far as the playoffs.

“We got ourselves in this position, and we’ve got to work our way out of it,” he said. “And it starts with Wilcox.”

The Jaguars haven’t won a game this season. Still, Seymore said the coaches did put in a little film time on their opponent.

To get ready for this week, Andalusia’s coaches started working right after the loss to Clarke County, well into the night.

Seymore said, as a group, the coaches got together and had a discussion about how they can give the Bulldogs the best opportunity to be successful. AHS begins a four-game road stretch tonight. After Wilcox, the Bulldogs travel to Mobile to face UMS-Wright on Oct. 19, are at Escambia County in Atmore on Oct. 26, and will end the regular season at Class 6A Fairhope on Nov. 2.

“We put different folks in different looks and situations,” the coach said. “It goes to giving us the best opportunity for us to be successful on Friday night. Hopefully, with the weather it’s going to be cooling off a little bit. Maybe some guys can play both ways.

“We may be laying on these guys on later games because it’s a necessity that we get the best players on both sides of the ball,” he said.

Seymore said the coaches didn’t envision having to have four games in a row on the road this season.

“It’s the way it turned out,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough little four-week grind. When people see a lot of travel, I see an opportunity. I see an opportunity to be a better football team against quality oponenents and to secure a playoff berth. That’s the task at hand on this four-game road trip.”

Kick off in Camden is at 7 tonight.

Injury news: Andalusia’s Javonte Johnson will still be out this week with a broken hand. Will Harrison broke his hand and will be out this week. Derrick Dorsey, a back up full back, has a deep thigh bruise and will be a game time decision. Hiren Patel has a slight separation in his shoulder. James Montgomery, a third string full back, also has an injury.

“We’re going to deal with it the best we can,” Seymore said.