Conway football buckles down in advance of state power Hartsville

Earlier this week, Chuck Jordan did something he hasn’t in nearly a decade.

After abandoning his typical Labor Day practices because so many kids would frequently miss them, he re-instituted them for this week. With a frustrating and stellar Hartsville offense coming to town, the Conway coach wanted every possible moment of preparation.

For the players, the session wasn’t so much a wake-up call as it was a reminder.

“We know why we’re practicing,” senior linebacker Austin Manchester said during the Monday morning drills. “We know this is going to be one of the hardest teams on our schedule.”

Manchester and the rest of the returning starters who were a part of this game a year ago understand exactly what they’re up against. The Red Foxes’ Wing-T offense is a scheme long ago forgotten by most coaches in the state’s top two classes.

It’s everything the spread is not – condensed, tight offensive lines, pulling linemen, three running backs and receivers rarely doing little more than blocking on each and every play. And when it comes to Hartsville, coach Jeff Calabrese has his version of the Wing-T about as well-oiled as its gets.

The Red Foxes, who have run the scheme throughout his 10-plus seasons, were the 2012 Class AAA state champions, played for the title last year (falling to South Pointe) and have won at least nine games seven times in his tenure.

So it’s not simply that Hartsville runs a seldom-seen offense.

“Those two components are what makes it so difficult. No. 1, you don’t see it. No. 2, they’re very good at it,” Jordan said. “When you put those two together, it’s tough.

“You’ve got to make sure you play error-free ball. What they count on is that someone’s going to be out of place and eventually they can take advantage of it. They’ve got a pretty good idea of how you’re going to line up defensively and what they want to do. That’s our biggest challenge is making sure we’re lined up and we’re following our keys. Those keys are so different than they typically are.”

Jordan and longtime defensive coordinator Kelly Andreucci have experience coaching against the Wing-T, although very little recently. Hartsville and Conway were region opponents for Calabrese’s first five seasons there.

The imposing perception of what the Red Foxes can do showed up when these teams played last season. They ran for 458 yards against Conway, with 238 of those coming from now-senior Brian Rivers.

What’s caused headaches for opposing defensive staffs has been the seemingly interchangeable method to it all. Last week was a perfect example. With Rivers and fellow tailback Shy McPhail sitting out with injuries, freshman Tiyon Evans started and rushed for more than 250 yards in a 42-7 win over Camden.

It shows how while every team, as Jordan put it, “diced us up last year,” Hartsville has done its share of the dicing.

The Red Foxes were the second-highest scoring team in Class AAA a year ago, averaging 39.9 points per game. They are off to another hot start this season, having scored at least 42 points in each of their first three games.

Conway’s defense has started nearly as hot, giving up an average of just seven points per game en route to a 3-0 record. What the Tigers have done so far is slow down or stop one of the area’s best dual-threat quarterbacks in Georgetown’s Jarvis Brown, keep South Brunswick’s more traditional power running game out of the end zone and hold Socastee’s newly formed spread to eight points.

This week, Conway has been attempting to prepare for what could be the best opponent it faces all year. The practices alone weren’t an easy task to manage, as it’s next to impossible to put a scout team offense together that even sniffs what the Red Foxes can do in terms of speed and consistency.

It could contribute to making this the Tiger defense's biggest challenge. Hearing that, though, is nothing new for a team that won just two games in each of the past two seasons.

“They’ve been saying it’s the test game since the first game,” Manchester said. “But we’ve been rolling through them. We’re going to keep working so we can be the best that we can.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 7:59 PM with the headline "Conway football buckles down in advance of state power Hartsville."