OAK HILL MUST DEFUSE NITRO OFFENSE
Publication: THE
Published: 11/15/1997
Page: P5B
Headline: OAK HILL MUST DEFUSE NITRO OFFENSE
Byline: RICK RYAN
Oak Hill coach Jim Martin will tell you straight up: He's never seen
anything quite like Nitro's offense. So he's not quite sure how to
defend against it.
And that makes Nitro coach
Robert Burdette a bit nervous.
The Wildcats (8-1),
for sure, will be hoisting the ball when the two
teams meet in a Class AAA first-round playoff game at 1:30 p.m. today
at Crawford Field in
their response will be.
"I don't know if
that's good or bad for us,' Burdette said, "because
I don't know what to expect from them. What will they do defensively?
If he's saying he's never seen anything like it, then will he play a
traditional defense?
"A lot of guys will go
with what they're comfortable with. Some people
try several different things. It kind of leaves us out in the dark.
Some of the teams in the [Kanawha] Valley, we sort of have an idea
what they'll do, because we know them a bit. It will be interesting to
see what his gameplan is.'
Nitro has turned the
forward pass into an art form under the direction
of offensive coordinator Scott Tinsley. The Wildcats are averaging
279.4 yards and about three touchdowns passing per game this season -
but those numbers have jumped to 397 yards and 4.4 TDs
per game since
the return of record-setting quarterback J.R. House from
"The closest thing
we've seen to this,' Martin said, "is when I was
coaching at Midland Trail. We played
and had the [Andrew] Cowan kid throwing a lot. We had a super
secondary and we beat them 28-27 up there in the first
round of the
[1995] playoffs.
"I know Nitro is
probably a lot better than Ritchie was that year. But
we hope we can slow [House] down a little bit and still be able to
score with them, too. Hopefully, we can put some points on the
board.'
House has thrown for 1,945
yards and 22 TDs in five games, with fellow
junior Chris Martin latching onto 54 passes for 1,021 yards and 13
TDs. House may even throw more than usual, since top
running back Zack
Collins remains questionable with an ankle injury that's held him out
of the Wildcats' last 7 1/2 quarters.
Martin hints that his
lighter-than-average defensive line might even
be able to chase House out of the protection Nitro's shotgun formation
provides.
Bigger linemen have tired
noticeably while pass-rushing House.
"That might be one
advantage we have - being small against them,'
Martin said. "We only start three kids on the
defensive line over 200
pounds.'
Burdette's study of Oak
Hill's game films leads him to believe that
the Red Devils could, indeed, test Nitro's offense.
"All those guys look
real athletic,' Burdette said.
"It looks like they
might be the team that can match up with us and
play some man-[to-man defense] and take some things away.
"Our main concern,
from watching their films, is that any team that
tried to run the ball on them - with the exception of
stuffed. Even without seeing the stats, I can look at a defense and
tell when they're stuffing people. When other teams throw, I saw them
back there hanging on the quarterback an awful lot.'
Leading the Red Devils
offense is junior William Jackson, who rushed
for 1,016 yards and 13 TDs despite not playing
offense the last two
games with an ankle injury. Martin hopes
today.
"When they run toss
sweeps with him,' Burdette warned, "if he gets to
the corner, he turns it into a track meet.'
Oak Hill QB Andre Thomas
has thrown for 319 yards and three scores
while rushing for 511 yards and six TDs.