The Tiger football team took advantage of Thursday’s 7-on-7 drills against Christian County to get a look at its backup quarterbacks.
“We got a lot out of it because of the speed they have,” said Caldwell County head coach David Barnes of the Colonels.
Christian’s offense burned the Tigers deep a couple of times for big plays as Caldwell’s defense went against a squad that figures to be quicker than any it will face this fall.
However, the Tigers were able to move the ball with quarterbacks Blake Hodges, John Paul Boitnott and Chris Butler at the helm.
Will Barnes, a senior-to-be who has started at quarterback the last two seasons, has been out of town this week.
“For the first part of it I thought we did really well, then we had some receivers start jogging on routes,” said the Tiger head coach. “Defensively, I thought we did a decent job, but we didn’t break to the ball as well as we did Tuesday.”
Caldwell worked out against Crittenden County and Webster County in 7-on-7 action Tuesday in Dixon.
“Overall I was pretty pleased. There were some balls that should have been broken up and some we should have caught.”
Hodges, who will be a sophomore, and Butler, a freshman, got the majority of the work at quarterback on Thursday.
“The thing with John Paul is we’re counting on him to help us out at receiver and probably defensive back as well,” said Barnes.
Boitnott will be a senior this season.
“Blake threw the ball really well over at Webster the other night and he threw it OK tonight, he was just a little late on some of his reads. But that’s because some of our receivers were slow getting to where they were supposed to be. But this week really helped us out getting some of those kids some reps at quarterback.”
Caldwell will host 7-on-7 action again on Tuesday, with Crittenden, Christian and Webster all scheduled to take part. Play begins at 6 p.m. at Tiger Stadium. There is no admission charge.
• Former Tiger head coach Pat Gates was on the field Thursday, helping out the Christian County coaching staff.
“I’ve been helping them a couple of days a week — that’s what I did last year,” said Gates, a former Christian player.
When not helping out the Colonels, Gates keeps busy as a sales representative for Riddell, a supplier of football apparel and equipment.
“We’re factory direct. Everything is shipped from Elyria, Ohio,” said Gates. “I’ve got 80 high schools — 57 in Kentucky and 23 in southern Indiana.
“I really enjoy it,” he added. “It really helps that I already knew most of the high school coaches and most of the athletics directors, so that kinda gives me an in.”
• One of the players at this week’s youth football camp was misidentified in a picture in Wednesday’s Sports section.
The player shown snapping the football should have been identified as Cole Soukup.
The camp wrapped up on Thursday.
