Scotties kick off season against Patriots

By JOHN VERSER

GLASGOW — Turnovers and special teams.

That’s what Glasgow coach Billy Lindsey expects Saturday’s season-opener against Allen County-Scottsville to come down to in the TJ Samson Bowl. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Barren County’s Trojan Field.

“I think the big thing will be turnovers, not making mistakes, especially in crucial situations,” Lindsey said. “(This is) the first time everything’s really live all the way. Special teams is something that we haven’t really been full tilt on.”

The Scotties are new in several special teams areas with last year’s kicker and punter, Drew Kuzma, moving on due to graduation. Kuzma was an honorable mention All-State pick a season ago.

Glasgow has several people filling in those holes this year.

“Right now Mason Shives is doing our place kicking — extra points and stuff. Michael Bradley is probably going to kick off — that’s another tackler,” Lindsey said. “And punting we’ve got a couple of guys that we’ve moved back there — Stacy Sullivan, who is a senior, but he’s never punted, and then Parker Cash, who’s a freshman that’s never punted. At least we’ve got an older guy and a younger guy. Both of them will probably punt it. It all just depends on the situation.”

Looking at the Patriots, Lindsey said his opening opponent returns a host of players from last year’s team. Allen will use two main looks on offense — the I-formation and the spread.

“They look like they’re big up front,” Lindsey said. “They’re about 50-50 in the I and running the ball and sometimes spread and sometimes no backs. Their scheme is a lot like Warren East that we’ve scrimmaged.

“Sometimes they’re in a running set and sometimes they’ll spread you out. They still try to run it out of that or throw it out of the other. They give you basically two looks — a spread look and more of a conventional run type set.”

Lindsey hopes that by facing Warren East in last week’s scrimmage, along with seeing several spread looks in the opening scrimmage at Edmonson County, has helped prepare his team for what they’ll see on Saturday.

“I’m hoping that we’re able to carry over what we did from the week before,” the Scotties coach said. “We’ve seen almost everything you can see. We’ve seen four teams the way it worked out for us. But most of them run a variation of some kind of spread stuff.”

The Scotties are relatively healthy entering the opener except for two players. Offensive lineman Wes Gosnell is out for a few weeks with a broken leg while running back Blake Perkins, who was part of Glasgow’s successful three-man rotation at the position a year ago, is “doubtful” with a sprained ankle and shin splints.

“Wes, we know he can’t go for a while. Hopefully he’ll get to come back,” Lindsey said. “He’s a senior and he’s worked hard and you think he deserves a chance to play his last year. And then Blake Perkins, who has a problem with an ankle sprain and shin splints and a lot of stuff on his legs that hurt him as far as cutting and things like that. He’s one of those kind of guys that are just day to day and doubtful right now.

“But if he feels like he can go and we need him in a certain situation, then he may get an opportunity.”

The Scotties and Patriots squared off a season ago in the TJ Samson Bowl. Glasgow won a 20-14 overtime thriller and went on to have a successful 8-3 season. Allen lost its first five games last season and finished 1-9. Four of the Patriots’ losses were by a touchdown or less, while seven were by 15 or fewer points.