Marble Falls football sees new faces, a changing culture

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

MARBLE FALLS — The Marble Falls High School football team is 29 days away from the start of spring practice.

To help players and parents prepare, Mustangs head coach Todd Dodge is holding his annual Mustang Football Family Night, which is designed for incoming ninth-12th-graders, at 6:30 p.m. April 14 at the high school’s Max Copeland Gym, 2101 Mustang Drive.

He’ll introduce the coaching staff, discuss spring football and the summer weight-and-conditioning program and answer questions.

The Mustangs are continuing their offseason program. One advantage they have is they return starting quarterback Brennen Wooten and several starters on the offensive line.

But graduation will claim the majority of the starters at receiver, including University of Texas-bound Garrett Gray, and running back Keith Jerome, who will play at Cisco College.

Dodge acknowledged the luxury of having a player of Gray’s caliber, who was clocked at 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash and stands 6 feet 4½ inches.

Gray was the go-to player in passing downs, and coaches created the “Wild Mustang” packages for him in which he lined up in the shotgun at quarterback and looked for running lanes in short-yardage situations. In two years, he scored 36 touchdowns.

“It tilted very heavily toward Garrett,” Dodge said. “When he was a junior, he was an unknown. The distribution of the ball was out of whack. He scored 18 touchdowns as a junior. People can do things to take him away.”

The challenge, the coach said, is for the returning Mustangs to step up and contribute.

Kylen Skonning played in four games last season in which he caught nine passes for 109 yards and a touchdown. Tyler Ryan was in eight games in which he caught three passes for 27 yards.

“I feel really good about the kids having a better understanding (of their roles),” Dodge said. “Tyler Ryan is going to help us.”

Eric Cauble and Bryce Fry also return. The newcomers are transfer Royale Brown out of Faith Academy of Marble Falls, Peyton Emery and basketball forward/center Danny Rivara, who reached out to Dodge and asked if he could play football.

“At 6-6, he’s open before the ball is snapped,” Dodge said. “Royale is going to help us. We’re training everybody at all positions.

“I’m really excited about the whole all together,” Dodge said. “We’re training a bunch of them. We’re trying to figure out who the top eight are going to be.”

Daven Manning, who lined up as a starting linebacker as a true freshman last year, and sophomore Damon Sanchez are battling for the starting job at running back.

“Daven is too good of an athlete not to play him on varsity last year,” the coach said.

The Mustangs have made it a point to spend extra time either in the weight room to get another lift in or on the playing field to run pass routes with Wooten. Dodge said that illustrates how the culture is changing.

“That’s still an on-going process,” he said. “The amount of time we have is 45 minutes a day. The bottom line is that’s about the same amount of time our district opponents have. The teams that win championships have players who understand you work extra. You come early or you stay late.

“We are arguably in the toughest district in Class 5A (with the latest district realignments),” he added. “I wouldn’t want it any other way. We’ll have to continue to raise the bar. I think we’re in that window now where more and more are jumping on board. They’re saying, ‘What extra am I going to do today?'”

jfierro@thepicayune.com