Burnet football scrimmage vs. Wimberley to feature scaled-down Meet the Bulldogs event
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
BURNET — The Burnet High School football team is in its final day of preparation for its scrimmage against Wimberley on Aug. 21.
The Burnet Athletic Booster Club will be serving hot dogs in place of the previously cancelled Meet the Bulldogs event as the sub-varsity teams take the field at 5:30 p.m. The scrimmage takes place at Bulldog Field, 1000 The Green Mile.
Burnet Consolidated Independent School District officials cancelled Meet the Bulldogs, which was scheduled for Aug. 19, after news broke of the alleged murders of 17-year-old Elijah Adam Benson and 26-year-old Travis Leslie Fox. Benson was a member of the Burnet High School band.
The suspect in the killings is 21-year-old Garrett Ballard.
“We didn’t feel like it was the right timing (for Meet the Bulldogs),” athletic director and head football coach Kurt Jones said.
So public address announcer Roger Moore will read the names of athletes participating in fall sports throughout the evening as the Bulldogs battle the Texans.
At 7 p.m., the varsity teams take over with a controlled scrimmage, meaning each offense is guaranteed at least 15 plays in a row even if there’s a turnover. Then, the reserve teams will each play a series. At the end, teams will go through a live quarter complete with special teams.
Jones said coaches are very interested in seeing the offense, particularly the quarterbacks. He has not named a starter as the battle between senior Taylor Barksdale and junior Austin Moore continues.
“We want to see our offense look sharper than it did the week before,” he said.
During the opening series in a scrimmage against Llano on Aug. 15, Burnet moved the ball effectively, but the drive stalled with a holding penalty in the red zone. The Bulldogs moved the ball well on the next series and reached the red zone. But a dropped pass in the end zone ended the scoring threat.
Barksdale and Moore rotated in every three plays, Jones said.
Both made sure the offense kept a good pace and had a solid rhythm, he added.
“We’re still far from where we’d like to be, but we’re encouraged by what we’ve seen,” Jones said said. “Our offensive line got after it and did what we expected them to do. They didn’t disappoint.”
The Bulldogs hit pay dirt five times to the Yellow Jackets’ 1.
Senior defensive end Travis Freeman had an outstanding evening, Jones said, which is encouraging. Freeman spent the last two years battling ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the large intestines and the rectum. Coaches are hoping Freeman can be the pass rusher and the run stopper that former teammate Chase Mardis was.
“We need him to, and he’s capable of it,” Jones said. “Our entire defense is probably a step ahead of where we’ve been.”
The Bulldogs left encouraged by the overall performances.
“We felt like we got after it,” Jones said. “The kids played hard and physical. Our first-string defense didn’t give up a score.”
Against Wimberley, fans shouldn’t expect to see Burnet go into the playbook beyond the base schemes on both sides of the ball.
“I don’t think anybody goes too deep,” the coach said. “We’re working on our base offense and our base defense, and some of that you work on to be sharp.”
Jones said coaches and players are looking forward to the scrimmage against Wimberley for many reasons. Top of the list is the level of competition.
“Wimberley will be a good challenge,” he said. “Each scrimmage you have, you want everything to look crisper than the week before.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com