DAVID BARBER

Sports Correspondent

One more pre-season tune-up remains for the Van Vandal varsity football team as they will be traveling to a former rival for their final scrimmage.

Coach Jared Moffatt’s Vandals will visit Coach Joe Drennon’s Grand Saline Indians with the scrimmage beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17 at Indian Memorial Stadium.

“I am a huge fan of Coach Drennon,” emphasized Jared Moffatt. “I think he is a great guy and a great coach. He has won everywhere he has been. He does a great job with the program at Grand Saline. They could have won their district last year before they lost a close game to West Rusk. Their kids are extremely well coached, and they play hard every play.”

The format for the Van/Grand Saline scrimmage will be somewhat unusual as it will begin with the Vandal varsity offense going against the Indian varsity defense for a series of 12-15 plays prior to the junior varsity teams and the varsity teams rotating out for the remainder of the scrimmage.

The kicking game will be involved in the scrimmage before the two teams will play an actual quarter of football with a running clock.

“I can’t remember doing a scrimmage format quite like this,” said Jared Moffatt. “Grand Saline has one sub-varsity team. When we play the one quarter with the clock, I am not sure how much playing time our varsity players will get at that point. Our J.V. guys need the reps as well.”

Although the two teams will be competing in a pre-season scrimmage that does not count, Jared Moffatt is well aware that the intensity level between the two former Van Zandt County rivals will be quite high.

“In last year’s scrimmage at Van, I did not think we played particularly well, and I thought Grand Saline played very well,” recalled Jared Moffatt. “I think our guys remembered Grand Saline celebrating when the scrimmage ended last year. I think that left a bad taste in our players’ mouths. We are always interested in renewing that 80-year-old rivalry on a future regular season schedule. They put a stop to the rivalry in 2011. I don’t think our guys appreciated the fact that they celebrated on our field in a scrimmage liked they won the Super Bowl. I may have to dial our guys back a little bit.”

Prior to visiting Grand Saline, the Vandals took a longer road trip for their other pre-season scrimmage as they tangled with the Spring Hill Panthers in Longview.

“I thought we threw and caught the ball well against Spring Hill,” said Jared Moffatt. “Jaxon Moffatt completed nine out of 10 passes with a couple of touchdowns. Receivers Caden Rowe and Asher Hawkins caught made some big plays for us. This was Asher’s first live action since he injured his knee at the beginning of last season. Easton Hinch also made some plays at receiver. We ran the ball well. Overall, it was a good night offensively. We got in some good work.”

Defensively, the Vandals faced the challenge of an unusual offensive attack shown by the Panthers. “Spring Hill runs the flex-bone veer, which is not something that we see a lot of,” recalled Jared Moffatt. “We don’t put a lot of time preparing for a scrimmage opponent. I thought our defense ran well to the football and we were physical. Spring Hill drove down the field with their first-team offense and scored on their first drive. We saw what we needed to see out of our defense.

“Overall, I was pleased with the scrimmage. It gave us an opportunity to hit someone else other than ourselves for the first time,” summarized Jared Moffatt. “We got to see some different personnel and some different looks.”

So far as positional battles are concerned, the Vandals are continuing to use a ‘committee’ approach in determining who will get the most carries at running back this season.

“Colton Miller has run well,” pointed out Jared Moffatt. “He will get a number of snaps, but he is also a starter at defensive end. Austin Moffatt has run well. He is a viable option. Sophomore DaQavius Williams has shown flashes. He will get nothing but better. Chris Fabian is a move-in and I see him getting more comfortable every time he steps on the field. Wyatt Dale will get some snaps against Grand Saline. No one, other than Colton Miller, has stepped up yet to take charge of the running back position. Overall, I feel real good about our personnel on the offensive side of the football.”

“Defensively, the most competition right now is at outside linebacker,” continued Jared Moffatt. “We have a pretty good feel about where everyone is going to play other than that one position. Logan Fattig at defensive end made a couple of big plays in the Spring Hill scrimmage. Cade Christiansen at the ‘Bandit’ position is a high energy, aggressive player. Tuff Arozamena played well at defensive end. Reggie Johnson played well at defensive tackle. We can put together a good team defense.”

Following the Grand Saline scrimmage, the Vandals will turn their full attention to the start of their 2023 regular season schedule as they will host the Pine Tree Pirates at Van’s Memorial Stadium in a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Friday, Aug. 25.

For a preview of the regular season opener against Pine Tree, check out www.vanzandtnews.com.