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Tornadoes still undecided on backup quarterback
In case he needs to play a backup quarterback at any point during Friday night’s season opener, Alcoa High School football coach Gary Rankin finally has figured out a way to decide on one.
“When I turn around,” Rankin said Thursday, “probably whichever one is standing the closest to me (on the sideline).”
Junior Austin Tallant will start tonight for the Tornadoes against Bell County, Ky., which won the Bluegrass State’s Class 4A championship last year. But neither senior transfer Ryan Stoutt nor sophomore Hogan Goodson has emerged as the clear-cut backup.
Stoutt was expected to be involved with some type of rotation with Tallant during the regular season.
Tallant now seems likely to take most — if not all — of the snaps.
“He’s going to play a long time before somebody else plays,” Rankin said of Tallant, a starting safety last season who also served as the backup quarterback behind then-senior Chase James.
Matchup problems: Rankin said Bell County presents a handful of potential problems for Alcoa, particularly with its power running game.
“They’re a pretty tough team for us to match up with,” Rankin said. “They can do some things that could hurt us. Running the football the way they want to run it could be a problem for us.”
Tornadoes senior tight end/defensive end Tyler Robinson reached the same conclusion after watching film of the Bobcats.
“We know they’re big,” Robinson said. “They’re going to try to overpower us on the front line, but they’re just not going to do that. We’ve got to try to stop them.”
Replacing players: Bell County lost 13 starters from last year’s undefeated team, according to the Middlesboro Daily News.
The Bobcats have only four returning starters on offense and six on defense.