Hurricanes embracing challenge of facing Cougars

Rutland gets its final tune-up Thursday night before region play begins, but based on the quality of its opponent, the stakes may as well already been raised to the part of the season that will make or break the Hurricanes’ odds of making it to the postseason

Rutland hosts fast-rising Crisp County on Thursday at the Ed DeFore Sports Complex. The Cougars (3-0) are No. 10 in the latest Georgia Sports Writers Association GHSA Class 3A rankings, their first appearance in state-wide rankings since 2001.

A season after stumbling to a 3-7 record under first-year head coach Shelton Felton last year, the Cougars are well on their way to their fourth winning season since 2001, when they advanced to the state quarterfinals.

Crisp County poses nightmares for its opponents with a quick and physical defense, which is led by defensive end Markaviest Bryant, who has gotten scholarship offers from virtually every ACC and SEC program. Crisp County is also rolling along nicely on offense, piling up at least 31 points in wins against Dooly County, Americus-Sumter and Turner County.

“This team is going to be as good as any team in our region — the Peach Countys and teams like that,” Daniel said. “They’ll be as big and strong as Westside up front. It’ll be a real tough challenge for us this week.”

But the Hurricanes plan to embrace that challenge as they hope to even their record at 2-2 and put last week’s 21-13 loss to Howard in the past.

“We had a great opportunity to win and had a chance to win,” Daniel said. “Some critical mistakes at inopportune times gave them some opportunities. We’re not at 100 percent where we want to be, but we’re getting better.”

That progress has shown on the scoreboard. After giving up 35 points in a season-opening loss to Perry, the Hurricanes have yielded a combined 27 points in a win over Northeast and the loss to Howard.

But that success is also on any game film Rutland’s opponents see. With a mostly new coaching staff, the Hurricanes were running schemes past opponents might not have quite seen yet. That element of the unknown is now diminished. Some of the things that may be worked the first few games for the Hurricanes may now have to be adapted.

“Other teams have film now, so the teams that see that, they’re working hard to stop it,” Daniel said. “Now that they’ve taken away some our good plays, we’ve got to develop the offense and start to do more.”

Rutland’s focus, both this week and going forward, squares in on continuing that improvement and cutting back of costly miscues.

“They understand what caused the problems. If they learn to push themselves, some mistakes will go away,” Daniel said. “Our passing game, if you look at the stats (from the Howard game), was like 4-of-15, but we had four dropped passes and an interception where a guy was supposed to go on a route and went the wrong way and there wasn’t anybody there. If you take those away, we’re 9-15 and it’s not that bad. We’ve got to fix those things.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 10:12 AM with the headline "Hurricanes embracing challenge of facing Cougars."