Jones County’s new offensive line isn’t playing like a new one

GRAY -- Life in the pocket a year ago was pretty safe for Bradley Hunnicutt.

The Jones County quarterback had a physical and fairly experienced offensive line in front of him that made quality progress in a quick manner to a completely new offense.

When this season started, that wasn’t the case.

“Oh, I know,” Hunnicutt said early in the preseason. “They’re getting the hang of it. They’ll be good.”

Keeping Hunnicutt upright during the first year of a new pass-heavy spread offense was a huge reason the Greyhounds were one of the surprises of the state in 2014, first knocking off top-ranked Northside and then reaching the GHSA Class AAAAA quarterfinals where they lost on the final play.

Being able to run-block for a balanced offense was just as big, and Chandler Ramage rushed for more than 1,000 yards. But the Greyhounds passed their way on to the radar with such a strong season.

“I feel a little pressure,” Hunnicutt said. “The team goes as I go.”

And Hunnicutt will go only as far as the offensive line can carry him. So far, so good.

The Greyhounds are 2-0 again, ranked fifth in the latest Georgia Sports Writers Association Class AAAAA poll and are averaging 370 yards per game on offense, with 10 offensive touchdowns. They host Greenbrier on Friday in Region 2-AAAAA action.

Hunnicutt is 21-of-34 for 372 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions, while Ramage has 205 yards on 28 carries.

Jones County has settled on a starting offensive line unit of Quay Pitts, Joshua Hugley, River Vaughn, Tavis Clark and Quay Betha.

“We’ve been working together all summer,” said Hugley, who was a backup on defense last year. “The building up of all the hard work we’ve been doing, it’s just come together.”

Vaughn also noted the chemistry, but loving teammates doesn’t necessarily translate into good footwork and technique. Going against a quality defense in practice and one of the region’s top defensive linemen, Torrez Finney, has been a help.

“In the preseason, we played ones-on-ones,” Vaughn said of the first-team units going against each other. “And you’ve got Torrez Finney, kind of the sack leader, blah, blah, blah.”

Vaughn is smiling as he talks about battling the diminutive but powerful Finney, who was a region revelation in football last year before winning a state wrestling title.

The joking is part of the chemistry Vaughn and Hugley talked about, but they know the impact battling Finney has had on their unit.

“He’s hard to block, I’m not gonna lie,” Hugley said with a smile. “If we block him, it makes us feel like we can block anybody.”

Another adjustment the line is making is to the pace of the Greyhounds’ offense.

“Our goal this year is to have a faster tempo and keep going,” Hunnicutt said. “The defense can’t keep up or get set if we have a good tempo.”

The offensive line keeping up and getting set is the key to that, and the unit has kept pace.

That part might not be all that surprising. Second-year head coach Justin Rogers knew that this year’s unit wasn’t as physical as last year and certainly lacked experience but had other strengths.

“This group is further along scheme-wise, because they’ve been with me the whole year,” Rogers said. “They know what to do, it’s just a matter of getting better at doing it.”

And they are.

“When they grade out on games, they rarely grade out bad because of mental mistakes,” Rogers said. “It’s just on technique flaws or on physical stuff. Very rarely is it on busted assignments.”

Vaughn agreed.

“You can ask us how to do every play, what to do every play, and we can answer it for you,” he said. “But going out on the field, it might take us a couple tries to do it like he wants us to.”

The Greyhounds got some additional work by spending the summer competing against the likes of Ware County, Stockbridge and Colquitt County, among others, in shoulder pad camps. That accelerated the progress, as well.

“Ain’t no doubt,” Rogers said. “Now, we’re a long way from home, a long way from where we need to be. But it’s been light years since the scrimmage game. They’ve progressed from the scrimmage game a lot.

“It’s a process. It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s going to happen gradually. Then one day, ‘Hey, we got better.’ ”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Jones County’s new offensive line isn’t playing like a new one ."