St. James ditches offense for 'old-style' approach to end losing streak

Miles Zukowski races for the corner in St. James’ win over Talladega on Friday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

On Sunday, two days after St. James dropped to 0-4 with a horrible performance in a 42-0 setback at Handley, the Trojan coaches gathered for film review.

“All of our coaches kind of looked at each other after we left Handley and said we’ve got to do something different,” St. James coach Larry Ware said.

The “something different” was throwing out the spread attack in favor of the wing-T, a formation that was wildly popular in the state in the late 1980s and early 1990s for its offensive efficiency but generally discarded by today’s coaches because of run-oriented roots that limit its explosiveness. 

“It was totally different from the scheme we were playing the first four games,” Ware said. “It’s a totally different offense. Me and (assistant coach) Tommy Goodson learned from one of the best, (Jeff Davis offensive coordinator) Steve Bailey and (head coach) Charles Lee about the wing-T a long time ago, back in 1996, so for us it was second nature.

“And Jackson Hammock, our offensive coordinator, was familiar with it because he played in the offense at St. James (under former head coach Jimmy Perry) so the guys on the offense were familiar with what they needed to do and the kids are intelligent kids. They picked it up pretty good.”

The Trojans picked the perfect time to switch, surprising region rival Talladega in a 31-14 homecoming victory at Carlisle Field on Friday night. And how starved for a win was St. James?

“Like, 0-4 bad,” Ware said. “We didn’t need another loss, I know that, so that makes winning all that more important. Last week really didn’t taste good to our kids and I wanted them to remember the feel and the taste from last week. We carried it into this week, starting on Sunday with film.”

It was the first win of the season for St. James (1-4), who was coming off the worst loss for the program since a 2009 playoff loss at UMS-Wright.

“It’s exactly what we needed,” said running back Grant Phillips, who led the new attack with 89 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 11 carries. “Some of the games, like MA, were super close. We feel like if we had executed on a couple of those opportunities, we are in the game and the record looks different. But this one, we knew going in we had an advantage and if we took care of what we had to do -- going throughout the week in practice and then executing in the game -- we were going to get the result we wanted.”

The wing-T features a lot of shifts and motions and Talladega jumped offsides on the first play, then watched as five consecutive runs by Phillips and fellow running back Miles Zukowski was capped by Phillips’ 13-yard run and a quick 7-0 lead in the first three minutes.

“It’s exactly what you want to do at running back, right?” Phillips said. “When you’ve got linemen at the second level and they’re blocking ‘backers and safeties and you can walk into the end zone, all you can do is compliment them because they’re helping you out by doing their job.”

Talladega, riding the arm of Malik Smith, quickly answered with a 16-yard strike to Alex Taylor to cut the lead to 7-6. Smith would complete 12 of 26 passes for 217 yards, including another touchdown pass to Taylor in the final minute of the game, but the Trojans managed to keep enough pressure on the Tigers’ quarterback to keep him off balance.

St. James would get another touchdown from Phillips for a 14-6 halftime lead, then break open the game with a pair of blocked punts in the third quarter. Corelius Jemison’s punt was blocked in the end zone by Michael Hassell and recovered by Andrew Yancy for a touchdown late in the third quarter.

The Tigers’ ensuing possession picked up an initial first down, then lost four yards on the next three plays. Jemison was injured on the blocked punt and was replaced, only to have the next punt blocked by Mikel Delbridge and recovered by Cameron Hartley on the Talladega 23-yard line, resulting in a 40-yard field goal by Dylan Hines.

Zukowski put the finishing touches on the win with a 24-yard touchdown run, finishing with 76 yards on 12 carries.

The Trojans finished with 210 rushing yards on 37 carries and 237 total yards, which is a good start to an offense that’s only been in place for six days.

“It’s a change from the outside, but if you look at it from the inside, the wing-T is what we did back in the day,” Phillips said. “My freshman year with Coach Perry, the wing-T was our bread and butter. So I already knew the fullback position and tailback and if they had to put me at wingback I would have been able to do that, too. So it was new for a lot of us, but the seniors knew what was going on.”

And while beating Talladega isn’t considered a major upset -- the Tigers have had just two winning seasons since 1994 -- the Trojans will be a little more optimistic heading into next week’s non-region game with Trinity. Booker T. Washington, Bullock County and Handley are all tied atop 4A Region 3 with a 3-0 record, but the fourth and final playoff position is up for grabs among Cleburne County, Tallassee and St. James, all owning 1-2 region records.

“The first four games were an uphill battle,” Phillips noted. “All of those were great teams. But like I said, we were in some of those games. Now that we’ve finally got the ball rolling, it’s going to be easier from here on out.”