SUMMER PREPS: Catholic-Trinity OTA provides early look for upcoming season

Catholic running back KJ Johnson looks for running room during the scrimmage against Trinity on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

It was the first action since a week off for the holiday, so both Catholic and Trinity were a little rusty at times in Tuesday’s OTA at Trinity. Wildcat coach Brian Seymore said his players looked a little “timid” at times in their third OTA this summer, while Catholic coach Aubrey Blackwell said his team needed the competition in the Knights’ first OTA after participating in four seven-on-seven tournament this summer.

“I want to get this team on the field and compete as much as possible,” Blackwell said. “We have a lot of young guys on this team, a lot of guys that didn’t play on Friday night, so the more opportunities I could put them in a scrimmage-type environment, the better.

“We have two more scheduled and I would love to have a third (later this week) scheduled just because it gives us a chance to get out and communicate. Today was great for us. Trinity gave us a defensive front that we haven’t seen yet this summer and that’s what I try to find is guys who run different offenses than us and a different defense than us.”

Catholic has participated in seven-on-seven workouts in June, so the switch to an OTA -- NFL terminology for an “organized team activity” -- allows linemen to participate in a team setting, although there is no tackling and no pads.

“It’s hard to evaluate the box on the offensive and defensive lines,” Blackwell said. “There’s no pads, there’s no cut blocks, there’s no tackling to the ground. That’s the number two most important thing in football. If you can’t tackle, it doesn’t matter how good you are. So you don’t see that, but you do see everything else -- the execution, see how the quarterbacks throw the ball, how the receivers catch it, do they get lined up in the right place.

“Today, I thought both teams did a really good job of that, being where they were supposed to be and executing.”

Trinity has participated in two previous OTAs in June, but Seymore said the week off seemed to have an effect on his team.

“We were a little rusty at times,” he said. “I thought (Catholic was) very multiple. I thought they did a good job changing formations. And, obviously, (quarterback Will Blackwell) can spin it around pretty good. What we tried to do is run three-high safeties, try to confuse the quarterback a little bit. It was good to get some good work in, coming back from the Fourth of July break.” 

Blackwell praised his offense for making adjustments to the Trinity defense.

“I thought it was good,” he said. “We made a couple of mistakes, not seeing that type of defense. It was good to see it in this environment and not on a Friday night, but I thought we handled it really well. I was really proud of the way we executed -- one turnover on the day -- and we threw the ball well, we caught the ball well today.”

Trinity, meanwhile, alternated its two No. 1 quarterbacks. Patton Mitchell was the starter in 2024 before being sidelined by a preseason injury last year and being replaced by Land Sharpless.

“I want to give them equal reps,” Seymore said. “Patton is coming back from elbow surgery and his arm’s pretty healthy. Land has been shut down because of baseball. As we move forward the rest of the week, we’ll probably give them equal reps. I think both of them did a good job today.”

Both coaches spoke of the opportunity to renew the rivalry between the two Capital City Conference schools, who haven’t played each other since 2021.

“It’s been a while since these two schools have been together,” Blackwell said. “Coach Seymore and I have a really good relationship and we want to grow it. Both teams did it in a first-class manner. That’s what it’s supposed to be in high school football and in a lot of places in this state we’ve gotten away from that. I was proud to see two schools come together today and make each other better.”

“I felt like it was time for us to start doing stuff together,” Seymore said. “We’re playing them again in junior high football. For whatever reason, they stopped playing us in football but it’s time to start trying to get back on the schedule. I’m going to do everything in my power to make it work out in the future.”

Catholic will have the rest of the week off before playing JAG in a Tuesday OTA at Catholic and Park Crossing and G.W. Carver on Thursday.

Trinity will hit the field on Wednesday morning at home against Elmore County in an OTA, followed by another on Thursday at home against Tallassee.