Tiger Football Playing Up to Expectations

The 2013-2014 season isn’t a rebuilding year, but East Feliciana football coach Cedric Anderson said a lot of players will have to step up to fill in for graduating seniors.

“Along with losing Corey (Hawkins) and Kendall (Beckwith), we also lost four very good senior offensive linemen and D’Quan Franklin was just an ironman for us on defense these last two years,” Anderson said. “And you can’t really replace them per se, but I believe they set good examples and some of the younger guys have stepped up.”

Senior wide receiver and cornerback Danny Johnson said they are taking a bottom up approach in that they are making sure the freshmen and sophomores also understand the importance of leadership and teamwork.
Along with going to camps at the University of Alabama and LSU, Johnson said he was focused on helping his fellow tigers gel as a team.

“I’ve been really leaning on Danny, Darryl Matthews (wide receiver), Kameron McKnight (running back) and Tyquincey Kilbourne (linebacker) to pick up the slack and see how far they can take us,” Anderson said.

The Tigers finished last season 8-4 with a 14-16 loss in the Class 3A state semi-finals to Notre Dame of Crowley.

East Feliciana is now in Class 2A, District 6.

Anderson said he considered the season a success and he plans to take the same approach this year.

“Overall, I think our guys did great. Playing a tough non district schedule really helped,” Anderson said. “We played a very good Zachary team and lost by one point and the week before we beat a really good Richwood (Monroe) team in overtime.”

Anderson said those losses, including a tough 12-19 loss to Salmen of Slidell prepared his guys for the playoffs.

“I really saw that in the quarterfinals against Union Parish. We went into the fourth quarter 16-0 and the kids were able to reflect back on those tough early losses and get that win,” Anderson said.

The Tigers went on to beat the Farmers 22-16 to get to the semis and face Notre Dame. Anderson said along with Notre Dame being a really good team, they also took advantage of the Tigers’ turnovers to get the win.

McKnight, a senior and outside linebacker, said he is really looking forward to playing Zachary again this year.

“They are a good team and they’ve beat us two years in a row,” McKnight said. He said their downfall last year was that morale started to drop after referees made multiple play calls that they didn’t agree with.

Anderson said he had a good turnout for summer two-a-day practices in June and July, which consisted of lots of weights, conditioning and speed drills.

This season’s schedule will feature non-district games against West Feliciana, Belaire and Zachary before starting district play.

“We are in a district with a lot of good teams and some very good coaches, so it will be a dogfight every night,” Anderson said. “We’re just looking forward to competing.”

original article: http://www.felicianaexplorer.com/content/tiger-football-playing-expectations-0