Friday, November 2, 2007 11:06 PM CDT
Trojans still feel much to prove
By RICK DAWSON, Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — With no malice or ill intentions, Brian Halsey kept his Charleston football team as far from the spotlight as possible this week. A proposed spaghetti dinner for the team was bypassed, if only because attending it would mean that congratulations were in order.
As far as the Trojan football coach is concerned, there are too many rounds of football left to be satisfied with a single Week 1 upset. Starting at 3:30 p.m. Monday — the first practice dedicated to Mount Vernon — there was no reason to think about that win anymore.
“We loved the support we had at Effingham,” Halsey said. “To me that was the best Charleston crowd we’ve ever had — maybe not necessarily in numbers but in the enthusiasm, the energy that we fed off of. We’ve been preaching to the kids this week, we can’t do what Effingham did. We can’t sit back and get picked off like that. We’ve got to stay focused and we can’t get all the pats on the back.”
Mount Vernon should make it easy to figure out what to focus on. There is no mystery to what makes the Rams tick. It’s a three-man backfield of the pseudo-wishbone variety, an offense Charleston hasn’t seen since the days Terry Roche was still coaching at Robinson.
Against defenses that stack the line, it tends to be effective.
“They’re one-dimensional,” Halsey said. “They run the football and they run it well.
“They run the ball out of a multitude of different formations, primarily the inverted bone. They’re not a true triple-option team. They’re more of a power, tackle-to-tackle, move the ball. Smashmouth. Pound the rock. They pound you and pound you and pound you until you make a mistake. If you make a mistake with their speed it goes for a long touchdown.”
That is why this week could offer a bigger obstacle than the last one, even though Charleston is at home and playing a No. 4, not a No. 1, seed like Effingham. The Trojans’ 3-5 defense, spread into five linebackers, must contend with athleticism on a par with any it has witnessed thus far.
“We’ve seen bits and pieces of speed like they have this year, but not on such a large scale,” Halsey said. “They are quick.
“To me the South Seven is probably the premier conference in the south. They won that conference. To beat Cahokia twice in the same season, that tells you a little something.”
Cahokia trounced Charleston 38-0 in the first round of the playoffs two years ago.
n Walk around Charleston High School and you’ll discover the curious “Trojan Up” symbol displayed throughout. Halsey himself coined the expression as a first-year coach in 2000.
Its use was inspired, he explained, by Purdue coach Joe Tiller, who used “Cowboy Up” while at Wyoming then altered the chant to “Boiler Up” upon arriving at Purdue.
“It caught on,” Halsey said. “It’s been our rallying cry. It means something different to everyone. It’s the one thing when times are tough that you go to get you going.
“You can ask 100 people the definition of love and you’re going to get 100 different definitions. It’s kind of the same thing with Trojan Up.”
n Not only did Eric Gentry shatter the school’s single-season passing mark for yardage last week, Charleston pulled off another rare feat. Its win at Effingham was the first at the school in Halsey’s coaching tenure and the Trojans’ first since a come-from-behind 14-13 victory in 1997.
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
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