Tigers will host Warren in season opener this Fri.

W-W Tigers Dan Wylie, Charlton Ware, and Khiry Tutt are ready for the 2006 season.

After last week's jamboree tune-up, the real 2006 season for the Washington-Wilkes Tigers will begin this Friday night when the Warren County Screaming Devils come to Tiger Stadium. A roster of 65 Tigers will take the field as a AA team in one of the toughest regions in the state.

At this point, class doesn't matter, however, as was seen in the Jamboree when the Tigers dominated from the very first play. AAA Elbert County never stood a chance in the 33-0 spanking and W-W fans are now wondering if the Tigers are really "that good." Or maybe it was just that Elbert was that bad.

What matters now is that the games that count start this Friday and Warren County is bound to have a new look under the direction of first-time head coach (and former member of the W-W staff under Butch Brooks) Lee Hutto. Warren can have a bad year and still play the Tigers a tough ball game. But this doesn't figure to be a bad year for the Screaming Devils so the Tigers have their work cut out for them.

Warren didn't play a jamboree game so W-W has not been able to scout the team and is a little unsure of what to expect. "All we can go on is what we hear, and we can hope we prepare for the right stuff," Tiger Head Coach Russell Morgan said.

The Tiger Defense sacks Elbert County's quarterback, again, during last Friday's jamboree here.

"It's going to be important that we get down what they're doing early in the ball game and make our adjustments," he continued. For example, in the jamboree Elbert County was expected to run a 4-3 defense but instead ran a 5-3. The Tigers made some blocking assignment changes at halftime and then actually saw the changes work in the third quarter. "I was really pleased that we were able to make the adjustments and see the results," Morgan said. because Hutto has no history. "Since he is a first year head coach, we really don't know what he will be going with," Morgan explained. "But we do know that they will be much better than they have been and they will be much more disciplined."

Warren County always has a good group of players in skill positions and they always have a good complement of speedsters. Morgan is prepared for that, but says, "The big question is going to be how we match up up front. We are going to be a little bigger and stronger but they may be a little quicker than we are."

Jay Small makes the catch and prepares to turn upfield on the Tigers' first touchdown play early in the game.

The only thing the coach seem especially worried about for the 2006 season, however, is injuries. He knows that it is critical that his team stays healthy throughout the season because he doesn't have the depth at some positions that he had last year, and because competition in Class AA is much tougher. "If what happened to us last year happens again this year," he said, "we'll never be able to survive."

Morgan, too, wonders if his 2006 team is really as good as it showed in the jamboree but he is experientially cautious. "I would like to think that we were that good but I don't think that was it." he said, adding that "Elbert County is struggling.

"I though we played decent and we did okay but a lot of it was that they weren't quite what we were expecting. They are definitely not where Elbert normally is," he said. The coach explained that Elbert County is changing to a very different offense and the adjustments are going to take them a while to master.

Germell Moore powers through the line breaking tackles as the W-W Tigers strolled to an easy win over Elbert last Friday night.

"I thought our pass rush was by far better than their pass protection," Morgan continued. "I still have a lot of questions about how we're going to be up front on defense when somebody lines up and runs right at us

but I am pretty pleased with our pass rush."

On offense, Morgan said the players worked extremely hard overall but still made a good many mistakes. "We've got to correct those before we face Warrenton, Thomson, and Lincolnton, but it wasn't bad for a jamboree," he said.

Astute fans may have noticed that the Tigers ran only five running plays and two pass plays. That was the game plan and they stuck to it. And there was a reason for it.

"Part of that was because we had several schools there watching us and we didn't want to show a whole lot," Morgan explained. However, he indicated that he has a lot more up his sleeve for when the season starts progressing. "As we go through the year, you're going to see the offense open up quite a bit from what it has been," he said.

Elbert's ball carrier is upended for a loss by the dominant Tiger Defense.

Even after the jamboree, there are still a few positions left undecided as to starting players. "We have about three players working at fullback and each does some parts of the game better than the others so we may just end up rotating them for a while if not all year," Morgan reported.

"On the offensive line," he continued, "we're pretty settled except for one position where we have two kids that are both pretty equal. That's good - it just means we're going to have a little more depth and the competition can only make each one better."

The first three games of the year won't provide the Tigers with any slack. Warren County has already been described. AAA Thomson has been a nemesis for decades. And archrival Lincoln County figures to be the Class A state champion again this year. After that, the rest of the season is region games and, hopefully, playoffs.

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