Tyler Legacy’s scrimmage with Marshall moved to Friday

Published 2:23 pm Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Tyler Legacy will have to wait an extra day for its lone scrimmage against Marshall.

The scrimmage was originally set for Thursday, but Marshall scheduled its Meet the Mavs event for Thursday, forcing the scrimmage to be moved to Friday.

The Red Raiders and Mavericks will meet on Earl Campbell Field at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium. The freshmen and junior varsity teams are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. with the varsity set to start at 7 p.m.

Legacy has been practicing for more than a week and started full contact drills on Saturday, and head coach Joe Willis said he’s been pleased with what he’s seen.

“The older guys have definitely been meeting expectations,” Willis said. “We are still in evaluation with the younger guys, finding out where they fit and what level they need to be. I have been impressed with defensive intensity. I think our defense is going to be really good this year.

“Offensively, we’re working to execute. We have some new faces, some who are new to the program and some younger players looking to contribute. Anytime you’re on JV, and you go up to the speed on varsity, it’s a learning curve.”

Friday will be a chance for fans to get a look at the new-look offense with Luke Wolf at quarterback, what Willis called a “three-headed monster” at running back with Sterlin Burleson, Ladarius Yarber and Micah Pierson.

With the rest of the offense, Willis said, “I like where we are with the tight end position. We have some talented guys at wide receiver, but they’re new to varsity, so they have to learn some things schematically. Offensive line is still in evaluation. We will have to work really hard to get them up to speed to compete against bigger bodies. We are small there, but we feel good about the guys we’ve got.”

On Friday night, Willis said there are three priorities for the Red Raiders.

“Priority one is to get out of there healthy,” Willis said. “Priority two is to execute. Priority three is to determine our depth chart. For us, it’s an evaluation. We want to see execution. We are not opening the playbook wide open. We want to see the guys line up and do their job.”

The varsity will do a controlled scrimmage for the first portion with the first teams each running 10 plays on offense and defense and then the second strings going eight plays each. That process will be repeated again before two live 12-minute quarters with everything being live except special teams.