Quick turnaround challenges Goldsboro

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on November 8, 2013 1:48 PM

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Goldsboro head coach Eric Reid had little time to celebrate.

Minutes after the Cougars defeated North Lenoir 40-8 on Monday night, his mind had already shifted towards their next opponent -- Greene Central.

When the Cougars take the field against the Rams tonight Snow Hill, it will be their third game in 15 days. The condensed schedule left Reid's team with fewer days to heal physically, install a game plan and fine tune that strategy in practice.

"It messes up our whole week," Reid said after the NL win. "We have to tend to some of the bumps and bruises that we've got. And now, we as coaches have to sit down and look at Greene Central (Monday night). The main thing is keeping the kids focused and letting them get a grasp of the game plan."

The Cougars typically lift weights, review film and lay the groundwork for that week's opponent on Monday. Those tasks took place Tuesday.

A short week left Cougars with just one day of intense practice on Wednesday. Reid planned to stick to his routine of putting his players through a lighter practice on Thursday with a game critical to their playoff seeding looming tonight.

"We have to keep them up-tempo mentally," Reid said. "We have to feed the game plan to them in a manner where they can accept it, but not give it to them too fast. We'll probably have to spend a little bit more time with our install and give it to them more from a microwave standpoint."

Reid anticipates using a "vanilla" strategy on offense against Greene Central since the coaching staff had less time to study film and devise a game plan. The Cougars' run-oriented attack doesn't change much regardless of their opponent and the short week allows Reid and his staff to focus on defense.

They'll transition from seeing North Lenoir's run-first approach to defending Greene Central's pass-oriented, spread offense.

"Our mainstay is our defense, we've got to stop their offense from scoring," Reid said. "One good thing about our offense is the fact that offensively there's not so much we have to change other than showing the line our blocking scheme and get familiar with their defensive front.

"Our defense has to be familiar with Greene Central's multiple fronts and know what defenses to call in certain situations."