Spring Creek Mini-Camp

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on August 4, 2017 7:09 AM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- The action was brisk, voiced over by the familiar hymn of coachspeak and anchored at all points by the smooth presence of senior quarterback Collion Kittrell.

Against a running clock, and with varying degrees of split seconds between snaps, he worked.

There were crosses. Go routes. Comebacks and hitches.

Timing upon timing upon timing and then some.

But as Wednesday's opening 30-minute trial at "The Swamp" faded into its follow-up, the real identity of this year's Spring Creek varsity football outfit began to emerge.

Gone was the route tree and the tightly-wound spirals to a litany of rangy receivers. Gone was the repetition of terms like burst and separation.

In a wink, the setting changed from air raid to ground charge. Instead of volume throwing, there were quarterback-center exchanges. Game-speed motion handoffs.

The blossoming of fakes and got-you-there sells.

Call it the evolving, rep-heavy timeshare of first-year Gator interim head coach Daniel Robinson.

"We had some key players not come back, so we're trying to adjust to what we've got," Robinson said. "He (Kittrell) actually throws the ball well, but we just came to the conclusion that we're going to have to spread the field and run the ball -- he's great in the open field."

And with just two weeks remaining before SC's season-opener at South Lenoir, he'll be busy meshing those skills with what is left of a completely new install -- much like his offensive line, which will drive the team's new approach.

"We're building around them," Robinson said of the bunch. "They worked Wing-T all summer, so we're going to try keep those principles and adjust the skill guys."

Steep climbing? Certainly.

Impossible? Hardly.

Especially with the help of new assistant coach Fred Kennedy, who plied his way through a similar system for many years in nearby Deep Run -- and who, in every way possible thus far, has worked to accelerate the group's steep learning curve.

"Luckily, he has a lot of experience in the Wing-T and helped out tremendously with this transition," Robinson said. "He helped us combine with our skill guys -- he's been a huge help."

All that remains now are the reps, which one can find aplenty on the west practice field in Seven Springs.