Q&A: Experience, new defense spark optimism from Winder, Jackets

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Third-year Yellow Jacket head coach Greg Winder can't wait to smell the grass and hear the cans shaking Monday when football returns to Stephenville. || The Flash Today file photo by RUSSELL HUFFMAN

Editor’s note: For the 11th straight year, the fourth with The Flash Today, Brad Keith has conducted a Q&A with the Stephenville football head coach on the eve (or close) of the beginning of preseason practice. It’s a tradition that began before the final season of Yellow Jacket football under current SMU coach Chad Morris and continued for seven years with current Tulsa linebackers coach Joseph Gillespie. We hope you enjoy this, the third annual piece with head Jacket Greg Winder, who’s confident his club has something to buzz about in 2017.

By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com

STEPHENVILLE (August 5, 2017) —  In 2015, Greg Winder was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach in Stephenville, taking over a program with great tradition going back to 1990, but having just sent off to Baylor (now Auburn) one of the greatest players in program history in Rivals and Scout 5-star quarterback Jarrett Stidham.

Don’t forget that team also had to deal with the departure of star running back Kaegun Williams, a 1,000-yard rusher as a freshman in 2014 who left for 6A power Cedar Hill and recently began his first preseason camp with San Diego State.

In his second season, Winder had a team comprised mostly of youngsters, as in sophomores. A starter returned at QB in Easton Jones, then a junior, but he lost his top target, junior receiver Blake Aragon, who would play a total of just four games in 2016. The defense was especially young, with sophomores all over the field.

Winder is just 7-15 through two seasons, and his team suffered a blow this summer when Jones tore the ulna collateral ligament in his right (throwing) elbow. Easton and his family are attempting non-surgical treatment in hopes of avoiding the dreaded Tommy John surgery, but the jury is out whether he will play again as a Yellow Jacket.

But weapons still about for a Yellow Jacket team that seems to have no fewer than four Division i college prospects. More years than not, you can count on one hand the number of 4A teams that have more.

A new defensive coordinator and scheme were put in place during the spring semester and its implementation continues when preseason practice begins at 7 a.m. Monday.

Football is back, and Stephenville is building again. It was a jovial Coach Winder who participated in the Q&A Saturday, as his coaching staff was busy making final preparations for what they believe will be a turnaround season for the Yellow Jackets:


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KEITH: A week ago you told me 160. As D-Day, if you will, has crept closer, is that still the number of guys you expect will turn out Monday morning.
WINDER: You bet, 160 is where I think we’ll be. We had about 45 freshmen come out for freshman camp and we’re expecting a handful more than that, so about 50 with 110 in the older classes.

KEITH: Freshman camp, that’s something that was started just a few years back. How was that this go-round?
WINDER: The freshman camp, I believe, was very good for the kids who attended it. They get a chance to learn our high school terminology and some of the things we do differently than they do at the junior high, but the biggest thing is it’s a week when those guys get to work closely with our whole coaching staff and continue to build those relationships they started building in summer conditioning. It’s just a great acclimation process for those guys that helps to keep them from getting so lost in the shuffle when everybody’s flying around come Monday.

KEITH: You mentioned summer conditioning. You made the decision to steer away from Performance Course in favor of your staff running that. Now that it’s complete and you can look at it in retrospect, how do you feel about that decision?
WINDER: It was probably one of the best decisions we’ve made since I’ve been in Stephenville. That isn’t meant as anything against Performance Course, they are an outstanding group. We just felt it was time to get back to bonding with the kids over the summer months instead of standing by and watching somebody else out there working with them. This year we were working the kids out and continuing to build relationships with them, and I could see those relationships getting stronger than in past summers.

KEITH: Alright, lets get down to the football side of it now. Who are some of the guys maybe the average fan up in the bleachers doesn’t know a lot about today, but certainly will a couple months from now?
WINDER: Well, defensively there are guys like Pacen Parker who is a great athlete and will make plays, and Dylan Garber is another good one. Also Kasee Bouchey is returning and we think he is going to have a big year and Gage Graham, Chase Carrillo and Cody Storrs have all had great springs and summers. Cody Storrs is a tremendous athlete, a great baseball player. He decided to come out and play and is one of our cornerbacks and he’s really fun to watch. I would say Zane Walker at linebacker and also Blu Caylor but most everyone knows those two.

Cole Pettit is another one who’s had a great off-season, but I think everybody is already aware of Cole. What will be diferent is you’ll also see use him at receiver some this year. (Graham) will do that, too, start on defense but then also help us at the slot receiver.

Offensively, obviously Tyler Schouten is a guy a lot of the Friday night fans don’t know much about and he’ll be at quarterback. Jacob Poston at center we think is going to do a great job, and we’re excited to have Scott Gill at left guard and can’t wait to see what those younger guys are going to do. Clay Krause is another guy who had a great spring and summer. he decided he wanted come out and b e a part of it and has brought in 100 percent. He’s dangerous at the slot receiver, of course Kade Averhoff, the other slot, and Kyle Lindsey, on the other side of Blake Aragon, is a very good receiver, too.


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KEITH: You mentioned Schouten as one of the guys fans will get to know in a hurry. How is the transition from Jones to Schouten going, and what is the plan in terms of depth at that position?
WINDER: (Schouten) has improved just over the summer getting all those 7-on-7 reps. When you get that kind of work you should get better and he did. He knows our offense inside and out, so there aren’t any changes were are making based on his knowledge of the playbook. he’s been a good leader all summer, and like most our guys, h didn’t isa a day. The guys are rallying around him and we’ll see. I think he’s going to have a successful season. Cole Stanley is a sophomore, a good athlete who can chunk it around a little bit. He’s going to be playing corner and he’ll also be our backup quarterback.

KEITH: Maybe not to the same level as the group on the 2012 state championship team, but your receiving core, isn’t that a special group?
WINDER: It really is, and it’s because they aren’t just great athletes and football players, but they’re great kids, which we’re fortunate to be able to say about pretty much all our kids here at Stephenville. Of course, there is Blake and he had the injury last year or would have probably had a great season then. He’s 6-5 and we all know he can jump and catches pretty much everything thrown in his direction. He’s one of those special players you can never find enough ways to get the ball too because he’s good and making sure he gets the ball and he does things with it once it’s in his possession, too. Kyle Lindsey on the other side is a really good receiver, just a hard match-up, especially if you already have your top corner on Blake. You’ve got  Clay Krause and Gage Graham in the slot, and Kade Averhoff is our tight end, but we’ll move him all over the place. When you have receivers like that all over the field it really puts the defense in a bind, and they’re also good about getting extra yards once they catch it.

KEITH: You have a dangerous buy in Krece Nowak at tailback. Who is the guy who will spell Nowak when he needs a breather?
WINDER: Victor Moreno, has been with us all summer and he went out there and made some big plays in 7-on-7 when we needed him, so we’re confident that he will give us a good back up there.

KEITH: How has the transition gone defensively with a new coordinator in Cody Moore and the installment of the 4-2-5 defense he was part of as a player at TCU?
WINDER: Coach Moore has done a great job. He’s very intense, he loves his job and he loves bonding with the kids. I don’t mean just defensively, but everybody, and that’s something we try to emphasize to all our coaches is to make an effort to bond with all these guys not just the ones in your position group. The 4-2-5, I can tell you from looking at it from an offensive standpoint, is a defense that is presents a lot of problems for an offense to deal with. It’s such a balanced defense, it’s hard to get them misaligned and in the spring we had a tough time going against it offensively because they’ll bring blitzes from anywhere and everywhere. There were even times the corners are blitzing. The kids seem to have really taken a liking to the defense, and I’m glad we had the spring to do most of the teaching in it because everyone pretty much knows their role. Fundamentals, getting to they ball in good position then wrapping up and being solid tacklers are always the key for the defense, and that will be worked on every day, but schematically, I think we’re in great shape.


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KEITH: Who are the specialists going to be, the kicker, punter, long snapper and return guys?
WINDER: Chase Carrillo it looks like is going to be our kicker, and we’re looking at Jacob Couch at punter and Jacob Poston is the long snapper. For returners, we’ll have Nowak back there and Kyle Lindsey will probably be back there. We may even use (Aragon) back there some, too.

KEITH: Alright, 10th and final question. What is your favorite part of this year?
WINDER: Just the excitement of getting going again. The kids have all been up here, and it’s hard to get them out of the locker room to go home, which is a good problem to have. We had staff meetings all this week and as we got to Thursday then Friday, you could just kind of feel it in the air. We’ll meet on Sunday and make sure every little thing is in order and ready to go, and then when you run out on that field at seven o’clock Monday morning and you smell that grass and hear those cans shaking, you know it’s real. Its just a fun time of year.

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