Season preview: Scots changing up gameplan with explosive roster

Aug. 12—LAURINBURG — It's been 11 years since the Fighting Scots last won the NCHSAA State Championship. And since then, Scotland has a playoff record of 26-10 with three state title game appearances.

But, the Scots want to win the big one again. In pursuit of that, they won't be feeding their running backs as much, which is an adjustment for head coach Richard Bailey's team. With running backs RJ Nicholson and Jatavious Mckayhan graduated, the Scots lost a lot of size at that position.

"We were handing the ball off to RJ close to 40 times a game in the playoffs. We don't have another guy on our team like that right now. Most of the running backs we have right now are a little more diminutive," Bailey said.

So instead of the usual ground-and-pound game that Scots fans have been accustomed to, they'll try to deplete defenses more with their explosiveness.

"We're gonna be a little different this season," Bailey said. "We're not gonna be as big and punishing, but I also think we'll have more explosive big plays."

And a wide receiver room that Bailey has raved about this offseason will benefit from those plays.

"This is the best wide receiver group since I've been at Scotland. And I'm not so sure that it's not the best wide receiver group I've had since I've been coaching as a head coach," he said.

Izeem Graham and Cadyn Graves are the leaders of that wide receiver group, who both were named All-Conference and combined for 18 touchdowns last season.

But, for an offense to be explosive, it must have substantial quarterback play. For the Scots, junior first-team All-Conference quarterback, Carter Revelle, returns, with the team seeing improvement from him in the offseason.

"He's getting better at reading which receivers are open, and being able to throw the ball to the right spots at the right time," Graves said about his quarterback.

But Revelle's starting job isn't locked up just yet, according to Bailey. Quarterback Ji'San McPhatter has turned some heads this offseason.

"McPhatter, our other quarterback, has looked really well," Bailey said. "I've told them both all summer, I'm not guaranteeing either one of you will start week one. I don't care if you started last year or not, you gotta earn your spot every year."

A starter may not be named before week one either, as Bailey added that both quarterbacks could see snaps early in the season. A similar scenario occurred in 2018 between quarterbacks Tyler Barfield and Mandrell Jonson, after quarterback Bruce Wall suffered a season-ending leg injury in the first game of the year.

No matter who ends up starting at quarterback for the Scots, they will have an experienced offensive line protecting them, which includes first-team All-Conference lineman, Amari Chance.

"All five of the kids coming back on the offensive line played significant minutes last year and they all got stronger in the weight room," Bailey said.

And on the other side of the line, Bailey feels confident about the defensive line and believes he has a front-four capable of making some special plays.

"I've been very impressed with our front-four. They're big, fast, and strong," he said.

As for the linebacker unit, they are younger and less experienced now, with first-team All-Conference linebackers Ladarius McNeil and Nick Henderson gone. But, one player has stood out at the position for Bailey throughout the offseason.

"The only real senior we have there is Luke Strickland," he said. "His biggest thing is staying healthy. I've got big hopes for Luke if he can do that. He's gotten a lot stronger and he's sneaky fast."

The Scots secondary will return three all-conference defensive backs this season, in seniors Jahari Brown, Patrick Primus, and Gabe Jones. And they continued to impress during the offseason, as did the secondary as a whole.

"This has been the best summer that our secondary has had since the first couple of years I was here," Bailey said. "We made some plays back there and intercepted a lot of passes."

Bailey is confident in this year's team, but he also loves the potential he's seen in the freshman class for the future.

"We have a really large freshman class. We've had over 40 freshmen trying out and I see a lot of young, talented kids," he said.

The Scots will open the 22-23 season on Aug. 19, when they host the Northern Durham Knights at 7 p.m.