WATSON – The first week of the prep football season has arrived, and it’s a new slate for all teams.
For Live Oak coach Randell Legette and his team, that means hosting Lafayette High on Friday at 7 p.m.
“It’s a brand new season, and obviously with that you have a bunch of optimism involved,” Legette said. “We’re going to continue to stay optimistic and continue to work hard and continue to build off of things. We’re excited. Football season is here.”
Live Oak is coming off an 18-7 loss to Hammond in last week’s jamboree, but Legette said there’s plenty for the Eagles to build on heading into the opener.
“I really like the fact that we were able to make adjustments, the kids responded to those halftime adjustments,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t execute in times of opportunity and whatnot, but I like the fact that we were right there. Hammond’s going to be a good football team, and they’re going to win a lot of games this season. I really liked what I saw as far as my coaching staff and their ability to make adjustments and the kids and their fight. You go into the half (down) 12-0, and that can go either way. We’re firm believers here in how do you respond to things? Everything’s not going to go the perfect or exact way. It’s really about how you respond to it. When we talk about character development and life lessons, that’s something that we preach on a daily basis, so it was just good to see those guys go out there and fight in the second half and put themselves in position to possibly win a ball game.”
Hammond scored on the first play of the jamboree, and Legette attributed some of that to some players seeing their first varsity action.
“I felt like once those jitters went away, butterflies went away so to speak, I thought they responded well and really just started having fun playing football,” Legette said.
That being said, Legette said there’s still plenty for the Eagles to work on. He said the focus is on playing better fundamental football.
“I think that that’s going to carry you when you get tired, or you’re on that 13th or 14th play in the drive,” he said. “Everybody’s good when they’re fresh and ready to go, but then sustaining that for 48 minutes, can you do that consistently as it pertains to fundamentals?”
Legette said the team isn’t dwelling on the loss in the jamboree.
“It’s next game, next play, next moment. I tell them all the time, if you know somebody that invented a time machine, let me know. In that case, I want to use it, so I can go back,” Legette said with a laugh. “But that’s not the case.”
“Our guys are fine,” Legette said. “They know. Do you like losing anything? No, but ultimately, the jamboree is for growth and lessons and correcting the mistakes. That’s what it’s there for. If we can get those corrected right away and get this done Friday night, then who’s really talking about the jamboree? It’s about perspective, and I think our guys understand that, our coaches understand that …”
The Lafayette offense is led by quarterback Richmond Saunier, who committed to Dartmouth, and running backs Jaden Celestine and Jaiden Portalis.
“He’s got a big arm,” Legette said of Saunier. “You can tell he’s the captain of the team. You can tell they count on him to make plays for them down the stretch.”
“They’ve got two running backs and a quarterback they can put in position to make plays, keep the chains moving and score points, so we have to do a good job minimizing their ability to do that,” Legette continued.
Legette said the game’s outcome of the game will come down to the football basics of turnover margin, time of possession and explosive plays on both sides of the ball.
“Defensively, they play sound football,” Legette said. “What you see is what you get. We just have to do some things on our end to combat that and be able to stretch the ball down the field, manage the game well …”
Legette said the focus is more on his team than Lafayette heading into the opener.
“They’re a good ball club,” he continued. “They have some pieces, but we just have to do our part. We really do. I think if we do our part, play our brand of football and minimize the mistakes, don’t shoot ourselves in our foot, we’ve got a dang good chance of accomplishing that goal of being 1-0 on Friday.”
