Eagles going back to school
Patrick Laverty
Estancia Coach Craig Fertig came out to practice Tuesday in Bear
Bryant’s houndstooth hat, given to Fertig by the former Alabama coach
himself, and gave his football team a history lesson about one of the
winningest coaches in college history before telling his players what
Bryant would have said to the Eagles.
“There’s two things in football,” Fertig said, mimicking Bryant.
“When things are not going good, you block and you tackle.”
Impersonations aside, Fertig has simplified things for the Eagles
this week heading into their Golden West League game against Santa
Ana, Friday at 7 p.m. at Orange Coast College. The return to the
basics comes on the heels of Estancia’s first consecutive losses
under the first-year coach.
“We’re trying to do too much,” Fertig said. “People this time of
year are looking at our big backs and they’re going to put nine
people in the box. We’re going to simplify our offense. We’ll come
outside a little bit. And when we run inside, we’re only going to run
two or three plays. We’re not going to get fancy. We’re going to put
big guys on big guys and give the ball to our two big backs. Once in
a while, we’ll change it up with Kalani Teo, who has got some speed.”
The Eagles (3-3, 1-2 in league) will still rely on Bubba Kapko (90
carries for 400 yards and six touchdowns) and Mike Cahill (63 carries
for 329 yards and two touchdowns), but Fertig wants to rotate those
two big backs at fullback, since they both play defense as well. Teo
is likely to see a larger number of the carries at tailback with
other players rotating in.
The Saints (3-3, 0-2) have had to deal with the loss of junior
quarterback Felix Munoz this week and it has meant much more than
changing the game plan.
Munoz underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain after
collapsing during Santa Ana’s 34-7 loss to Westminster last week.
Not only is Santa Ana’s game plan unknown in the wake of the
tragedy, but so is it’s reaction to the loss of Munoz.
“Football’s a game,” Fertig said. “Life’s a different deal.”
Fertig visited with Munoz’s father Monday, delivering a USC hat
for his son, and said Felix is improving and has been able to talk
with his family.
Santa Ana is likely to rally around the loss of its quarterback in
what is sure to be an emotional game.
But it’s an important one for the Eagles too, who hope to get back
on the winning side of things. To do that, Fertig is willing to don
an old hat, but knows the ability of his offensive and defensive
lines to control the line of scrimmage means much more.
“We’re just going to get up there and hit that thing,” Fertig
said. “We were trying to out-finesse them. We’ve got big linemen.
We’ve got to get our big guys off the ball.”
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