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.”