Published Sunday, August 03, 2008

EC looks to McKnight for game experience

The Times-Herald

How do you replace an offense built around what the public perceived as Tim McGill to the right, Tim McGill to the left and Tim McGill up the middle after Tim McGill graduated?

Well, for starters, you begin with a proven quarterback.

New East Coweta head coach Clint Wade has just the player in Mac McKnight who led the Indians to a 10-2 record last year from his quarterback slot and returns this year for his senior campaign. McKnight and the rest of the East Coweta Indians under Wade, who replaced Danny Cronic after 18 years on the job, began preparation for the '08 season Friday.

After a preseason scrimmage against Starr's Mill, they open the year against Sandy Creek on the road on Aug. 29.

McKnight started as a sophomore, but suffered a season-ending injury after completing 11 of 27 passes for 148 yards. He came back last year and finished with 11 touchdown passes including two in the playoff victory over Stephenson. He was exactly what former EC coach Cronic loved in a signal-caller. He got the job done with a minimum of mistakes.

He wasn't fancy. He just executed.

McKnight showed his stuff last year, throwing touchdown passes in eight of the Indians' 12 games. Perhaps his most memorable single play came in the opening round of the playoffs in EC's 17-14 win over Stephenson. With the clock ticking down late in the game, he hit Spencer Smith with a clutch 25-yard pass to set up Ryan Gates' winning 19-yard field goal with just 3.5 seconds left.

He had a 57-yard shot to McGill in the opening game loss to Oxford, a game the Indians later won by forfeit. He threw two touchdown passes in the 45-0 win over Paulding County

His field generalship contributed mightily to the Indians' 10-win season, the third best in East Coweta annals and their nine-game winning streak, fourth best in Indian history. He directed the Indians to nine straight games in which they scored 20 or more points and five in a row when they topped 30 or more.

The Indians failed to score a first half touchdown on just two occasions all year.

This year McKnight will be called upon to run a new offense, however, as the Indians are moving from their long-entrenched Wing-T to an I-formation attack.

McGill, who had well over 3,000 yards rushing in his career with the Indians, will obviously be missed.

But EC is not without offensive talent especially in speed merchant Jeric Woodall and the often-injured Henry Dixon. Many believe that if Dixon, now a senior, could remain healthy he would leave his mark on the EC record books.

But it all begins at the quarterback position, quite possibly more important on the high school level than in either the college or professional ranks.

And if experience and coolness under fire count for much in the position, which they obviously do, the Indians are already well ahead of the game with McKnight running the show.