The spring is a time to work out the bugs and plant new seeds for the coming season, and in the case of Beech football, some areas need more attention than others coming off winning a state championship.

The Bucs hooked up with Oakland on Friday night for a full scrimmage, and both teams had highs and lows but saw a lot of players see action on the field.

“I thought we did OK,” Beech coach Anthony Crabtree said. “We’re playing a lot of young people up front on both sides of the ball, so we’ve got to find some depth.”

One of the focus areas for Beech this spring has been replacing four of five starters on the offensive line from last season, with rising senior Ruben Iocab the only returning starter up front.

“Those guys are all new, except for one,” Crabtree said. “We’ve got to gain as much game experience and practice time as we can.”

Returning this fall for the Bucs, though, will be a host of skill players, including 2012 5A Mr. Football Jalen Hurd, who set the state record for rushing yards in a season last year with 3,357. Finding the right group to block for the University of Tennessee commit and the rest of the Beech running backs will be key, Crabtree said.

Senior Parker Henry takes over at quarterback for the Bucs, and he has stepped into the role nicely, Crabtree said.

“Parker’s had a really good spring, and he’s throwing the ball well,” he said. “He’s played quarterback before, just never been the starter, so it’s not new to him. He started 15 games at free safety last year, so he’s definitely going to be one of our leaders.”

Beech has made few personnel changes this spring, only moving Kris Sykes and Caleb Dockery from outside linebacker to defensive end, which has been a good switch thus far, Crabtree said.

And when he’s not carrying the load on offense this fall, the plan is to have Hurd starting at free safety on defense, something he did only sparingly last fall.

“We’ve got three tailbacks we think can carry the ball, so we can rest him some on offense,” Crabtree said. “But he’s going to play a lot of the game on both sides of the ball for us.”

With three days of practice left and one more scrimmage, the idea is to work on the little things and set the team up for a good off-season.

“We’re having to be real simple in our scheme on both sides of the ball,” Crabtree said. “We’ve just got to get better at the fundamentals of blocking and tackling.”

Source: TheHendersonvilleStandard