There may not be a football coach alive who hasn’t taken Bill Belichick’s popular “Do Your Job” mantra and run with it. Everyone at Durant knows that’s what they’re expected to do day in and day out.
The most important part of doing your job is finishing it, though. The 2019 Cougars were a tougher out for opponents than their four-win record suggests, but some of their six losses are still on the minds of everyone returning in 2020 from head coach Mike Gottman on down.
“We’ve just got to finish,” Gottman said. “We’ve got to finish strong. We’ve had opportunities and, for whatever reason, we didn’t put the nail in the coffin and get the job done. We’ve got to have more of that mentality to finish teams when we have an opportunity.”
The last thing anyone in blue, gold and the occasional green wants to do is suffer another gut-wrenching loss like last year’s Riverview game, a 13-12 loss Gottman said he’ll “take to my grave.” Durant started that game strong and took a 12-0 lead into the second half, but after the Cougars couldn’t score from less than a yard away and a missed call allowed the Sharks to score on a 99-yard lateral, a switch flipped.
“We’ve got fourth and goal from the six-inch line against Riverview and we don’t stuff it in,” Gottman said. “We’re up 12-0, we punch that in and we go up three scores. Situations like that, we’ve got to do better at finishing people off.”
Finishing the job has been a huge focal point of Durant’s offseason both pre and post-COVID. It’s been hard for the Cougars (and everyone else in the county) to get back up to speed with all of the interruptions brought on by both the pandemic and the late-summer weather.
“It’s been difficult with the storms, with the COVID protocol, the heat index and the wet ball… it’s been jockeying for practice time,” Gottman said. “It’s been hard to get better when there’s always interruptions in your practice. That’s been difficult. But I feel like we’re making strides forward. We’ve just got to have more opportunities to keep improving. Not having spring football, not having summer really hurts you. It puts us behind where we’re normally at.”
But Gottman said the team’s overall attitude and effort have been “great” from the start of the offseason to now, and that there’s plenty for fans of the team to be excited about.
Durant is still going to have multiple looks on defense, Gottman said, and the team will return some experience in key areas. At inside linebacker, the Cougars look solid with both the return of top ‘backer and defensive leader Joshua Cannon and Jacob Reed “playing his butt off” to earn a starting job. Jaiden Gappy, who was effective at outside linebacker last year, moved to strong safety and will play next to Collin Cole, who saw plenty of snaps at running back last year and has done an “outstanding job” learning his new position. Defensive backs Ashton Kirkland and Lenny Woods are also back in the defensive secondary. The team is also excited to see what senior Wyatt Lawson, who has 10 NCAA Division 1 offers, can bring to both the defensive and offensive lines.
Last year, the Cougars changed up their offense to better suit second-year starter Sean Williams’ strengths at quarterback. They went all-in on the flexbone, or triple option, offense and had 15 players run the ball 349 times, picking up a total of 2,031 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns. Despite the high volume of both runners and carries, Durant only lost one fumble all year.
“It was what we needed to do,” Gottman said. “He (Williams) was on the shorter side and he had a hard time throwing from the pocket, so we had to spread him out and do things… he was a good option quarterback. It played into what we needed to do.”
But now that Williams has graduated, the keys have been handed over to junior Marcus Miguele and Durant sees potential now and in the future.
“He’s athletic,” Gottman said. “He can extend plays. He’s got a good arm, he’s elusive and can run. I’m excited to see what he can do. Down the stretch last year, we kind of knew that he was our future so we dabbled with him to get him some film and see what he was like.”
That means Durant’s offensive playbook is going to be much more balanced than in 2019, when their quarterbacks combined for 56 pass attempts on the season. Gottman wants Miguele to be a dual-threat option for the offense and believes the quarterback has the tools to become a legitimate weapon for the team.
“He’s got a long ways to go — everybody’s got a long ways to go — but he gives us that opportunity to do some things instead of just running the ball every play,” Gottman said.
But the Cougars have long been known for their commitment to establishing the run, so don’t expect them to run an air raid offense anytime soon.
“We’re still running option but we’ll be under center, off the ball — we’re gonna be able to interchange that,” Gottman said. “It’s still option concepts.”
Eli Reed and L.J. Gappy, the team’s two most productive running backs in 2019, both get one more year with the team. The only problem right now is that L.J. Gappy, who suffered a knee injury in last year’s Redman Cup game, still hasn’t been cleared to play. Luckily for the team, Reed is no slouch: he led the team in carries, touchdowns and rushing yards (though he tied with L.J. Gappy for the latter two, each with six scores and 556 yards) last year. He and Miguele should lead Durant’s rushing attack with help from Lawson and a big offensive line.
Durant has approached the upcoming season with the right mindset thus far, Gottman said. Missing out on their spring game and other activities only made the players hungrier to get back on the practice field and in the film and weight rooms. When the team resumed lifting weights in June and got back into conditioning under Hillsborough County’s three-phase plan, Gottman said, they came with everything a coach could ask for.
“Effort, attendance and attitude were outstanding,” Gottman said. “They may have missed it, couldn’t wait to get back, so I’ve got no qualms about summer and our conditioning program.”
Many of the positional battles resolved themselves quickly, though Gottman said last week there were a few the team was still working on. He said the defensive line was what the coaches were looking at the most closely as of last week and putting a “solid” line together by the season’s start was a priority. This is the area that took perhaps the biggest hit in the offseason: defensive end Bradley Guasto, who last year recorded 73 tackles, a blocked field goal, a recovered fumble and a team-high 5.5 sacks, graduated and left big shoes to fill on the edge. Lawson’s presence on the defensive line should help the rest of its members stuff the run and generate pressure, though.
If the Cougars can get better about finishing what they start, the number in the “wins” column very well could improve from last year.
SCHEDULE
Note: All games scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
Games are broadcast live online at NFHSNetwork.com.
9/11: @ Newsome
9/17: @ Bloomingdale
9/25: vs. East Bay
10/2: @ Kathleen
10/16: @ Lakeland
10/23: vs. Strawberry Crest
10/30: vs. Plant City
11/6: @ Wharton
THE DETAILS
Location: 4748 Cougar Path, Plant City
Established: 1995
Head Coach: Mike Gottman (18th season with team)
Offense: Multiple
Defense: 4-3/multiple
2019 record: 4-6 (2-3 district)
ROSTER
(from MaxPreps.com)
1 Marcus Miguele QB Jr.
2 Aashton Kirkland DB Sr.
3 L.J. Gappy RB, SS Sr.
4 Elian Gonzalez RB, FS So.
5 Jeremiah Gines RB, FS So.
6 Nathaniel Richardson RB, OLB
7 Quentin Johnson RB, FS
8 Jeremiah Puerto Sr.
9 Tyler Bokor WR, TE Sr.
10 Andre Givens RB, FB Jr.
11 Jaiden Gappy SS, FS, RB Jr.
12 Calub Connell QB So.
14 Zaevion Jordan RB, SS So.
15 Jaylin Torres Fr.
17 Antwain Shaw CB Jr.
20 Eli Reed FB, RB Sr.
21 Matthew Reynolds CB, WR Jr.
22 Alex Daley RB Fr.
23 Alejandro Santiago QB So.
24 Sean Lugo Sr.
25 Bryson Pearce
26 Tyler Wiggins
26 Brian Stockton Sr.
27 Lenny Woods CB, SS Jr.
28 Collin Cole RB, WR Sr.
32 Leo Tabakovic FB So.
33 Jerome Parham So.
35 Jordan Fernandes LB Jr.
36 Jacob Reed MLB, FB So.
40 Joshua Cannon LB Sr.
42 Austin Lewis DL, TE So.
44 Mekhi Batista DE Jr.
45 Ajai Brown So.
48 Simeon Echevarria LB Jr.
49 Nathan Brennan TE, DE Sr.
50 Greg Smith
51 A.J. Hancock Fr.
52 Gianmarco Diez Santos MLB Sr.
53 Andrew Baker DT Sr.
55 Wyatt Lawson G, DT Sr.
56 Hunter Dross DL Sr.
57 Michael Lopez
58 Andrew Valentine Jr.
59 Austin Bovee OL Jr.
62 Dylan Penman So.
68 Logan Mayo OL Jr.
71 Hagan Sharp OL Sr.
72 Nash Sollmann T So.
77 Cade McClellan
78 Tyler Newell Jr.
88 Matt Wynn SS Jr.
89 Xavier Hernandez LS Sr.