At the end of last season, when Erick Davis finished his high school career, it looked as though Noah Johnson would be his successor. But, throughout Durant’s spring and summer camps and activities, a new name began to come up in the quarterback conversation.
By the time the preseason rolled around, head coach Mike Gottman and the Durant staff felt comfortable enough to declare that they had their guy for 2015 and, possibly, beyond. The “and beyond” is important here because Durant’s new starter has also just started 10th grade.
Cougar fans, meet Carlton Potter.
WAIT, WHO?
No, Potter isn’t the youngest starting quarterback in the area. Strawberry Crest is also going with a sophomore, in Tate Whatley. Even Plant City starter Corey King is fairly young, having just begun his junior year.
But, of the three, Potter is the only one whose name hasn’t been attached to UYFL-level success with a Tri-County youth team or time spent playing on the varsity level. He most recently quarterbacked Durant’s junior varsity team and, before that, the East Bay Bucs. To his knowledge, Potter is the first person in his family to play football.
So, when the offseason and the quarterback tryouts began, Potter had to grind to earn his current spot.
“I just came out and tried to work every day,” Potter says. “I just kept working to try to get better every day.”
Walking into a starting quarterback position is never easy — not even for the professional guys — but Gottman found Potter to be well-equipped for the job. Gottman sees an intelligent athlete with dual-threat ability. Most importantly, he sees a quarterback through whom he can run the same kind of offense that took the Cougars to the playoffs a year ago.
“We just saw a kid that throws a really nice ball,” Gottman says. “He’s got great presence on the field. Very aware of the setting, and he just did a nice job. As a sophomore, coming in, he handled the pressure extremely well.”
Potter got his first-ever varsity start against Brandon in the preseason and, even though Durant took the loss, Gottman was just as pleased with the way Potter played as the quarterback himself was.
“It was a really good experience,” Potter says. “I got to get a full game full of reps. I made a couple of mistakes I would want to take back but, overall, I think we played well as a team.”
Whether Potter can replicate the success the team had with Davis under center remains to be seen, but Gottman seems confident that he’s found something special.
As was the case last season, that just might be enough for Durant.
LET’S TRY THAT AGAIN
The Cougars are hoping that everything will fall into place this year. More accurately, this second.
Why? Because they’ll be hosting Hillsborough, one of the top teams in Hillsborough County Friday, Aug. 28.
The Durant faithful will remember last season’s Cougars-Terriers tilt, in which the teams combined to score over 100 points, and the home team came a touchdown away from getting the win. In that 55-49 loss, Davis ran for 97 yards and four touchdowns, and also threw for 274 yards and two more scores. Garrett Rentz, who had a 202-yard game, caught them both.
But the Cougars were also the victims of great quarterback play. Dwayne Lawson, who has since graduated, torched Durant to the tune of 453 passing yards and four touchdown strikes, plus 153 rushing yards and three touchdowns on just 10 carries.
The Terriers were recently outmatched, 15-12, by East Bay, but that was in partial game action at a kickoff jamboree. The team saw two solid wideouts in Duran Bell Jr. and Rudy Dawson III, and its fearsome defense is led by four-star end Zach Carter. To put it simply, the Cougars have their work cut out for them.
Of course, coming up with a win isn’t impossible. Durant is only a year removed from back-to-back upset wins over playoff teams (Sickles, then Tampa Bay Tech) in two of the first three weeks, and they certainly got a good look at Hillsborough’s offense last season. The key here could be exploiting holes in the Terriers’ pass defense, which appear to lie in the middle of the secondary unit, with tight end Steven Witchoskey.
“They like to go with a lot of man (coverage), so we’re just going to look for those mismatches and beat them there,” Potter says. “I would say when their safeties lock down on a tight end — we have a big tight end, and they’re not gonna be able to beat him.”
A Durant win here would be one heck of a statement with which to open the season, as Hillsborough won nine games in 2014 and got a lot of respect from the Tampa Bay sports media. Can the Cougars get back in those conversations?
“I think that we’ll do good as a team,” Potter says. “We’ve just got to come out here and do our responsibilities — do our job.”
OTHER AREA ACTION
PLANT CITY
The Raiders were the only local team to win its preseason game, taking a 19-7 victory over the Riverview Sharks, the visiting team that never really appeared to be in it to win it.
Plant City fans should hope that T.J. Chase, who got the night off, will be ready to get to work Friday, Aug. 28, against Armwood.
The Hawks, who have lost quite a few of last year’s top performers, got a 13-0 win in partial game action at East Bay Friday, Aug. 21, (it was a kickoff jamboree, featuring the Hawks, Indians and Hillsborough Terriers), and the team probably won’t be looking to mess around in its home opener.
Start time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: 12000 E. U.S. Highway 92, Seffner
STRAWBERRY CREST
The Chargers traveled to Jesuit Friday, Aug. 21, and were steamrolled, 38-0, by the Tigers. Crest can at least take away the fact that Jesuit, which has both a tendency to play well and a superstar running back in Malik Davis, is going to do that to many of its 2015 opponents. And, of course, it was only the preseason.
Friday, Aug. 28, Crest will play against a Brandon team that beat Durant, 17-12, at home. The Eagles may have slipped out of the playoff picture last year, but the team — and its athletic defense — is still not to be trifled with.
Start time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: 4691 Gallagher Road, Dover