Friday, September 13, 1996

Cougars hosting Wichita Falls Rider
By AL PICKETT
Sports Editor

Cooper coach Randy Allen believes preseason scrimmages are learning tools.

Unfortunately, Allen's Cougars are having to use their early non-district games for that purpose this year. Cooper's intrasquad scrimmage was rained out and its only preseason scrimmage against Lubbock Estacado was cut to just one quarter because of rain.

So the Cougars went into last week's season opener with less scrimmage time than any previous Allen-coached team.

"The best thing that can happen is find out what you need to work on," Allen said. "You get better when you can correct mistakes. To have a complete team, you need to find out what your weaknesses are and put the spotlight on them."

The spotlight this week was on Cooper's goal-line offense as the Cougars prepared for tonight's home opener, a Parents Night game at Shotwell Stadium against Wichita Falls Rider.

The Cougars amassed 325 yards total offense and were inside the 6-yard line three time last week, but came away with only a field goal in a 15-5 loss to Garland.

One change this week will be the use of a three-back set inside the 5-yard line. Dominic Rhodes, Richard Rodriguez and Kino Garner will form one three-back set, with Kevin Stevenson, Roy Strahan and Chris Cherry on the second unit.

Despite last week's loss to Garland, Allen found many positives in the Cougars' performance.
"I was very pleased with the way our defense played," he said. "We held Garland to nine points (the other touchdown came on a fumble return). I was pleased with the way the offense moved the ball.
We did some good things offensively. Our emphasis this week has been on our goal-line offense and getting points on the board inside the 10-yard line, and picking up blitzes.

"But I'd rather play a good team early and find out where you stand than get an easy win and not learn anything about your team."

First-year Rider coach Bill Froman believes the same thing. The Raiders have traditionally started the season 3-0 with wins over Class 4A Wichita Falls High, Burkburnett and Wichita Falls Hirschi. But Rider has made the playoffs only once in the last 12 years.

So this year Froman dropped Burkburnett and Hirschi from the schedule and added Cooper, which has made the Class 5A playoffs four years in a row, and Denison, which reached the 4A finals last season.

"We want the people in Abilene to see what kind of team we have," Allen said. "We have a chance to have a really fine team. I'm anxious for us to step on the field and show improvement."