Marble Falls football travels to Gatesville for final scrimmage

CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore quarterback Crawford Mattox throws to senior receiver Atreyu Machacek for a first down against Lago Vista. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School football team will travel to Gatesville Thursday, Aug. 22, for its final scrimmage before starting the regular season.

The subvarsities play at 5 p.m. with the varsity to follow at 6:30 p.m.

Head coach Keri Timmerman sees the value of competing in this event, particularly for several of the newcomers to the varsity level, before traveling to face Austin Crockett next week.

Timmerman said that sophomore quarterback Crawford Mattox is still “figuring it all out” after his performance in the scrimmage against Lago Vista Aug. 14. The coach noted the quarterback had shining moments, particularly when he found senior receiver Atreyu Machacek and sophomore running back Gladen Smith. He hit both on short throws that turned into big gains.

“So I think he’s developing some rapport with all the kids, I think that the receivers are coming along. It’s just hard,” he said. “We know until you get into live contact and bullets are really flying where you can move and make decisions, it’s hard. Everything’s easy off-air and everything’s easy when you’re working against your (junior varsity) scouting team. When you go against a good football team, you start kind of figuring out what that feels like and how to move and those things.” 

Timmerman, who is entering his second season as the Marble Falls head coach, has said implementing his version of the spread offense where the formations include a running back, two receivers and a H-back takes time. After all, he is teaching the quarterbacks the mechanics, footwork and basics of the position on the field while also helping them identify coverages, where, to whom and when to throw the ball, and know the roles of each of his teammates in each play.

After all, it wasn’t so long ago the Mustang quarterbacks were operating an entirely different scheme with different responsibilities in the run-based slot-T offense.

“That’s five years of not throwing the football,” Timmerman said. “You see it at times and then other times you see the advancements we’ve made. I think we’ve got a really young quarterback, I think we’ve got some good skilled players.” 

Meanwhile, the defense forced and recovered a couple of Vikings turnovers that coaches believe is the start of better things to come.

“Huge,” the coach said, “and we want to take the ball, always as much possible. We’re going to fly to the ball. We got some young players and as a whole, we got to make sure that we’re aligned correctly. A lot of times we’re just a little bit out of alignment, and they catch us in it. And so we’ve got to work on our fit in our alignment and then just run to the football.” 

Timmerman emphasized he and staff approach these scrimmages just like that – scrimmages. They want to see specific plays and aren’t as concerned about down or distance.

“We’re calling things that we need to see and see if we can read off of it,” he said. “We don’t necessarily have a set game plan. We’re just trying to get plays on film so we can coach off a bit. So a lot of that goes into it. We’re not trying to win a scrimmage, we’re trying to get video and we’re trying to get players on a field that we don’t know about and learn a little bit more about.” 

CAPTION: The Marble Falls defense doesn’t let the Lago Vista running back get another yard. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro