Syrupmakers wary of Bears’ spread attack

By Clint Thompson

November 20, 2008 10:04 pm

— CAIRO — Cairo’s defense has passed every test so far this season.
The unit’s next exam comes in today’s Class AAA second-round playoff game when the Burke County Bears invade West Thomas Stadium at 7:30 p.m .
A week after holding Troup scoreless and to 22 yards of offense, Cairo looks to shut down Burke’s spread attack.
“They’re very good offensively,” Fallaw said. “I know we’ve watched him on film and in every film we have, they score on the first drive.”
Junior Terrell Brigham is in his first year playing quarterback for the Bears and is expected to be heavily recruited as an athlete, according to Burke County coach Eric Parker.
“He’s a pretty good athletic kid,” Parker said. “He’s probably going to end up playing somewhere like defensive back or wide receiver at the next level.
“But in high school, a lot of times, you take a kid that’s pretty athletic and that’s what you do with them.”
The Bears have thrived under Brigham’s leadership, having reached the 30-point plateau four of their last six games.
“They have a quarterback that’s run for more than 1,000 and passed for more than 1,300 yards,” Fallaw said. “They have another running back, I think, that’s run for over a 1,000. They do a very good job with the spread offense.”
Discovering that Brigham was the Bears’ best choice at quarterback this year was the hard part for Parker and his coaching staff.
“We knew we would have a couple of youngsters that would be able to play for us down the road, but it was going to be a couple of years,” Parker admitted. “We were going to have to find somebody to get us past the next year or so. He was the best athlete.
“We asked him if he thought he could do it. Of course, he said he thought he could.”
The decision to put Brigham at quarterback has caused many teams to worry about his elusiveness, including Fallaw.
“The difference in high school football when people run the spread, usually, teams only do one facet of it well. They either throw well or run the ball well. Burke does both equally well,” Fallaw noted.
“That’s the biggest thing is to decide which one you’re going to try to stop.
“They’re going to take advantage of the other one. Burke presents a big problem for a high school football team because they can throw and run.”