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Hudson Star QB Wynn Out For Playoffs

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: November 15, 2007

HUDSON - HUDSON - Hudson High will be without starting quarterback Zack Wynn in its first round playoff match up at St. Cloud Harmony (8-2) Friday night because of an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee.

The sophomore suffered the injury in the Cobra's Week 9 game against Zephyrhills and Head coach Mark Nash said the team did not find out the severity of the damage until 3 p.m. last Friday.

The torn ACL effectively ends Wynn's season regardless of how deep Hudson manages to push through the Class 3A playoff bracket.

"It's a shame he's not able to go," Nash said Thursday afternoon. "We're pretty imposing (on offense) if he's out there."

Without Wynn's nearly 1,700 yards of passing - he is also Hudson's punter and place kicker - the offensive load may be heavily shifted toward running back Sean Scott.

"We're going to have to manufacture a running game, which seems to be not that hard - he had over 1,600 yards," Nash said. "But if we can't throw, teams know we're one dimensional."

As for the quarterback situation, Nash said the Cobras will be rotating in as many as four players throughout the game.

He said they have not had a varsity level backup quarterback all season. Nash mentioned a junior varsity call up that will get a few reps along with a varsity backup running back who has previously acted as an emergency quarterback.

The coaching staff had the luxury of scouting Harmony live last Monday during a three-team tiebreaker for playoff seeding.

Hudson's top priority is to keep the dangerous Harmony offense off the field, Nash said. That will prove to be a tall order if the Cobra passing attack pulls up lame and the Longhorn defense can stack eight men in the box to stymie Scott's rushing.

Defensively, Nash feels his young men have performed well enough in the past few weeks to win ball games, but they will have to find a way to contain big play wide receiver O'Neil Chambers and a rushing attack that features an array of different ball carriers.

Nash said the team in general has kept a "pretty good outlook all week" leading into the playoffs, but that spirits were definitely dampened by Wynn's injury.

"We've had a good season and we want to keep that in perspective," Nash said, in the hopes his team does not lose sight of all they have accomplished dating back to spring ball.

"I wish we were full strength, but we're going to go out and give it our best shot."

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