TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Football Countdown: No. 9 Brandon Aspiring To Reach Next Level

ADVERTISEMENT

By ADAM ADKINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 20, 2008

The Tribune began its countdown of the top 10 Hillsborough County football teams on Tuesday with No. 10 Tampa Bay Tech. Today: No. 9 Brandon. The rankings were compiled in a vote by the Tribune's four staffers who cover high school football and News Channel 8's Dan Lucas.

BRANDON - John Lima's first two seasons at Brandon have been a success. Both ended in playoff appearances, making Lima the first coach in program history to lead the Eagles to consecutive playoff berths.

Entering the 2008 season, Brandon's head coach is hoping his program's upward climb will continue and in year three. If the Eagles are going to take the next step, they're going to do with an extensive cast of new faces.

The Eagles return just seven starters from the 2007 squad that powered its way to seven regular-season victories and the Class 5A-District 7 title, losing a ton of talent to graduation. Also gone are Brandon's offensive and defensive coordinators from last season, which have been replaced by Brian Surcy (offense) and Carey Reid (defense).

Still, Lima remains optimistic about the potential of this group heading into 2008.

"We're young, but we have more good players than we had last year, believe it or not," Lima said. "The work ethic is better than it was a year ago, and it was immediately. We've been working at it. Our leaders are our hardest working guys, and that was something that we were missing."

Those leaders include junior safety Sean Watson, senior offensive lineman Danny Gonzalez and senior tailback/defensive back Deandre Bowers, who are among the more experienced Eagles on the roster.

But there are still question marks.

The most notable, personnel-wise, is at quarterback, where Lima is still searching for a replacement for two-year starter Tracy Burr. A handful of contenders exist, and Lima is hoping to see one or two separate themselves from the pack during the next week of practice.

But the biggest question mark remains how the youthful Eagles will respond to game-time pressure once the season begins.

"Talent wise, I'm very comfortable with this team. It's just, we won two games in the last minute of the fourth quarter last year. A young team has to find a way to win, and a lot of times they don't. That's my biggest concern," Lima said. "You never really know how those guys are going to perform in crunch time. From that standpoint, it's really hard to say which way we are going to go."

KICKOFF CLASSIC: Aug. 29 at Sickles

SEASON OPENER: Sept. 5 at Middleton

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT