Dillon High School offensive coordinator Kelvin Roller brought up a good point during the Battle of the Carolinas press conference last week: Even the best football teams can benefit from getting slapped in the mouth every now and then.
Dillon got slapped in the mouth in the South Carolina AAA state championship game, one year after winning the title. After pushing opponents around for much of this decade, Scotland got a taste of its own medicine several times last season before pulling off its run to the 4A state championship game.
Scotland and Dillon will meet in a preseason scrimmage for the third straight year at the Battle of the Carolinas on Aug. 12. Roller hinted that the young Wildcats could be in for a rude awakening against the Scots. Regardless of how true that is, the matchup will provide the Fighting Scots with a decent test against a traditionally powerful football program.
The Scots will also have one of their first chances to ditch the 7-0n-7 games and beat up on someone other then themselves. The scrimmage will offer us our first glance at the post-Syheam McQueen and Joseph McKoy era of running backs,and it should also provide a glimpse at Scotland’s revamped passing attack.
Perhaps most importantly, the game against Dillon will be the Scots’ chance to show how much has changed since the Wildcats defeated them at the same event last year. Scotland was young and inexperienced, a predicament similar to the one Dillon is in this year. Now Scotland has numerous returners from last year’s team — around nine on offense and eight on defense. That group includes senior receiver Bruce Wall, who missed last season due to an ACL tear, and senior defensive end Jason Romero Jr., an East Carolina commit who has recovered from a neck injury he suffered late last year.
After the Battle of the Carolinas, Scotland will have one final tune-up scrimmage against Cape Fear on Aug. 19 at the Cumberland County Schools Football Jamboree. That scrimmage will start at 8 p.m. at Gray’s Creek High School. Cape Fear finished 7-5 last season and appeared in the first round of the 3AA state playoffs.
The Scots need to make those two scrimmages count. Their first two non-conference opponents, Southeast Guilford and Hoggard, posted a combined record of 24-4 last season. Southeast Guilford advanced to the 3AA state championship game.
Those are great opportunities for the Scots to either get slapped in the mouth or prove that they are playoff contenders.
