Bozeman working through spring, feeling good about experience of the group

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Bozeman head coach Jason Griffin and his Bucks are now about three quarters of the way through the twenty days of spring football practice. And the coach seems pleased overall with the squad’s progress so far. The Bucks coming off a 5-5 regular season from a year ago. Then lost a first round playoff game to a very good Baker team. Lost from that team some nine seniors, which again, on the 1A could mean losing more than nine starters. That doesn’t seem to be the case for coach Griffin and his team, which he says may be a young group overall, but shouldn’t lack in experience.

“You say it’s about seniors but it’s not just about seniors with us. You know we’ve got a lot of continuity on this team outside of that senior class. You know we have got a lot of young guys that have played a lot of football. You know I’ve got a kid, our center Travan Sweat, he’s only going to be a junior and he’s already started 22 games here. And he’s only going to be a junior and he’s played 22 football games here at Bozeman. So we’ve got a lot of young guys that have played a lot of football. So even though we aren’t really a senior heavy team were a pretty experienced team going back. You know last year our defense had zero seniors on it, so we’re returning most of our defense back from last year’s bunch.”

And having players with some, or a good deal of experience around in spring, well that makes for a more productive spring, says coach Griffin. ”Because it’s not football 101 for a lot of guys. I said you know having been to the playoffs five straight times, and I’ve got a lot of guys that have played in those, that have been in those playoff runs. And done those things so having that level of experience, even though they’re not necessarily seniors, you’ve got younger guys, we’re not going back to the basics out here. A lot of guys say, you know in the spring we’ve got to get back to the basics and do football. And I think for us we are really evolving our schemes and probably doing things a little more than probably a little more than we might do if it was spring when we were really inexperienced and young.”

So take the experience factor, and a productive spring, and hopefully, says coach Griffin, a lot fewer key injuries than the team suffered in 2022, and you have the ingredients the coach believes, for a big 2023 season.

”Being here and with the tradition that we’ve developed here in the last 5 years, I think playoffs are an expectation. But, I think what this bunch is working for, we’re not just expecting to make the playoffs, we’re expecting to make the playoffs and do something in the playoffs. You know, hopefully, you know last year was very frustrating with the amount of injuries and things we went through but I think this year, hopefully if we stay healthy, this team might have a chance to do some things here that haven’t been done at Bozeman and we’re hopeful for that.”

Griffin and his Bucks will wrap up spring a week from tonight at Arnold in a jamboree with the host team, Holmes and Rutherford.

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