By Daniel Evans
The Selma-Times Journal

At Morgan Academy, preparation for football is about to kick up a notch. During June, head coach Bob Taylor led the Senators in basketball playdates around the area, but now his focus is squarely on football.

Friday, Morgan Academy will travel to Hooper Academy in Montgomery to take part in an eight school 7-on-7.

“It is kind of like a tournament format. We are going to play pool play first and then there is a little single elimination thing,” Taylor said. “A little competition. [You are] not necessarily worried about winning and losing as much as you are improving, and it is a chance for us to get in that mode because we will do a 7-on-7 pretty much for the next three weeks. We will have one a week.”

On July 18, Morgan Academy is hosting nine or ten schools from around the state in a 7-on-7. Taylor said making sure your team sees a variety of styles is one of the most important factors in 7-on-7.

“You see all different teams. We have one school that they are going to run their wing-T stuff.  They are going to do all the fakes and do all that,” Taylor said. “We have some schools that have their 7-on-7 offense and their regular offense and you’ve got some that say ‘we are going to run what we run’ and that’s fine. If you can get [the play] off in four seconds then that’s great. If you can’t, then you are out of luck.”

Taylor says that giving his players an opportunity to compete is one of the biggest advantages to playing in 7-on-7.

“It is competition and conditioning. We want our quarterbacks to be able to recognize coverages. I’m fortunate right now,” Taylor said. “I’ve got two quarterbacks, one is a senior and one is a tenth grader so they can compete a little bit in this.”

Taylor said that learning how his team will respond when they are in the heat of battle is another reason he is looking forward to seeing his team in action.

With Morgan altering their offense a bit into more of a spread based attack, the 7-on-7 contests are probably a bigger help offensively than they have been in past years.

“This will be the fifth year I have done 7-on-7 and I have seen more benefit defensively than offensively,” Taylor said. “Now, since we have changed to be more of a spread, open look team, I think it has made a big difference for us.”

Although the passing game will be a big focus the next few weeks during 7-on-7 contests, Taylor says the Senators are not going to forget about running the football.

“We are still going to run the football. Nobody gets totally away from running the football, but you get people backing up on their heels when they think you are going to pass and it opens up your running game,” he said.