Fresh off a 32-7 win against Flomaton Friday night in a preseason game, the T.R. Miller Tiger football team will kick off their 2013 season with a game Friday night in Brewton against the Escambia County Blue Devils of Atmore.
T.R. Miller Tiger head coach Jamie Riggs said his team did a good job against Flomaton Friday night and will need to continue that good job against Atmore this week.
“We did a good job of adjusting to what Flomaton was doing,” Riggs said. “We certainly did some good things in all three phases of the game, but also there were some things that we did not do good at. Obviously things like that are going to occur at the beginning of the season, but the question is can we improve on that and can me make some progress on those things in the next few weeks? But overall, I am pretty pleased with what went on.”
The Tigers and Blue Devils have met a total of 79 times with T.R. Miller owning a 39-36-4 overall record between the two teams. Last year, T.R. Miller earned a 41-17 win over the Blue Devils. Atmore, under first-year head coach Lev Holly, went 3-7 last year.
“We know that they are apparently a young team this year,” Riggs said of the Blue Devils. “They have less players than they have been having. We also know that they have a great quarterback (No. 8 Chris Johnson). We have dealt with him now for what seems like years. They basically have played like two quarterbacks in eight years.”
Riggs said he is very impressed with Johnson.
“He was outstanding last year and will be one of the best quarterbacks we will play this year,” Riggs said. “He certainly can throw the ball for them and does a great job and he is a great runner. He has a real presence about him. Two years ago out here against him, I think we won in the last minutes. He tried to lead them back at the end, so he can do a lot of things and we better be careful with him. He sure can get loose and will be a problem we will have to deal with.”
Riggs said on defense, the Blue Devils are similar to the way they were last year.
“They have great speed on defense and we know that,” Riggs said. “We have to be prepared and ready to go. We need to be a better team than we were this past week against Flomaton. We know they are going to play. They always play harder and better against us, so we have to be prepared.”
The Tigers of T.R. Miller will come into their 2013 season opener against the Escambia County Blue Devils of Atmore with a 20-5 record in their season opener games the last 25 years.
The last time T.R. Miller lost a season opener was in 2010 when Atmore stunned T.R. Miller in overtime with a 35-34 win.
Overall for T.R. Miller under Riggs, the Tigers are 20-4. The four losses for T.R. Miller have come in 2010, 2007, 1998 and 1989.
Riggs said it is always great to start out with a win.
“It always helps to win the first game,” Riggs said. “Everyone always wants to get off to a good start. We have not always done that here. A few years ago I think we lost our first two games of the year. Obviously you want to get off to a good start and do some things well. We know we have a tough region schedule, so if we can get a win this week and get ready for region play next week, that would be great.
“But we also know we will have our work cut out for us.”
Game time is set for 7 p.m. Friday night in Brewton.