Rockies face a familiar but different face in round one
See previews of all the area team’s games in Thursday night’s Pilot News
PLYMOUTH — It’s been another long road for Plymouth’s Rockies in the 2023 football season but one that has shown a glimpse of what could be coming in the not-too-distant future.
“If you take away all the other noise and just look at straight stats we have moved the ball a lot better this year,” said head coach Adam Handley. “We have more total yards, we’ve been in a lot more games early. Some of the outcomes have been similar which is frustrating but if you look at the big picture of what we are doing, if you were at some of the games you would see the difference for sure.”
The feeling of those who have been at the game is that the Rockies may be just one step away from turning a corner.
“We’ve talked recently that as soon as we get that first ‘program’ win, maybe a team that you are supposed to lose to, once we get that win I think we’ll start churning,” said Handley. “We are still looking for that.”
“Wawasee was a good win for us because we survived adversity and got it,” he said. “Calumet was a good win for us. Those are games that you look at and say that probably we should have won. Goshen was frustrating for everybody and maybe that’s a game we should have won. When you start winning games you are supposed to win that is great but you need that surprise win, when you are an underdog team. That’s when you know you are turning the corner.”
Something that needs to be pointed out as well is that three keys to the success of the team have been on the sideline for most, if not all, of the season.
Michael Bush has not played a snap after off-season surgery. Starting running back Michael Gibbons went down in week one, and just a few weeks ago the team’s leading slot receiver and key defender Blake Mackey went out.
This week there is the possibility that the team will lose another crucial component. Quarterback Exzander Ramirez went down a week ago and is questionable for Friday.
“We are still figuring that out,” said Handley. “It’s a day-by-day situation. He’s progressed really well since Friday but it’s going to be if he does play what can he do? What kind of offense can he give us? He’s probably not going to be 100 percent regardless but it’s one of those things that we need to put together a game plan to let him have some success with what he’s allowed to do.”
“If he’s not healthy Grady Metsker is the next guy,” said Handley. “He’s been running our offense at the JV level and it’s the same offense. It’s not like he’s going to have to learn a new language like English to French. It’s still the same terminology, he just hasn’t advanced to the second level with it like Exzander has this year. Either way, we’ve been preparing for both all week. Exzander has been at practice all week. He’s been in the huddle listening to the play calls all week, right there in Grady’s back pocket.”
One thing that might make it easier is a level of familiarity with a South Bend Washington team that traditionally comes to Plymouth to scrimmage in the off-season.
“We watched some of that (scrimmage) film this week just to look at what kind of alignment they might give us and what we thought we would see against our look,” said Handley. “Obviously they are an improved team but there is the fact of where we have come in the last nine weeks too. We are running our power game a lot more than we were during the early part of the season. We are able to pull some guards. Obviously, Finn (Holm) is a different back than Gibbons was it’s just a different look. Sure we scrimmaged them and we are familiar with them but we are both very different teams than we were then.”
“They’ve used different quarterbacks, they’ve used different kids in different positions to make plays, they have some really good athletes on the team,” he said. “Their offensive line isn’t going to bulldoze anybody but they are big and physical and they have some good athletes. They like to get the ball outside. Their bubble screen game is pretty good and they will still threaten you deep.”
