Crockett’s Offense Rolling Right Along, Led By QB-WR Duo

A 71-22 district victory over Corrigan-Camden has Crockett rolling into a showdown with Newton this Friday. Crockett’s offense is clicking at the right time, led by quarterback Case Robinson and wide receiver A.J. Phillips.

“We’re very balanced and we have playmakers,” Crockett head coach Jimmy Thompson said of his offense. “We try and execute every play. You draw up each play to score and we’re going through a period right now where we’re scoring a lot.”

The catalyst is Robinson, a quarterback known for his leadership and intangibles as much as for his physical talent. He and his parents organized summer workouts, 7-on-7 and was the ride for many of his teammates to get to those workouts because he had a car.

“Case has a desire to be good. He bench presses 290 and squats over 400. He works really hard physically and mentally to be great. He’s also a great student and knows the offense as well as I do. We were in halftime against Madisonville and he suggested we run a pass play we ran last season but hadn’t practiced it at all this season. We came out of halftime and it went for 70 yards on the first play,” Thompson said. “He makes my job easy because I know he’s going to do everything in his power to make this team successful.”

Robinson’s favorite target is Phillips, a smaller wide receiver that can turn any catch into a touchdown.

“A.J. has scored a touchdown the last eight times he has touched the ball. He’s got great quickness and acceleration and all of our jobs become easier when a guy can take a play that should be an 8-yard gain and turn it into a 70-yard touchdown. That is the stuff we can’t teach,” Thompson said. “He’s a lot like Case with his work ethic. I mean, he’s like five-foot-seven and can bench over 300 pounds.”

Building that work ethic, especially in the weight room, was one of Thompson’s goals when he took over at Crockett. The two years before he arrived, Crockett won one and three games, respectfully.

“The challenge for us when we took over was getting the team to work out. They all loved to throw and catch and do all the fun stuff, but we had offensive linemen who couldn’t bench 250 pounds. You’ll get killed in the trenches with guys like that,” Thompson said. “We needed the guys to buy-in and really put in the work to get stronger and they’ve done that and we’re starting to see the results.”

Newton comes to town with an unimpressive record, but Thompson isn’t fooled.

“Newton is Newton. Their problem is they are so good no one will schedule them in non-district so they face huge teams. They lost to West Orange-Stark last week, but most teams lose to West Orange-Stark. They’ll hit us right in the face and we better be ready for it,” Thompson said. “We need to be balanced on offense and get a few stops to have a chance. If we can get our defense playing well, we can play with anyone.”