Dogs' air game dazzles, 33-13
NEDERLAND -- They were the 1993 and 1994 football seasons, yet several vivid memories about Bryan Spell live on quite sharply in Larry Neumann's intellect.
Spell was the first quarterback on those first two Neumann-coached Nederland teams. Bryan scored the first touchdown and points in Neumann's Nederland tenure. That's the kind of individual that a head coach remembers forever.
Spell's ability to get the max out of his talents as a player was easy for Neumann and all Nederland faithful to see. In his sixth season on Neumann's varsity staff, Spell has seen a few more Nederland quarterbacks come and go. He says none looks any better than Bulldogs senior Dustin Hood.
Bryan saw Dustin have a near-perfect scrimmage Friday night in Bulldog Stadium. The scoreboard would read Nederland 33, Jasper 13. Hood would complete 11 of 16 passes for 187 yards and one touchdown.
But the real reason Bryan Spell receives a plug in this article has to do with the players on Nederland's team which Bryan coaches. As accurate and impressive as Dustin Hood was at quarterback, Nederland's crop of varsity receivers was even more awesome on the humid night.
It would hard-pressed for any team to ever receive a better all-around performance from a group of receivers in a scrimmage than Spell would get from his pupils against Jasper. The NHS pass catchers simply had stick-em on their fingers all night.
To Hood's credit, the passes were extremely well thrown, too. Some of them were positioned in the only possible spot where they could have been caught. But Nederland's receivers ran their routes with precision. The last of Hood's 11 completions practically was caught on the ground as Ryan Butler was falling on his back for a 33-yard reception at Jasper's 12.
Another was a leaping snap by Tyler Thompson to set up a touchdown right before half. Yet another was a pretty out-and-up route by Michael Young. Nederland showed the obvious to Jasper's secondary -- that it brings a nice carload, or perhaps busload of receivers to battle.
"They made me look good," Hood said after the scrimmage. "The receivers stepped it up a lot this week. There probably were a couple of times when I should have thrown it away."
As modest as ever, the NHS receivers coach Spell deflected the credit in other directions.
"I didn't make any catches tonight," Spell said. "We've got some great playmakers and we got some great protection from our offensive line tonight. I haven't been around that long but he (Dustin Hood) is the best I've been around."
Just to set the record straight on the guys who made catches, Ryan Butler led the way with three for 78 yards. Returning sharp from a bout with tonsilitis, Michael Young added three catches for 60 yards. Another solid tactician, Tyler Thompson, grabbed three for 32.
"We've got a good group of receivers," Thompson said. "We've worked well together with Dustin since our freshman year."
And how's about that receivers coach, Tyler?
"He's a great coach," Thompson said. "He's helped us work on our routes, how to stem out and how to plant off. Coach Spell does a great job."
Nederland's dominance surfaced in most every statistic -- turnovers, 4-1; first downs, 17-11; total yards, 341-226; passing yards, 209-100.
Neumann could find very little glaring about this final dress rehearsal prior to next Friday's season opener against Texas City in Bulldog Stadium.
"We just need to keep doing what we're doing and get better at it," the NHS head coach said. "Without looking at the video, I think we're going to see some real improvement out of our offensive line."
Nederland's defense turned in another sensational night's work, but Jasper's self-destructive tendency helped plenty in that regard. Jasper head coach Danny Lauve admitted as much, too.
"We didn't execute like we needed to execute," said Lauve, who reminded his team that last year's Nederland scrimmage score was NHS, 26-0. "Nederland always does that to us. They humble us when we need to be humbled. You can't start drives off on first and 15. But I think we're a little ahead of last year. It's a good scrimmage for us."
Lauve will get a better indication of his team's progress when it will open the regular season next week against West Orange-Stark.