NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
Intensity is high early for coach Bill Littleton’s group of McAllen Memorial Mustangs as the blue jerseys practice offense on the center of the field and offensive line drills by the home sideline. Scoring is where the cream of the District 30-6A crop thrives.
The winners of three consecutive district titles scored 66 touchdowns last year, including 79 points on 11 touchdowns in two playoff games.
The 2018 version of the offense has the potential to get even better and churn out more points with the one-two punch of halfback Campbell Speights and quarterback Sean Skaugen returning for their junior and senior seasons, respectively.
Speights powered his way to 1,647 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns as a sophomore, while Skaugen threw for 616 yards and was second on the team in rushing with 1,108 yards.
At practice last week, Skaugen showed off his arm during wide receiver and cornerback drills. He hit his targets much more frequently than he missed, with a couple of the balls fading into spots only the offensive player could reach. Speights got in on the routes, working the option game. Memorial showed more wrinkles than the usual smashmouth attack.
“Over the past year, I’ve really been focusing on the passing game, and we’re trying to implement a lot of new stuff over here,” Skaugen said. “I’m just trying to learn the game a lot more, recognize defenses and blitzes. What I want to change last year to this year is to become a student of the game. Every day, come out and learn something new.”
The passing game could just be a secondary option for play-callers to keep in their back pocket in case the run game hits a rare hiccup. In 2017, Memorial’s run-pass split was 3,985 to 826 in yardage and 518 to 93 in attempts.
Speights’ strong two seasons could be just a taste of what the 2020 graduate has to offer. At the halfway point of his high school career, he is growing physically and as an experienced football thinker.
“I’m just trying to bring a lot of energy,” Speights said. “I’m trying to be a better teammate, a better role model. Of course, I need to work on the little things — being more explosive, being quicker in the hole.”
McAllen Memorial does not have a fountain of youth to restore the graduating members of its offensive line. Most of the O-line snaps last year went to seniors, and the new crop will need to step into those positions with confidence.
O-line coach Robbie Jasso said juniors David Paz and Daniel Domian are returning varsity players. After that, the group of Karson Kinney, Dago Gutierrez and Andrew Ramos will be called on to battle for the open positions.
Skaugen, whose junior season took off because an injury opened a position and he ran with the opportunity, said he is excited to see how the openings at impact starting spots fuel the Mustangs’ fire.
“That competition is really going to bring out the next level in our athletes, always,” Skaugen said. “A little competition really doesn’t hurt anyone. That’s a good thing, because they’re always going to bring their A game. We do a lot of weight room stuff. We have a lot of strong guys in our program.”
“I think I see great effort right now,” Littleton said. “Kids are working pretty hard. We’re trying to get better at the little things. Obviously not where we want to be, but we’re making strides. This team has a great potential.”
Speights said spring is an important time.
“It shows us who we are after the guys we lost. We lost a lot of key players,” Speights said. “Spring ball gives us a chance to let the young pups come up and show what they can do.”
YOUNG DEFENSE
The Mustangs defense will look noticeably different when the group lines up to start the season on the road against Brownsville Hanna on Aug. 30. Only two starters return from the 2017 group, and sophomore Michael Morales will step into a leadership role similar to the defenders who mentored him a season ago.
“Last year, we had some great leaders on the team,” Morales said. “Coming in as a sophomore last year, I didn’t know much. These guys really coached me up, and I think I grew a lot from the beginning to the end of the season.”
On five occasions last year, Memorial flexed its defensive muscle and didn’t allow more than 14 points. The Mustangs recovered 14 fumbles and picked off nine passes on the season. Morales intercepted three.
He had 81 tackles last year, which ranked sixth on the team. The five players above him on the tackles chart are walking across the graduation stage in June. At his position in the secondary, he’ll miss Nathan Sanchez, who had 180 tackles, and Kelechi Nwachuku, who had 163.
By the end of last season, Morales said he received more compliments and acknowledgment of his hard work from his senior leaders. He said they left big shoes to fill, but leading is something he wants to do to help his teammates progress.
“It’s a big role coming in, but I feel like I’m in a position that I can help these guys, and I want to do that to the best of my abilities,” Morales said. “I learned a lot from the guys last year, and I want to put them in the position I was in.”
2020 VISION
“We like to put in a lot of work — me, Michael and all the other 2020 guys. You see it all over social media: 2020, 20/20 vision,” Speights said. “That’s the culture that the other guys — my brother’s class, and the class after him, and the class before him — that’s what they showed us. We learned from them. We take what we learned from them, and we put our little culture on it.”
With the class of 2020 suiting up as juniors in the fall, their roles and responsibilities will increase.
“It’s tough, but like it was last year, it helped that I had some great players and athletes around me to help me grow,” Morales said. “We’re working on our craft just to get better every day.”
After the Week 1 road game against Brownsville Hanna, Memorial will host Sharyland High and then have a showdown at home with another 6A powerhouse in Edinburg Vela.