Glenwood focusing on daily progress early in Jason Gibson’s tenure

When Jason Gibson accepted the head coaching position at Glenwood, there were two common reactions:

One was excitement. A coach of his caliber who had already had plenty of success coaching the Columbus Lions professional indoor football team obviously reinvigorated a group that had been somewhat stagnant in recent years.

On the other side of the coin, Gibson said he heard from plenty of people warning him that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish certain things in a program like Glenwood’s, which didn’t have the numbers or recent success to allow for it.

So far, though, Gibson said it has been nothing but positives.

“We haven’t had to deal with any true adversity yet,” he said. “I’m waiting for it to happen. Maybe it won’t happen. Who knows?”

It remains to be seen how the improvements will translate in terms of wins, and Gibson readily admitted that it is impossible to know just how far along his team is considering it hasn’t even gone full contact yet.

What is measurable, though, is the participation numbers, which are way up for the Gators. The improvement in that area has allowed the players to only have to go one way, offense or defense, and Gibson expects that to have a strong impact on the team’s success.

Offense

The offense features some returning players from a year ago, most notably quarterback Carrington Huddleston. Huddleston is joined by running back Brandon Moseley, wide receiver Chase Dennis, wide receiver Noah Lake and tight end Aiden Rhodes, among others.

Gibson mentioned all of those as guys who have stepped up over the summer program. But there are still plenty of questions.

“I’m not real sure what we’ve got right now,” Gibson said. “We haven’t even put on pads yet. It’ll all start dictating itself once we start full contact.”

For the time being, he said, it’s all about teaching football skills and learning how to practice, something he said he is even grasping as he goes along. There are some differences in how he will do things at the high school level as compared to how he’s done things with the Lions.

“It’s just a matter of getting out there and covering all the things that need to be done and drilling basic drill work that’s relevant for what we’re trying to do,” he said. “Not just because football says you have to do this drill, this drill and this drill.”

Defense

The defensive unit is a bit ahead of the offense for the time being, Gibson said, noting that that was by design. He and his coaching staff identified some of the players they thought stood out and placed them on the defense, which will occupy all of their attention.

In the past, Glenwood and other smaller schools have been forced to play guys both ways, but with around 70 players on the roster, they haven’t had to this year.

“I don’t want to have to practice offense one day, defense one day, offense another day,” Gibson said. “It speeds everything up. I want guys to take reps on defense Monday through Thursday and get better on defense. That was my mantra when I came in.”

And, so far, it has stood out. He mentioned players like defensive lineman Will Cadovra, linebackers Mario Richmond and Chad Dykes and defensive back Carson Allison.

“Everybody on defense has really made an impression,” he said.

And, most importantly, they have some depth.

“We have got the numbers,” he said. “I’ve had to order helmets and shoulder pads twice already. It’s a good problem to have.”

Overall

It’s still too early to tell whether Glenwood will make large strides over its past three seasons, which ended in 4-7, 3-8 and 4-6 records. But that’s not what Gibson wants to see out of his group right now.

What he asks them after every practice is whether they’re better that day than they were the day before.

“We don’t have to be the best team in the league on the 26th of August,” he said. “We just have to be as good as we can be. We need to be the best team in the league at the end of the season.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2016 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Glenwood focusing on daily progress early in Jason Gibson’s tenure."