Teams to watch: Rockdale rose up to stun their rivals – and the state

[caption id="attachment_26706" align="alignright" width="350"]Photo by Abby Soliz Photo by Abby Soliz[/caption] Expectations aren’t new at Rockdale. Head coach Jeff Miller puts his program in position to succeed every season. But when a team puts up 80 points against Cameron Yoe in a victory, the state takes notice. Miller and his Tigers aren’t running from the hype. “We have the same goals everyone else does. We want to play 16 games,” Miller said. “That’s the goal and we talk about that. We don’t live and die by it, but reaching that stage is what we’re aiming to accomplish. We’ve been close over the past three or four seasons. The breaks just haven’t gone our way.” Rockdale sat idly by as district rival Cameron Yoe enjoyed success at the state championship level for years. The Tigers were a game or two away from a regional championship over the past few seasons. Fairfield ended Rockdale’s 2013 season in the regional final. In 2014, Rockdale beat the Yoemen in district play only to lose the rematch to the eventual state champions in the regional final. Last year’s team also lost to Cameron Yoe in district play before Yoe reached a fourth-straight title. Rockdale’s revenge was an 80-54 victory over Cameron Yoe on Oct. 14. Overall, the Tigers are 7-1 and are in line for a district championship. A victory against Franklin on Friday would almost solidify the District 10-3A D1 title with only Jarrell left on the schedule. Rockdale is an offensive juggernaut poised to make noise in the postseason. “We’ve exceeded expectations. I knew we’d be good, but we had a lot of holes to fill on our team. Some guys have stepped up and played better than we could imagine. We needed a new linebacker corps, three receivers and some linemen,” Miller explained. “We weren’t sure how we could fill those voids, but to our guys’ credit, they’ve really done a great job of picking up the slack.” It doesn’t hurt to return an offensive trio like quarterback David Franklin, running back David Ford and defending 100-meter champion and wide receiver JaQualyn Crawford. The Rockdale offense averages 49.6 points with the only time it failed to score at least 30 coming on the road in a Week 2 defeat against Taylor. “Our speed forces defenses to play base because our athletes can score from anywhere if given space. Having three guys who can score on any play opens up an offense and keeps the defense from stacking the box against our rushing attack,” Miller said. “All three of those guys can run. And they’re smart football players. We can truly do whatever the defense gives us.” Franklin is a running back playing quarterback, and playing it well. He has 1,410 yards passing, 817 yards rushing and 23 total touchdowns. Ford has 22 touchdowns and 1,099 yards on the ground. Crawford is averaging over 20 yards a catch on 34 receptions, scoring nine touchdowns. Yet, it isn’t only about what the offense is doing. Some of the success stems from what it isn’t doing – turning the ball over. “We had seven interceptions in the first two games. We’ve only had one turnover in the last five. A lot of our success stems from Franklin’s ability to play smart and take care of the football. We run the ball a lot and we haven’t lost but maybe one fumble on the year,” Miller said. “That doesn’t mean we aren’t making mistakes. We are. It is my job to remind the team of those mistakes and keep us improving. We’re playing great, but we’ll need to play better to reach our goals.”

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