GREAT FALLS — Great Falls CMR football is back for day one of practice with a young new offensive line, a young quarterback who got a little taste of starting action last season and a team that loves to play fast, according to head coach Dennis Morris.
“We lean on this, CMR is going to play faster than anyone in the state,” Morris said. “You know as long as we live up to the expectation and philosophy of our program and we play as fast as we can and keep it simple, let the kids play hard, we’re just as good as everybody else.”
Junior Cole Taylor will take the reigns as the new starting quarterback, moving former starter Raef Newbrough to play more receiver and focus his energy on the defensive end as the free safety.
“What we want to do is get the ball to Raef in space but at the same time Raef is going to start and play every snap in the secondary at free safety,” Morris explained. “So overall we thought we could get the most out of the kids by going with Cole Taylor, who has had a great offseason.”
The question mark that looms for the Rustlers heading into game is how their offensive line will hold up with the loss of four key seniors. CMR returns just one starter who was a freshman last year in Shawn Tadlock.
“Now we’re asking a sophomore to step up and be a leader of that entire group so you know that’s the major focus right now,” Morris assured. “We got great, strong and physical kids but haven’t played offensive line.”
For Cole Taylor and the players, they are excited for week one against Missoula Hellgate and the chance to play someone else for a change.
“I’m looking forward to going out there and winning, playing hard and finally getting a chance to beat up on someone else other than ourselves,” Taylor said. “Just practicing against each other over and over we’re ready to go against someone else.”
