TONIGHT’S TICKET
Rogers High at Fort Smith Northside
KICKOFF: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Mayo-Thompson Stadium, Fort Smith
ON THE AIR: KURM-AM 790
RECORDS: Rogers High Mounties, 0-8, 0-5 7A-West Conference; Fort Smith Northside Grizzlies, 1-7, 0-5.
HOOTEN’S RANKINGS: Rogers is No. 16 in Class 7A; Northside is No. 13.
HOOTEN’S LINE: Northside by 21
Blume started out at nose guard, and the hard-charging, 5-foot-6, 166-pound junior was then moved to linebacker.
Mounties coach Shawn Flannigan said he thought about giving Blume a look at running back in preseason drills, but at the time Rogers had plenty of depth at that position.
That was before injuries and suspensions took their toll in the backfield, and Blume was moved to running back three weeks ago.
Blume got a taste for running the ball in a junior varsity game, then four nights later was on the field against Springdale Har-Ber. And the junior has been getting better every week.
“You just have to play where ever Coach (Flannigan) wants you and where he thinks you will help the team most,” Blume said. “I was a little uneasy at first when I moved to running back, but I had a good jayvee game.
“I started picking up the plays, and I said, ‘Hey, maybe this can work.’”
Last week against Fayetteville, Blume got the start as the lone running back and rushed for 71 yards. More importantly, he raced 15 yards for the Mounties’ first touchdown in five 7A-West Conference games.
Finding the end zone for the first time was a confidence booster, but Rogers will need a lot of touchdowns tonight when they travel to Fort Smith Northside. The Grizzlies (1-7, 0-5) are averaging almost 500 yards of offense per game.
Blume said he thinks the Mounties (0-8, 0-5) are up for the task. Turnovers and mistakes have slowed a Mounties offense that is putting points on the board 70 percent of the time they reach the red zone. Getting to the red zone, however, has been the problem as Rogers is converting just 29 percent of the time on third down.
“Things are starting to click for us,” Blume said. “When we finally scored, we knew that was a positive thing for us and we want to do it a lot more (tonight).”
Flannigan is pleased with how Blume has progressed and said he expects big things out of the junior in the future.
“In a typical year, it would be a much bigger deal to move a player like that because of the amount of offense that would be in,” Flannigan said. “Right now, we don’t have a ton of stuff in, so it was a much easier transition for him.
“Branden has picked it up well and he has done a great job.”
Northside is averaging 33 points per game, and Flannigan said that means the Mounties must keep the ball out of the Grizzlies hands. Northside leads the league in turnovers with 20.
“We need to create turnovers, and offensively we need to move the chains,” Flannigan said. “If we can get three, four yards at a chunk on the ground, that will be more beneficial to us.”