[EKUAlum05]

Belfry will be the pre-season favorites in the Eastern Semi-State.

Belfry returns 3/4 of their backfield including their QB, key Offensive Linemen, both DE's and LB's, and their entire secondary except for Francis.

Key Losses: HB Jeffree Pruitt, DT Micah Mahon, SE/DB Josh Francis, SE/DT Stephen Gibbs, NG Preston Young, OG Garett Francis

Mahon and Young will be toughest void to fill. Mahon was dominant at times and Young was very good against the run. SE (sadly) is interchangeable for Befry every year, and they are very deep at DB.

Pruitt was Belfry's home run hitter at HB and the feature back. Belfry will fill his void with more work for Willis, who became a very good back by season's end , and by probably giving Justin Johnson more carries. Johnson has the speed and quickness to take over for Pruitt if he continues to develop.

Defensively, Gary Runyon and Josh Dixon both are fantastic players and will more than liekly have All-State caliber seasons next year. Sani Warren had 6 INT's despite only playing half the season, and Belfry's young LB's will be significantly better.

The keys for Belfry this offseason heading into next year:
- Develop an intermediate passing game. Williams has a good arm, but Belfry simply cannot hope for the deep ball as their only passing game. Belfry will have no problem running the football and shouldn't experience any significant drop off between now and the start of the season.

- Fill the void in the middle. The defense will be fine, but the 2 DT's and the NG position will need someone to step up and fill big shoes.If Belfry can fill this void I expect the 2011 defense to be significantly improved over the 2010 final product by about Week 6.

- Get bigger! Nature will help as some of the younger Bucs physically mature, but it is imperative that the Belfry skill players hit the weights hard in the offseason and get stronger. Too many missed tackles on defense and not enough arm tackles ran through on offense this year.

-Timing and the small things. Turnovers, inopportune penalties, and mental lapses burdened this year's team all season and they still won in spite of these up until Lou. Central. This can be expected with a young team, but next year's squad will have no excuse. Central was a better team, but not 46-7 better.. Belfry made Saturday's game a blowout with these mistakes I mentioned.


-Special Teams. Belfry cannot let teams start every drive from the 40 yard line like this year's squad. Punting, Kickoffs, and their subsequent coverage have to improve. Too often Belfry was having to defend 60 yards, while their offense was having to drive 80.