The Wayne Bulldogs host the Konawa Tigers Friday night at D.S. Zack Powell Field to kick off the 2023 season.

After two scrimmages the Bulldogs are hungry for the new season to officially begin.

The Tigers

Konawa will base out of a 4-4 defensive front.

“They have two good inside linebackers and they’re physical on the defensive line,” said Wayne head coach Brandon Sharp. “They’re scrappy just like last year.”

Konawa defeated Wayne 8-6 last season.

Offensively, the Tigers like to line up with the quarterback under center and run the football.

“They have two running backs who run hard downhill,” Sharp said. “They’ll try to spread you out some too but they want to run the ball. We’ll have to do a good job against it.”

The Bulldogs hope to get their own run game going when on offense.

“If we can get our run game going it sets up our pass,” Sharp said.

The Bulldogs will try to start fast in the game.

“We’ll need to take care of our assignments Friday,” he said.

Scrimmage

Sharp saw some things he liked and some things he didn’t like during last Thursday’s scrimmage against Tishomingo and Wewoka.

“We still have a way to go,” he said. “The offense struggled at times. We had miscommunications, missed reads and missed blocking assignments that put us in a bind a couple times.”

Quarterback Jaxon Dill made a couple nice throws but missed a few reads in the run game.

“He’ll be able to zone in better when we’re playing other teams and breaking down film. This is why you scrimmage.”

Sharp was happier with his defense and the unit kept both Tishomingo and Wewoka off the scoreboard.

“They were running around and striking people,” he said. “They had a couple blown assignments and got us on a couple bootlegs, but we got it ironed out and held both teams.”