Moody Facing Greenville

By Michael Mee/The Leeds News

The Moody Blue Devils will be traveling to Greenville Friday to take on a tough opponent. But head coach Brandon Wiley said that’s what his team has been doing all year long.

From holding off Sylacauga three weeks ago to keeping Leeds out of the red zone last week, the Blue Devils have shown that they are a team you can’t judge on appearance.

Wiley said of Greenville, “They have a lot of tradition and great community support. They’re very sound and very well coached. We’ve had a time trying to find somewhere to attack them. They’re sound all the way around. But we’re going to get on the charter bus and go down there and see what we can do.”

He talked about how Moody’s 2009 roster has performed effectively, despite sometimes being pitted as the underdog.

“We’ve overachieved expectations this year as far as a lot of people are concerned,” he said. “So, we’ll keep riding that into the playoffs.”

One of the most solid aspects of the Blue Devils has been their defense.

“In the last few weeks I have not been a part of a football team that has had as many red zone stops as we’ve had,” Wiley said.

He said his hat is off to his defensive coach John Knight as well as Bandon Meadows and Tony Moore, who keep the O-line in top condition.

“The cliché of ‘Those hat don’t break…’ has definitely come to the surface,” Wiley said. “Half the battle is believing that you can do something. If you believe it, then you’ll will it and then it will happen.”

He noted that Greenville is large and athletic and skilled. “Our guys, who aren’t as large, some weigh a buck-nothing and bench nothing compared to other guys, we get by doing it because our kids buy into what we want them to do,” he said.

“Our D-line can get by with not being as physical in strength and size-wise because our type of defense allows for us to do that. So, we can compete against the bigger O-lines as long as the kids trust the system that we have.”

He said that feet, hands and steps are key in getting the Blue Devil offense the yards and, thus, points they need to succeed.

“That’s how if we come up against a bigger and stronger D-line we’re able to step up,” Wiley said. “The match ups on paper—just like every match up on paper we’ve had every Friday night—looks like we may lose. If you were a bi-partisan person and you saw two teams work out on the sidelines, you may say, ‘That team’s going to get beat by 50 and that team right there’s the one that’s going to be doing the beating.’ And the one that’s going to be beat by 50 would be us. On a visual basis. But you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

He said that he has seen a turn in his players over the last 10 weeks and added that after the turning point of beating Mortimer Jordan, the Blue Devils shown that they are a force to be reconed with.

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