Carmikle Calls Dumas 'Dangerous'

RISON - While Dumas is coming off a 1-9 season, Rison Coach Caleb Carmikle called the Bobcats a "dangerous" team that has the potential to knock off the Wildcats. Both teams will open the 2023 season at 8 p.m. Friday at George Walker Field of Champions. The game was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. but the starting time was delayed to 8 p.m. due to the heat. Dumas' lone victory last year came in a 17-13 squeaker over Class 3A Lake Village in the Bobcats' third game of the season. They fell to Hamburg, 1913, the next week and were never any closer than 22 points in any game after that. But Carmikle isn't paying much attention to Dumas' record last year. He said he saw them scrimmage against Drew Central last week and the Bobcats have some explosive players. In particular, he pointed out two Dumas receivers that have big play potential, junior Raylen Spratt (no. 5) and senior Jaylyn Jones (no. 8). Carmikle described both as having pretty good speed. "They can definitely make you pay," he said. Bobcat senior quarterback Joseph Jones triggers Dumas' multiple offense that Carmikle described as being similar to what Monticell ran against Rison in last week's scrimmage. He said Jones, the quarterback, has the potential to do some damage with his arm as well as his legs. Carmikle said he could have potentially broken some big runs in the Bobcats' scrimmage against Drew Central had there not been a quick whistle. Carmikle said he and the coaching staff have been busy cleaning up some of the defi-ciences they saws in the Wildcats' scrimmage at Monticello last week. While the offense had some success moving the ball, the defense struggled with the passing game, letting some short passes turn into big plays. Several of those long pass plays came off broken or missed tackles against screens, something that Carmikle said the Bobcats love to do in their offense. He attributed the poor results being out of position defen...