Plymouth Observer October 27, 2005
Athletic Cody on deck for Plymouth gridders
BY ED WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Plymouth football coach Jay Blaylock didn't have to watch one second of Detroit Cody game film to know what type of team his Wildcats would be matched up against Friday night in a Division 1 playoff showdown.
"Whenever you play a Detroit Public Schools League team, you know they're going to be athletic and fast," said Blaylock. "And Cody is both. They have three (college) Division 1-type players, including their quarterback, who is a Michael Vick-type player. They have great team speed and they run a spread offense with one running back, a lot like Northville. They run out of the shotgun and they'll use three or four wide receivers."
Cody started the season 4-0 with victories over Mumford, Murray-Wright, Mackenzie and Central. The Comets then dropped three straight hard-fought decisions to Crockett, Henry Ford and Redford, before rebounding to win their final two contests over Western and Pershing.
Coach Vernon Brown's team averaged 23 points per game while yielding just 17.2.
"We'll add a couple of new wrinkles to our offense, but for the most part we'll just keep doing what we've been doing," Blaylock revealed. "They line up and play aggressively, so they try to wreak havoc with their defense. We're just going to try to go right at them."
The Wildcats have outscored opponents 268-164 this season. Offensively, they're led by a dangerous set of skilled players, led by senior quarterback Brent Jones, who is one of the best running quarterbacks in the area. When he doesn't run the ball himself, Jones distributes it to a stable of talented running backs, including seniors Jeff Harrison and Anthony Green; and junior Nate Gholston.
When the Wildcats put the ball in the air, Jones favorite target is 6-foot-4, 215-pound tight end Josh Le Duc.
Defensively, Plymouth has been bolstered by the play of linebackers Mike Mcintosh, Nick Rosochacki, Jared Panyan and Gerald Lou.
Blaylock said injury issues may force the Wildcats to at least partially table the two-platoon system they've employed throughout this season.
"We have a couple of kids who might be playing both ways this week, but it's because of injuries, not because we don't trust the kids we have in there," he confirmed. "Josh Le Duc may play some safety and Brent Jones might even play some cornerback."
Neither Le Duc nor Jones are strangers to the defensive side of the ball as both players were two-way starters as juniors.
For the second straight week, the Wildcats will be playing a night game on the P-CEP junior varsity field, which is located just south of Plymouth High School.
The winner of Friday night's game will take on the victor of Friday's Monroe-Canton battle.
