Raiders will lean on Eaton at QB

Published 12:16 am Thursday, August 18, 2016

Southeast Whitfield High School was one of several teams in 2015 who were unfortunate to suffer the injury bug at the quarterback position. Northwest Whitfield’s Luke Shiflett missed some games, Dalton’s Jase Chastain got hurt and was eventually replaced and the Raiders’ Colter Faith also was moved after he suffered a shoulder injury. When Faith went down, in stepped sophomore Landon Eaton.

Eaton started the last five games of the season for the Raiders, but he had the luxury of leaning on two talented running backs in All-Area selection Tyler Brown and Devin Fields. Southeast coach Sean Gray admits that the Raiders certainly tried to protect their young signal caller. But this season, the reins are being pulled off and Eaton will be the one expected to make the big plays, which he showed flashes of in the final regular season game against Ridgeland last year.

“Landon came in and started half of the season and did a great job,” Gray said. “We kind of protected him last year with him just being a sophomore. This year, we are going to expect a lot out of him. We didn’t run him that much until the last game and he responded well. We let him go out and run and throw and opened the playbook and we got a great win. I think we will see more of that.”

Despite being a returning starter, Eaton found himself in a quarterback battle over the off-season. Junior Porter Johnson has grown four inches since last season and now stands at 6-foot-2-inches tall. Johnson attended several prospect camps over the summer and performed well, leaving the coaches with a bit of an evaluation process to decide what is best for the team.

In the end, Eaton won the job and will remain the starter. But Gray knows the push he got from Johnson will help him during the season.

“Competition makes you better,” Gray said. “Porter had a great offseason. He’s gotten a lot stronger and he’s a guy that’s always first in line to get reps. He’s going to find himself on the field for us somewhere.”

With his starting position secure, Eaton knows he has the physical tools to be successful. What he’s been working on during the offseason is sharpening the mental aspect of the position and some technique. He feels he has made significant progress in those areas.

“The biggest change for me was practicing throwing on the run,” Eaton said. “We roll out a lot and I have the choice to pass it or run it. I’ve definitely improved on picking up coverages because I slacked on that a bit last year. I feel a lot more comfortable. Last year I wasn’t that experienced and the whole offseason I worked hard and feel good back there.”

Eaton won’t have Brown or Fields to lean on in 2016 as both have left high school. But he is confident the offense will still be as productive or perhaps even more so as it looks to have a little more balance this year.

“I think our offense will do better, we’ve been moving the ball well (in scrimmages),” Eaton said. “We’ve got a good mix this year. We can run or pass effectively. Last year we were a little more one dimensional, but I think we will be more balanced and be able to hurt teams running or throwing.”

While Eaton will be expected to shoulder more responsibility on offense, because of a lack of depth for the Raiders, he will also be a starter on defense. Gray said that isn’t an ideal situation, but one that is a reality for Southeast.

“We hope that a couple of our young guys in the secondary can step up so that we can give Landon and Keaton (McCutchen) a rest,” Gray said. “But I told our coaches, we don’t want to get him hurt, but he’s going to have to play both ways for us.”

Despite such big responsibility being laid at his feet, Eaton’s goals for the season are based upon team success, not individual. The Raiders have gone 4-6, 6-4 and 5-5 the last three seasons, respectively. Eaton believes those records are where the team should start, not what it should strive for.

“We don’t want to just be .500 (winning percentage) anymore,” Eaton said. “We don’t want to go 5-5. We think we can go 6-4 at least and even better. That’s what we are focused on.”

Eaton also admits there is one game on the schedule he is looking forward to, Murray County. The Indians jumped all over the Raiders in Southeast’s game of the year and held on for a 35-21 victory.

“That’s a game I’ve had on my shoulders for a whole year now,” Eaton said. “I’ve heard about it from several people and I can’t wait until we play them.”