Few, if any, are concerned with the Plant City Raiders’ talent level on the offensive side of the ball this season. There’s no shortage of ideal receiving options to work with, and the running back situation is one many teams would love to have.
But the position that probably drew the most curiosity is the most important: quarterback.
What does QB Corey King bring to this team?
In his own words, he has the skill and the will to win games.
“I feel like I can throw the ball to any spot on the field,” King says. “I’ve got the confidence.”
After splitting work with then-senior Austin Carswell last season, the junior is now in full control of the offense.
In 2014, King played in seven games to Carswell’s 10, but the two appeared to complement each other: Carswell’s athleticism netted him seven rushing touchdowns, but King was the one with a good completion percentage (65%) and all of the passing touchdowns (three). King threw for 516 total yards.
It was evident then that King had the talent to develop into a solid starter. Former head coach Wayne Ward had pegged him as one before the 2014 season began, and current head coach Greg Meyer has had praise for some of the plays King made last year. He was just a player that needed a lot of fine-tuning, as many sophomores do, so King did everything he could to get better in the offseason.
“Hitting the weight room every day,” he says. “Waking up early, studying, getting ready for the season. I feel like the USF camp that I went to on June 6, it had me feeling like I had a chance to do this, like I had a chance to be somebody. I was putting the ball on the money. Coaches were congratulating me, saying to keep it up.”
It was at that camp, King says, that something clicked. That was the one camp, the one offseason event, where he says it felt like he was finally able to tap into that talent regularly and see the game slowing down for himself.
“I felt like I got a chance this year,” he says. “Like I’m the man.”
Meyer has said that the Corey King of 2015 is a different one than what Raider fans saw in 2014, and for the better. The most obvious example, at least this early in the season, is how King carries himself: Meyer says he has the maturity of a senior, and King goes through practice with the stoic confidence of someone who’s been starting for a longer time. He makes his motives clear; his goals are already set in stone and, in his opinion, tangible.
“I’m trying to be the leading passer in Hillsborough County,” King says. “My main goal is to throw for 1,500 yards this year. I feel like my chances are real good — I may even go to 2,000, or 2,500.”
With guys like T.J. Chase, Markese Hargrove and Antoine Thompson around to make life easier, King believes that the sky is his limit. On top of that, he believes that the entire team has the same ceiling, as far as making a postseason run goes.
“I feel like this is the team,” King says. “We can make it to districts. We can make it to states. We’ve got to have that mindset.”
VS. JEFFERSON
The Jefferson Dragons are coming off of a down year in 2014, in which the team went 6-4.
This year, things haven’t been looking up. Jefferson opened their season by getting shut out, 18-0, against the Tampa Bay Tech Titans. Tech dismantled the Dragons by rushing for 194 yards as a team, which the Plant City Raiders have undoubtedly paid attention to.
To make matters worse, the Dragons lost quarterback Cade Weldon to injury and, this week, learned that Weldon has been lost for the season. The junior quarterback was diagnosed with a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee, and will likely be replaced by some combination of sophomores Matthew Gaffney and Tyrese Spain.
Plant City is also coming off of a rough loss of its own, falling 42-7 at Armwood last Friday and seeing its usually-strong ground attack contained into nearly nothing.
“I took it as a wake-up call,” King says. “It was Armwood. We weren’t as prepared as we thought we were throughout the week. We didn’t do as good.”
Chalk it up to a number of things: tough road environment, even tougher opponent, early-season rust or whatever else comes to mind. But Meyer also believes that schematic mistakes and confusion were probably the Raiders’ biggest downfall, so he and the team have been keeping things as simple as possible in practice. King and the offensive line have been working feverishly on their fundamentals too.
But things are looking up this week. Plant City will get to play at home, and Jefferson’s reeling from last week’s loss is something the Raiders can prey on. Although Spain’s sample size from last week is perhaps too small to speculate on, as he threw just one pass, here’s Gaffney’s stat line: 7-for-18 passing, 73 yards and three interceptions. To Peyton Collins and the rest of the Plant City secondary, that probably sounds like the makings of a feast.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
OTHER AREA ACTION
DURANT
The Cougars are coming off of a 16-7 win over Hillsborough, which dropped the Terriers from fourth overall to 18th in the HomeTeam power rankings. The now-ranked Cougars, sitting one spot above Plant City at No. 23, proved that they can still hang with the big dogs in spite of its key positional losses in the offseason.
This week, they’ll travel to Spoto to try and put the Spartans on a losing streak. Last week, Spoto went to Lennard and finished on the receiving end of a 46-13 beatdown.
Game: 7 p.m. at 8538 Eagle Palm Drive, Riverview
STRAWBERRY CREST
Brandon got revenge on the Chargers for ruining last season’s run for the playoffs with a 31-3 win last Friday. It looked fairly close early on before the Eagles picked things up and ran away. It certainly wasn’t the kind of start Crest had hoped for, and this week’s matchup doesn’t get any easier.
The Newsome Wolves are, much like Durant, coming off of a win against a quality team. Newsome went to Bloomingdale last week and escaped with a 10-7 win, rushing for almost 200 yards as a team and succeeding even with quarterback Cole Schaller’s 36% completion rate.
Game: 7:30 p.m. at 16550 FishHawk Blvd., Lithia