On Campus: Nation Ford Falcons

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>FORT MILL </strong>| Nation Ford is under new leadership as Jake Bentley is the new head coach in 2025. Bentley comes to the Falcons after spending last year as an assistant at Rock Hill. He'll have a lot of talent to work with and we were on hand for the entire two-hour practice on Wednesday afternoon.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Let's jump into our notes and observations from the session:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We'll start on defense as they made their presence felt during the inside competition early during practice. <strong>Michael Witherspoon </strong>and <strong>Sam Cook </strong>both made excellent tackles, bringing down the ball carrier short of the end zone. Witherspoon came back later and plugged a run lane to prevent the back from getting any more yards.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On offense, <strong>Emmanuel Young </strong>has a nice spiral on his throws at quarterback. He is athletic and has good size for the position. He also has good pocket presence. <strong>Asher Young </strong>was another standout at the quarterback position. We liked his ability to step into his throws and see the whole field.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One of the speedsters for the Falcons is back in 2025 in <strong>Jaden Scott</strong>. He showed good hands and ran solid routes. He looks the ball into his hands. He can make people miss and will cause issues for opposing defenses. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1635014' first='Malachi' last='Drayton'] </strong>was a standout as he has good vision on the outside. <strong>Patience Andrews </strong>knows what to do with the ball in his hands. Once he catches the ball, it's quick north and south progress. He doesn't waste time in space.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Later during a special teams competition (pictured above), <strong>Nigel Johnson </strong>did a good job of hustling to get after the opposing offensive player. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1776972' first='Justin' last='Smiley'] </strong>was a standout during the team period as he did an excellent job with taking a good angle on the pursuit on the run play to bring down the ball carrier.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->