{"id":91777,"date":"2017-08-24T07:33:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T12:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=91777"},"modified":"2017-08-24T07:33:14","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T12:33:14","slug":"cougars-hope-to-tame-the-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/08\/24\/cougars-hope-to-tame-the-bears\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars hope to tame the Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>BRYAN &#8212; The Van Wert Cougars will head to Willliams County tomorrow, with hopes of returning with a season opening win against the Bryan Golden Bears. A victory would snap an 11-game losing streak that dates back to the final game of 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The Cougar coaching staff has tinkered with the offense, by naming junior Nate Place as the full time starting quarterback, shifting senior Jacoby Kelly from running back to wide receiver, and designating senior James Acquaviva as Kelly\u2019s replacement in the backfield.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are all very good players, but are also unselfish and smart,\u201d head coach Keith Recker said of the trio. \u201cThey understand that each of them will get their touches, but they trust that if the defense takes one of them away, then there are 2 or 3 other guys who can make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-11411\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Cougar-head-logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"168\" height=\"147\" \/>The backfield will work behind an experienced offensive line of Austin Clay, Garrett Black, Jordon Danylchuk, Kobe Palmer and Nathan Temple, and overall, Recker believes his offensive unit will present some problems for the Golden Bears.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really think we can get some mismatches because of how they align to certain formations,\u201d Recker said. \u201cIt will be on us coaches to see their alignment and make sure we do things to try to exploit it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Recker said Van Wert\u2019s defense will be challenged by Bryan\u2019s large offensive line and a Golden Bear offense that has a different look.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were in the \u2018I\u2019 last year, but have moved to more of a spread with a tight end,\u201d Recker explained. \u201cThey have a very thick offensive line with all of them ranging from 220 to 270 pounds, and they are passing quite a bit more this year than last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going to mix up coverages to keep them guessing and bring pressure because our defensive line is more athletic than their offensive line,\u201d Recker added.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow\u2019s game will air live on WERT 1220AM and 104.3FM, and will stream live at www.thevwindependent.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor BRYAN &#8212; The Van Wert Cougars will head to Willliams County tomorrow, with hopes of returning with a season opening win against the Bryan Golden Bears. A victory would snap an 11-game losing streak that dates back to the final game of 2015. The Cougar coaching staff has tinkered with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 17:45:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}