Our guest for this week’s Florida “4 Questions with the Coach” feature is Nease head football coach Collin Drafts, who is preparing to lead the Panthers into his fifth season in that role. We caught up with Coach Drafts following what appeared to be a great spring practice that ended with an impressive showing against Matanzas in the spring scrimmage.
Will that be a preview of good times to come for Drafts and his Panthers in 2023? Let’s ask the Nease football coach about this topic and more.
Q. Coach, thank you for being our guest for this week’s 4 questions with the Coach segment. I mentioned the spring game against Matanzas, which ended with you guys winning 35-14, but you also had your intersquad scrimmage game. What can you tell us overall about this spring, the practices, the Green and Gold Game, and the win in the spring game? Do you feel pretty good about what your Nease football team was able to accomplish?
A. I felt like we had an extremely competitive spring, which was one of the main things we were preaching to our guys this entire offseason. First off, they’re always competing with themselves to be the best they can be, but they’re also competing for roster spots, whether that’s to be a starter or to solidify a spot on varsity.
We were able to accomplish that in the weight room starting back in January and also through our winter OTAs. That lead into spring, where the guys actually get to compete with each other with the pads on, and they were ready to roll. Our spring season ended with two great overall showings in our intra-squad scrimmage and with our victory over Matanzas in the spring game.
Q. Who stood out this spring?
A. The biggest thing that stood out to me this spring was the improvements on defense. We were a very young bunch last year after having graduated 10 starters from the 2021 team on that side of the ball. They took their lumps, but their maturity and experience showed throughout this entire spring. They played with their hair on fire, and I’m excited for that unit this upcoming season.
Q. After a great 2021 season that saw your Nease football team finish with nine wins and a trip to the regional semifinal, things kind of fell off last season, with the program having just a two-win season. Did you feel like last year was going to be a rebuilding season for you and the team, or did you think the guys would be able to carry over the momentum from the previous year’s success?
A. We did not hit the mark last year. After Year 3 and our success of going into the third round and winning nine games in 2021, we raised the bar and the expectations for years to come at Nease High School, and that was our goal all along. We’ve learned from our mistakes last year and we’re looking forward to getting back on the right side of things in 2023.
Q. Let’s move forward and talk about the 2023 team and the upcoming season. As far as the personnel, I guess the big question right out of the gate is the one everyone is asking: Who will take over for the talented Marcus Stokes at quarterback, and who are some of the other guys we can expect to see make an impact and get Nease football back to that championship-caliber level?
A. That’s the million dollar question – who will be our quarterback? We are not quite ready to answer it just yet, but we had a group of guys who competed for the job in the spring, and they all worked their tails off. Whoever it ends up being is going to have a great opportunity. Being the starting quarterback at Nease High School is certainly a big deal.
We have some other players in key positions who are poised to have breakout seasons. Rising junior wide receiver Maddox Spencer lead all of North Florida in WR yards last year, so we are looking for him to lead us in 2023 as well. Rising senior RB Cam Smith will have a breakout season this year running behind returning starters DeMarco Blackmon, Andrew Daveline, and Riley Mariani.
On defense we will be lead by returning starters Noah Hellyer and Morris Halyard on the D-Line. Rising junior LB Joe Miracle is one of the best linebackers in North Florida in my opinion. And returning starters Cade Papineau, Careal Carter, and Elijah Luckett will be holding it down in the secondary.
Overall we have a great group of kids who are hungry for success again in 2023. I’m excited and ready for some football!
