AA football: McCracken carrying Braves into matchup with Big Sky
When Josh McCracken comes off the field, his position coach sees someone familiar.
“When I played with Ricky Williams he was the same way,” Flathead running backs/special teams coach and former NFL running back Lex Hilliard said. “He would jump over somebody or lay somebody out on a nice run and come over to the sideline and act like it was another walk in the park.”
No, Hilliard is not predicting McCracken is going to win the Heisman Trophy and, no, he’s not comparing the Braves senior to the 230-pound former first round draft pick from Texas.
But with the understated McCracken, like it was with Williams, it’s his work on the field that does most of the talking.
In his 214-yard, 31-carry effort in last week’s win over Great Falls, McCracken’s runs routinely caused the Flathead sideline to erupt with each bone-crunching hit. And while his teammates — and even his coaches — whooped and shouted, McCracken strode calmly back to the huddle to prepare for another punishing run.
“I don’t really like juking or trying to make people miss,” McCracken said. “When you can truck someone over it feels a lot better than making them miss, so that’s always a lot of fun.”
After running for just short of 1,000 yards as a junior, McCracken has gone for 468 yards through three games this fall and is on pace to break Hilliard’s 15-year-old Flathead single-season record of 1,384 yards.
McCracken’s a self-described downhill runner and has impressed Hilliard with his natural feel for the position.
“I’ve been in the backfield before, but being on the other side and watching his eyes I can see his thought process and where he’s going to go with the ball,” Hilliard said. “After seeing that, I thought he was going to do big things.”
“It’s really, really tough to teach (instinct),” he added. “You’ve got to make a split-second decision and you can’t teach that. That’s on him.”
Head coach Kyle Samson said the Braves wanted to “re-establish our identity as a power football team” in last week’s win, and with 0-3 Missoula Big Sky visiting Legends Stadium tonight at 7 p.m., it will likely be more of the same.
“When another team watches us on film, we don’t do anything fancy,” McCracken said. “We just do straight 11-on-11 football and we trust our guys that when they’re ahead of someone else they’re going to beat them.”
But, McCracken added, the Flathead offense is far from one-dimensional.
“We’re going to see if we can show (quarterback) Bridger (Johnson) off a little bit, too.”
A win tonight would improve the Braves to 3-1 for the first time since 2006 and also match Flathead’s season win total from a year ago.
Even with a winless opponent coming to town, the rebuilding program knows better than to take any game for granted.
“(Big Sky)’s record does not show how good they are,” Samson said. “They could easily be 2-1 or 3-0. They’re going to give us a great game and we’ve got to be ready for them.”
Two of the Eagles losses have been by eight points or less and their third — a 27-0 shutout — came in week two against undefeated Billings Senior.
Big Sky beat Flathead 25-23 a year ago at Legends Stadium, despite McCracken totaling 121 yards on just 12 carries.
Coming off his first career four-touchdown game and first game of more than 200 yards on the ground — something Hilliard never did in high school — McCracken remains focused on the Flathead games in front of him, saying before the year he was going to wait until after the season to make a decision on his football future.
Whatever he chooses, his coach is confident that McCracken’s senior season of high school won’t be his last in football.
“He’s going to have a lot of opportunities and it’s good for this program to have guys like that,” Hilliard said. “(His football career) is not over, I guarantee that.”
High School
Class AA Standings
W L
Billings Senior 3 0
Bozeman 3 0
C.M. Russell 2 1
Flathead 2 1
Great Falls High 2 1
Helena Capital 2 1
Helena High 2 1
Missoula Sentinel 2 1
Billings Skyview 1 2
Butte 1 2
Glacier 1 2
Billings West 0 3
Missoula Big Sky 0 3
Missoula Hellgate 0 3
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Today’s Games
4 p.m. — Billings West at Missoula Hellgate
7 p.m. — Missoula Big Sky at Flathead
7 p.m. — Glacier at Great Falls High
7 p.m. — Bozeman at Helena Capital
7 p.m. — Billings Senior at Butte
7 p.m. — C.M. Russell at Billings Skyview
7:30 p.m. — Helena High at Missoula Sentinel
Last Friday’s Scores
Flathead 41, Great Falls 12
Glacier 7, Helena Capital 3
Bozeman 38, Butte 7
Billings Skyview 41, Missoula Hellgate 13
C. M. Russell 40, Helena High 14
Missoula Sentinel 26, Missoula Big Sky 22
Billings Senior 27, Billings West 0