Jackson passing attack not expecting to skip a beat in 2019

Jackson quarterback Cael Welker plays catch with former Indian wide receiver Jordan Kent on the sidelines before an Indians game at "The Pit" last season.

Tyler Graef ~ Southeast Missourian

Only Stevie Wonder could mistake Cael Welker and Brent Eckley for each other. However, the fact of the matter is, the Jackson junior quarterback with the Hollywood hair and his follicle-challenged coach are ever-slowly beginning to think like each other, if not look like each other.

“He is seeing the defense the way I see it,” Eckley said of Welker.

The two most critical components of Indian football success are entering their second season of working with each other and that cohesive thinking is going to be needed this year following the graduation of All-Everything wide receiver Jordan Kent.

“We know that we are going to miss (Kent),” Eckley said. “And there is not a guy who is just like him.”

But…

“We might be as good when I look at our receiver positions,” Eckley said. “We are really good at “X” and “Z” (positions), and we have some flexibility with those guys.”

Kent hauled in 76 receptions a year ago, but that doesn’t frighten Eckley too much. After all, replacing productive receivers is an annual task for the Indian coaching staff.

Two years ago, Kent caught 81 balls, but he didn’t even lead his team in that category. Then-senior Terrico Johnson had 85.

Eckley doesn’t expect one guy to emerge with those types of numbers this season, but he expects a lot of guys to emerge, period.

“We have depth,” Eckley said. “We are almost three deep at those (positions), as far as guys who can roll through there.”

Jackson wide receiver Rhett Liley hauls in a touchdown pass against Poplar Bluff last season in Jackson. Ben Matthews ~ Bmatthews@semissourian.com

Michael Schneider is expected to be a lead guy at the “X” spot, but Ty Moran will get a lot of snaps, as well.

Junior Rhet Liley caught 39 passes as a junior and is expected to start at the “Z” position, but Blake Blackman can play there also.

Moran is valuable in that he can play either spot.

“At the inside receiver,” Eckley said, “we’ve got four or five that can play there. It is a bigger group of guys who will contribute than what we had last year.”

Junior Seth Waters scored seven times among his 26 catches last fall and will start inside, but former running back Luke Starzinger, who missed last season with a broken foot, as well as sophomore Kannen Turley, who Eckley said was “super athletic,” and Dalton Skrob will also be on the field.

Eckley wasn’t pleased with the Lord above Monday when practiced was cut short due to a storm.

“It’s frustrating,” he told his team as they did conditioning work in the old gym.

However, he was more concerned with the execution of his offensive line of late.

One thing that can alleviate that problem, however, is the natural ability of Welker.

“He is already really, really, really good when a play breaks down,” Eckley said. “He can feel space and draw the defense to him and then throw to an open receiver or escaping and seeing the defense off and then get yards and get out of bounds.”

Welker isn’t a scrawny, inexperienced sophomore anymore. He’s thick.

Eckley said that Welker’s diligence in the weight room has him squatting nearly 450 pounds and he cleans 275.

But all of that strength training has now made him more athletic, as well.

“He’s faster with his feet,” Eckley said, “but he is also faster in his decisions.”

Without divulging Jackson schematic secrets, Eckley looks for a specific trait on each offensive play and more times than not this fall camp, Welker has made the right read, which coincides with his coach’s thought process.

“I know the quarterback is really in tune with what I want to do,” Eckley explained, “when I’m watching where the ball should go and it goes there. He does that really consistently.”