As the El Dorado Aztecs wrapped up spring football in a scrimmage at the SAC on Thursday night, head coach Ruben Torres is in a good place with his team heading into summer.
“I think therxe was a huge improvement from when we started,” Torres said, “It’s all going to come down to do what we do in the summer but we’ve come a long way.”
Quarterback Cedarious Barfield continued to show his playmaking ability in the spring game on Thursday, making defenders miss left and right and even getting a few extra yards with his legs with a Braxton Miller type stutter step. Coaches from Utah and New Mexico State were on hand to watch and Barfield announced he had a scholarship offer from NMSU on Friday morning.
Very excited to receive my 7th offer from the university of New Mexico State 🙏🏾#tgbtg @osoukup pic.twitter.com/jx6tbUf4xp
— Cedarious Barfield🎈 (@ced_canscore) May 26, 2017
The Aztecs will also have other weapons to step in, even with the losses of receivers Tyquez Hampton and Jorge Hernandez. Receiver Cameron Hill, who did not play on Thursday due to injury, will be key but Torres feels good about what they have coming back.
“Cedarious is Cedarious and he was making big plays but I also liked what I saw from the skill positions. At running back, guys like Nick Leyva and Seth Davis played well and receivers like Corey McCoy, Alex Ratanna and Josiah Williams all got some reps and we saw some good things from them.”
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- Photo via Tony Venegas, TexasHSFootball.com
Torres does want to see the consistency improve on offense with the new pieces. That said, it was the unit on the other side of the ball that has Torres feeling confident about his Aztecs heading into summer workouts.
“We knew we had to get better on defense,”he said, “It’s not always a give-in but with eight guys back, we got what we were hoping for and then some but it was definitely an emphasis during the offseason.”
It was a sentiment that senior defensive back Davion Kinsey echoed just a couple weeks ago following a practice.
“Our defense has really competed well against the offense this spring,” Kinsey said earlier in the spring, “Last year, we kept getting killed by them but I’m excited to see how far we’ve come along.”
The defense, which gave up an average of over 35 points per game brings back eight starters and now with a full year of experience under their belts, Torres sees the defense as the key getting back to winning at least a share of a third straight District 1-6A title. There’s also one other area that he’d like to see his team improve with.
“I feel like that there were too many mental mistakes,” Torres said, “From that standpoint, some of that talk is going to continue to be important. Spring ball is one thing but the regular season is a whole different animal.”
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