By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – Troup head coach Tanner Glisson is seeking consistency.

He believes this team has ample potential and can achieve great things this season, but his message to the players is that the effort must be there every day in practice, and he doesn’t feel that’s been the case so far.

“I can’t put my finger on this team yet,” said Glisson, who is in his third season as Troup’s head coach. “I think a lot of these guys that we have here are still living off of last year. And every year is totally different. This team has not been as crisp as the team last year as far as being business-like. We have some good practices, and we have some below-average to poor practices. And last year, I think I can count on one hand the number of bad practices we’ve had. So we’re struggling to find that consistency right now.”

The Tigers are looking to build on what they accomplished a year ago when they went 8-3 a year after managing just one win.

“Right now, it’s all about potential,” Glisson said. “This is a new team. They’ve got to understand that last year is last year.”

While Troup is still a week away from opening the season, it will be at Callaway Stadium on Friday night for a preseason game against Harris County.

It will give the players a chance to take a practice run before kicking things off against Hardaway on Aug. 17.

“The big thing is, we’ve got a lot of people coming back, but we’ve also moved some people into different positions and to see how they respond to new positions is a big deal,” Glisson said. “The offensive line, letting them have time to gel together is important in a scrimmage.”

Glisson added that the preseason game allows teams to work “on situations you won’t get in practice, seeing how we adjust with personnel, and sideline, and technology. That’ll be a good dry run.”

Glisson said the format will be similar to most preseason games.

“We’re going to play the varsity in the first half,” Glisson said. “Special teams and everything will be live. The second half, we’ll start subbing in, and the return game in the second half will be dead.  No punt return, kickoff return. We’ll blow it dead when they catch it. And we’ll start subbing heavily in the second half.”