RUSSELLVILLE – Now is as good a year as any to change up some things in Russellville.

The Panthers have built a tradition of a solid run game in the wing-T offense under John Myers. It helped them become the top scoring team (47 points per game) and second-best rushing team (312 yards per game) in Class 1A last season.

But a lot of things have changed at Russellville since last season. The Panthers aren’t near the team they once were, so why not open up that offense a bit?

That’s the very intention of 14-year head coach Myers, who plans to rely more on the arm of first-year starting quarterback Jacob Naylor while still holding true to the strong rushing game that’s built the program.

“We’re not near as one-dimensional as we’ve been in the past,” Myers told the Daily News after Russellville scrimmaged South Warren on Thursday night at Rhea Stadium. “We’ve really worked on our passing game. (Naylor) throws the ball well and does a good job faking (in play action). We’re just going to keep working on it. We’re going to have to run the football a lot better than we did tonight.”

Varsity teams scrimmaged for one half on Thursday and Russellville got exactly what it wanted out of playing against the newest team in Class 5A. Myers said a team like South Warren will exploit weaknesses and right now, Russellville has quite a few.

The Panthers replace nine of the 11 starters that went 12-2 with a second-straight year of exiting in the 1A semifinals at the hands of Beechwood. That many new starters on one side of the ball isn’t typically going to produce high-end results Russellville is used to, Myers said.

The coach pointed out execution in the run game and offensive linemen blocking assignments as major areas of emphasis to address before the season opener at Glasgow in the Scottie Bowl next Friday.

Myers said during the Sporting Times Media Day event at 6-4-3 Sports Bar and Grill on Aug. 5 that it may take a few weeks for Russellville to build into a threat in the playoffs.

“We want to be playing our best ball when we get to November and make a playoff run,” Myers said. “Everything is focused on the playoffs. We don’t have anyone circled on our schedule except district opponents. We’ve just got a lot of question marks right now because we have so many kids that are new in key positions who are starters.

“It may take us a few games to get under our belt before we get where we want to get before we find answers to our questions. I feel like we’ve got a good group of kids and we’ll find answers to those questions sooner rather than later.”

One answer is Naylor at quarterback. The junior played back-up to Jaylyn McMurry the last two years and earned most of his playing time during second half mop-up duty. Naylor and McMurry found a rhythm throwing the ball last year in the playoffs – McMurry through the first two playoff games was 7-for-7 for 224 yards and six touchdowns.

Myers even admitted last season there were times he wished he had put his team in more shotgun packages to work on throwing the ball.

He’s making sure it’s part of Russellville’s base offense this fall.

“I think we can expand a lot,” Naylor said. “Of course, we’ve always been a run team. We’ve got depth in the backfield and can spread it around if we need to. I think we can spread it out and use the pass a whole lot more this year.”

Naylor will have receivers senior Devin Quarles and sophomore Xavier Evans as primary targets. Seniors Damon Hales and Jacolbie Mason and junior fullback Edward Barber will get the most touches out of the backfield.

Barber also returns as a strong middle linebacker on defense that only brings back five starters from 2016. Hales and Mason will share linebacker spots on either side of Barber. Naylor and Javaren Robey return to the secondary.

Junior defensive tackle Teon Morris is one Myers believes has done a lot of “growing up” and will be a force at the line of scrimmage.

Morris sees the work Russellville needs and knows it may take some time for the team to settle into the year.

“We know we’re not as good as we were, but we could be as good as we were,” Morris said. “We lost a lot of seniors, so it’s going to take at least four or five games.”

2017 Russellville schedule

8/18 – at Glasgow

8/25 – Fort Campbell

9/1 – at Butler County

9/8 – Logan County

9/15 – at Trigg County

9/22 – Murray

9/29 – Fulton County

10/13 – at Fulton City

10/20 – at Crittenden County

10/27 – Franklin-Simpson{&end}