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Columbia quarterback Ty Wehinger unloads a pass against Madison County on Friday. (BRENT KUYKENDALL/Lake City Reporter)
It’s been a long time since Columbia started 0-3.
Twenty-four years to be exact.
And 0-4? That hasn’t happened since 1986.
Do the 2020 Tigers want to join that dismal group? Or will somebody step up and get this offense off of the ground?
You can point to a lot that’s gone wrong through three games, but at least Columbia put up points in losses to Trinity Christian (28-21) and Florida High (27-14). This past Friday was the first time Columbia was shut out since 2016 but Madison County only scored 12 points.
It was a very winnable game. At some point, the offense has to make a play, but it never happened.
Instead, four trips inside Madison County’s 30-yard like resulted in, well, you know, zero points.
“When we get down there we’re supposed to get excited and the ball gets in the end zone,” Columbia coach Brian Allen said. “This thing at the half was 12-0 — that’s a two-possession ball game. We’ve got to make sure that we’re giving our guys a chance to be successful. We’ve just got to keep working.”
Allen tried four different players at quarterback, with usuals Kade Jackson and Ty Wehinger getting snaps, while cornerback Shyheim Brown and receiver Tray Tolliver ran the wildcat package. They moved the ball at times — evident by the four trips inside the Madison’s 30 — but failed all four times on fourth downs.
Columbia’s second drive? Wehinger was sacked for an 8-yard loss on 4th-and-2 from the 17. The third? Brown was stuffed for no gain on 4th-and-5 at the 30.
Two more trips in the second half? Also no dice. Jackson threw incomplete on 4th-and-3 at the 25 in the third quarter and then again on 4th-and-9 at the 19 in the fourth.
Bad snaps didn’t help either. Columbia played the game without starting center Carson Gregory and the first snap of the night resulted in a 24-yard loss. And that was just one of a few poor snaps.
“I came with the cat package where we put some of our athletes at quarterback and I thought things were crisp (last week) in practice, but we fumbled the ball and a majority of the times we were under (center) it wasn’t a clean snap,” Allen said. “But when you lose your starting center (Thursday) and you’ve got to make adjustments for that guy being gone, you’re going to have some of those issues and we did.”
Not having a quarterback right now is Columbia’s biggest issue though. You’re not going to be successful unless you’ve got a guy under center you can trust and Allen clearly doesn’t have that right now.
I asked him after the game Friday if he’ll consider riding with just one guy moving forward but he said that’s hard to do when you don’t have a clear No. 1. He tried alternating Jackson and Wehinger the first two games of the season and it didn’t work, which is why he installed the wildcat package with Brown and Tolliver to try and light a spark.
“The philosophy the first two weeks of the season was rotating the two just because they were even,” Allen said. “I don’t know if I have a No. 1 where I can say, ‘This is our guy. We’re going to live with it, we’re going to go with it and that’s what it is.’ I don’t know that I have that at this point and I ask myself at what point do you have to pull one out when things aren’t getting operated? It’s not clear cut to my guys right now with the things that I’m calling and I’ve simplified it as much as possible but they’re still confused when things are getting called in. That makes it extremely tough.
“You can be as vanilla as possible but you’re not going to be able to go out and beat a lot of these very good teams when you basically just line up and run or throw a bubble or hitch. That’s not going to be successful against teams that may already be better than you athletically all over the board. You’ve got to be able to go out and scheme and that’s tough to do when we’re having a tough time getting things communicated and understood when I’m sending them in.”
It’s a situation Allen hasn’t ever really been in before since taking over the program in 2011. He’s always had a true No. 1 at quarterback, starting with Jayce Barber and then Davin Schuck before Jordan Smith.
Barber took the Tigers to the regional finals in 2012. Schuck reached the state semis in 2015 and Smith was in the second round of the playoffs twice before leaving as the school’s all-time leading passer.
Allen doesn’t need a clone of one of those three guys. At this point, he just needs a guy that can win a game.
“It’s a situation where you’re kind of stuck with what you have and you’ve got to make the most of what you have and every week that’s what we’re trying to do,” Allen said. “And that’s what we’re going to have to continue to try to do.
“But this is the first time that we’re trying to figure out who is going to be the guy that’s leading our offense.”
Friday will be Columbia’s toughest test yet against undefeated Lee, which has won the rivalry’s last three meetings. Will somebody step up and turn the tide? Or will Columbia be on the wrong side of history at 0-4?
You make the call quarterbacks.