As Kell takes on Woodstock in its home opener tonight, the Longhorns are getting back into the grind of things.

Coming off a grueling offseason workout schedule, the Longhorns are still trying to recover and get ready for the remainder of the season.

“They’re all pretty much the same, just different levels,” Kell coach Derek Cook said. “If it’s hotter one summer, that makes it more challenging. I think we did a lot more 7-on-7s. That’s neither here nor there though. What presents an even greater challenge for us is playing an extra week early.

“We actually practiced some on Saturdays. In August, we practiced six days a week. For us, those extra practices kind of add to what you do. It gives the guys one less day to recover, but you don’t do that, you fall behind. You gain the extra week you lost with the extra three days.”

The Longhorns (1-0) had an extra week to prepare for the Wolverines as a result of a bye week following their victory over Chattahoochee in the Corky Kell Classic. In Woodstock, the Longhorns face an opponent that has lost two in a row at home, though one wouldn’t know it from Cook’s tone.

“Well, they’ve gone back to their roots with a kind of veer offense,” he said. “That’s concerning because it’s a time of possession offense — three yards and a cloud of dust. If they get into a rhythm on that veer, it’s tough to stop. We’ve got to keep them from getting into a groove. We have to make sure that we are tackling well, and make sure we’re not making mistakes.

“Defensively, they give you so many different looks and blitzes. It’s a challenge from an offensive perspective. You know they are going to have different blitzes for what you do. They ran different packages against Harrison. It could be slightly different from what they do against us because they are two completely different offenses.”

However, like Woodstock, Kell will try to assert itself on both sides of the line of scrimmage. That’s not something lost on the Wolverines’ coach either.

“They’re Kell,” Woodstock coach Brent Budde said. “They’re a good football team. They’re always real solid, have got good players and do a good job of executing … When they do make mistakes, they have the athletes to fix the mistakes.

“They play good run defense, and obviously, that’s what we’re trying to do is run the ball. So, that’s going to be a hard battle in there to get those rushing yards. You don’t necessarily want to get into a throwing game with them. They have two guys in the secondary that are going to the SEC.”

Perhaps making things more complicated both for Woodstock’s offense and Kell’s defense, the Wolverines will likely platoon quarterbacks this week between sophomore Justin Agner and senior Alex Motsinger.

“Alex only got a couple of snaps in the game when Agner had to come out of the game (against Harrison) for having a scrape on his arm,” Budde said. “So, Alex went in. But I expect that we will throw Alex in a little more this week, and see what he can do in the game.”