By Michael Lindsay
Year 10 of the Scott Hughes regime at Monterey kicks off Aug. 18 as the Wildcats look to make a splash in their inaugural season in Region 3-2A.
“We’re excited about it,” said Hughes. “It’s been a hard-working group so far. We’re obviously going to be different from last year. we lost a big senior class, so we’ve got a lot of guys trying to learn new roles.
“The expectation never changes for us even though the faces and names do,” Hughes added.
Monterey went 10-3 in 2022 including a 3-1 record in Region 2-2A. The Wildcats lost 10 seniors from last season led by the program’s all-time leading rusher Mason Bowman. Monterey is 34-12 over the past 4 seasons.
The Wildcats’ new region foes in 3-2A include East Robertson, Jackson County, Smith County, Trousdale County and Westmoreland. Non-region foes include Cannon County, Rockwood, Clay County, Gordonsville and Cascade.
The Wildcats have 9 seniors in 2023 including Jacob Hobson, Jayden McCants, Jalen Rigdon, Adyn Reagan, Alex Montejo, Gustavo Galindez, Jacob Knight, Abner Felix, Logan Bowman and Yonaton Telon.
Monterey will feature a new signal caller in 2023 after the graduation of former starting quarterback Matthew Montgomery. Sophomore Eli Phillips and junior Collin Fowler are currently in a battle for the starting role.
“We’re looking for leadership and trust,” Hughes said. “Who can go out and run our system?”
Offensively, the Wildcats will look different than years past.
“We’re going to be multiple,” Hughes said. “We want to throw the football more than we have in the past because we feel like we have more depth on the exterior. We want to run the football of course and return some guys that were pretty successful as offensive linemen.”
In the backfield, Monterey expects to use a rotation of Luke Blaylock, Kole Bowman, Jalen Rigdon, Adyn Reagan, Logan Montgomery and Collin Fowler at running back.
“It’ll be by committee,” Hughes said. “We don’t want to put the pressure on one guy to get the production at running back we had last year. All those guys have to play defense as well.”
Jacob Hobson, Adyen Reagan, Aksel Anderson and Luke Blaylock are expected to rotate at the receiver positions.
Monterey returns starting tight end Logan Montgomery along with Jalen Rigdon and Jack Blaylock.
The Wildcats return experience on the offensive line led by Colt Elrod and Syrus Farley.
“Colt has started every game of his high school career for us and is the catalyst of what we do,” Hughes said. “About the halfway point of last season, Syrus really figured the game out and became a huge difference-maker. We’re still trying to figure out the best mix up front.”
Gabriel Montejo, Brian Winnett, Charlie Augustin, Darinel Hernandez and Cayden Mogdin are also expected to see significant time on the offensive line.
Multiple Wildcats will play on both sides of the ball led by Jacob Hobson, a returning starter at cornerback.
“Jacob is our guy as far as making our calls defensively,” Hughes said. “He can play all the secondary positions and he’s a guy I have a lot of trust in.”
Up front, Monterey will use a rotation of Gabriel Montejo, Colt Elrod, Syrus Farley, Cayden Mogdin, Darinel Hernandez and Brian Winnett.
Outside linebackers include Kole Bowman and Eli Hood while Jalen Rigdon Collin Fowler, Logan Montgomery, Luke Blaylock, Jake Blaylock and Adyn Reagan are expected to see time at inside linebackers.
Along with Hobson, Adyn Reagan, Aksel Anderson Jacob Knight, Jayden McCants, Justin Guzman and Luke Blaylock are expected to contribute in the secondary.
Monterey has multiple options at kicker and punter including Darinel Hernandez, Abner Felix freshman and Alfredo Perez.
Along with Hughes, the Wildcat coaching staff includes Greg Norton, Mike Stamp and Taylor Lazenby.
Monterey is set to kick off the regular season Friday, Aug. 18 at Cannon County. All Monterey football games will be live-streamed on the UCR Media Network.
