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Fairchild, Eastland are Tigers’ keys

By: Lindsey Young
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Robert Akins

RINGGOLD, Ga. — When a coach mentions his quarterback in the same breath with University of Florida Heisman Trophy-winner Tim Tebow, you tend to listen.

When that quarterback is Zac Fairchild, you wonder what Ringgold coach Robert Akins is thinking. The veteran coach is quick to make his point.

“Now Zac’s not a Tebow-type quarterback, but for what we’re going to do this year, he’s going to be in the Tebow role for us,” Akins clarified. “Our offense will compare to Florida’s.”

Which means, even to the quarterback’s surprise, that he will run the ball more this season as part of the team’s spread offense. It won’t be a big part of the attack, but at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds with improved speed, Fairchild will be a load for defenses.

“He’s really improved in that area, and at 220 pounds, we’re going to run him some,” Akins said. “We’re not doing anything real complicated, but what we’re doing is going to play to Zac’s strengths. I think with a year under his belt with us, it’s made a huge difference for him.”

To get the most out of his senior quarterback, Akins turned to a familiar face. Charles Fant, a former Vanderbilit University quarterback, worked under Akins at Boyd-Buchanan and helped produce solid quarterbacks such as Will Healy, Matt Dunn, Jon-David Blair and Drew Akins.

“With Coach Fant coming in to just coach quarterbacks, that will make a huge difference with Zac,” Coach Akins said. “He’s going to develop him to the point where he will get the most out of his talent, and I knew we needed that because he wasn’t experienced or very savvy when we first got here.

“We know we’re going to let him do some of the things we know he’s comfortable with. We’re going to put him in the (shot)gun more often, because he’s more comfortable back there. And he’s got a great arm, so he can wait until the last minute to get rid of the ball downfield. All those things will be an advantage to us when we go four- and five-wide.”

Any good spread offense has a solid running game to complement the air attack, and Fairchild knows the presence of hard-charging running back Martez Eastland will be a huge key this year. Eastland, who also has good hands, has gotten in better shape in preparation for a greater workload this year.

“Having Martez will take a lot of pressure off me because teams will have to key on him,” Fairchild said. “We’re a little young and undersized on the front line, but we’re strong and quick, so maybe that will even out. I know this offense — if we do what we’re supposed to do — is going to be good. We’ve improved tremendously in a year.”

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