jacob shames, clarksville leaf-chronicle
·4 min read
Ask Clarksville Academy quarterback Ethan Bones which games he's most looking forward to in 2024 and he'll point to two.
On Oct. 11, the Cougars take on Donelson Christian Academy. Bones is excited for that game because he trains with DCA quarterback Mitchell Carey at QB Vision in Nashville. On Oct. 25, CA is on the road once again to face Nashville Christian, putting Bones head-to-head with 5-star Georgia commit Jared Curtis.
Last season, Bones made his first two varsity starts against DCA and NCS. When CA plays them this season, he won't be a wide-eyed sophom*ore facing two of the best quarterbacks in Middle Tennessee. Instead, he's the Cougars' entrenched starter, and one of his top targets will be the player he replaced under center, senior Chris Ragans, who's moving back to his natural position of wide receiver.
Together, Bones and Ragans are looking to key a bounceback season for Clarksville Academy, which missed the 2023 TSSAA football playoffs after going 1-9 and finishing last in the Division II-A Middle Region.
"They're gonna bring a lot of fun things to the offense that we need to capitalize on," second-year Cougars coach Steadman Bell said.
With Bones ineligible for the first seven games of the 2023 season after having transferred from Montgomery Central, Ragans stepped into the large shoes of 2022 Mr. Football winner D.J. Merriweather, now with Austin Peay baseball. For the season, he threw for 364 yards and ran for 244 more at a position he'd never played before. While the numbers don't jump off the page, the perspective Ragans gained was invaluable.
"You know where everybody else's supposed to be," Ragans said. "You can manipulate your route, how to run it different. You even know the blocking concepts for run plays. ... Just stuff like that, stuff you wouldn't know if you were just a wide receiver."
As a receiver the last three games, Ragans caught 12 passes for 160 yards, and as the Cougars' primary returner, he averaged 23.5 yards on 19 kickoff returns. He also had 18 tackles as a defensive back.
"My agility is probably my greatest strength," said Ragans, who holds an offer from Tennessee State. "But I think I got stuff to work on. I'm really not as good as I want to be yet. I gotta work on my speed, gotta work on my weight especially, catching, everything."
Bones had to wait 12 months between his last game at Montgomery Central and his first at Clarksville Academy, but got the keys to the offense immediately after becoming eligible. In three games, he completed 46 of 79 passes for 469 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, while adding 76 yards on 19 carries.
"I think I'm pretty good on the run while throwing," Bones said. "I think the biggest thing I need to do, probably, is accuracy. I feel like I have pretty good accuracy now, but (I want) pinpoint accuracy to bring it all together."
MORE: How Kirkwood football aims to take next step after strong first season
MORE: New coach Wyatt Page wants to restore 'smashmouth' identity to Montgomery Central football
Bones felt a switch flip in his last start of 2023, a 20-18 overtime loss to Mt. Juliet Christian. He started to realize he could take his time in the pocket more than he had been doing. As a junior, Bones feels far more secure, and is comfortable referring to other players as friends rather than merely teammates.
"Now that he's been getting all the reps at No. 1, he's been looking a lot better," Bell said. "Our kids are starting to trust him a lot more. He's been more of a leader as well, not just from the talking standpoint but also doing the walking: working hard, practicing tough."
CA's motivation, at least part of it, is the Mt. Juliet Christian game, in which it lost a late lead, missed a potential game-winning field goal in regulation and couldn't stop the Saints from scoring the touchdown and 2-point conversion that put them in the playoffs at the Cougars' expense.
"They don't want to have that feeling in their stomachs and on their minds anymore," Bell said. "I think we're gonna have a better outcome when it comes to that time again."
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: TSSAA football: Why Clarksville Academy expects 'fun' offense in 2024
