The Wharton Wildcats will start the 2015 season returning 14 starters and perhaps a viable replacement for the much-heralded Auden Tate, who is now entering his freshman season at Florida State. Although the Wildcats experienced some frustration on offense, their defense is anchored by two solid prospects in Godey Coleus and Richard Drummond along the defensive line. Those two guys combined for 99 tackles with 27 of those for losses along with 7.5 sacks, 4 pass deflections, five fumbles caused, a fumble recovery and a blocked field goal attempt.
The Wildcats are also in a brand new district this season moving down from the 8A classification and into District 7A-8 with Sickles, Gaither, Freedom, Wiregrass Ranch, Plant and Leto. Those teams went a combined 37-28 last season, but if you take away Wiregrass Ranch and Leto’s records the top four teams in that district went 32-13 with all of them finishing at least 2 games over .500 on the season.
So with the defensive side relatively sorted out, what do the Wildcats do for offense? According to the records, Wharton as a team averaged just 63 yards through the air and another 47 yards-per-game on the ground scoring just under 10 points per game. Their average scoring total in the losses was just over six points a contest. But the Wildcats are returning those aforementioned fourteen starters with another year of invaluable experience. That means we could possibly see the development of a 1-2 punch in QB Bryce Martin and WR DeVontres “Tre” Dukes, who is a University of Central Florida commit.
Martin and Dukes both posted modest numbers in 2014, with Dukes catching just 4 passes, but those were for a total of 106 yards and a touchdown. Martin completed 18-of-33 passes for 247 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Wildcats begin their 2015 campaign at home to Lennard in their week zero preseason classic. The regular season then kicks off with King paying a visit to New Tampa, then the ‘Cats will head down to Port Tampa to face Robinson in week two. Weeks three and four have the Wildcats hosting Tampa Bay Tech and Gaither. The game against Gaither will be the district opener for Wharton. Week five, The ‘Cats will head down the street to play Freedom, then return home in week six to host Plant.
Three of the last four games of the season will be road games for Wharton as they head just across the Hillsborough/Pasco County border to face Wiregrass Ranch in week seven. The Wildcats return to play their final home game of the season in week eight versus Sickles, then head to Leto week nine before they are on their bye week. Their final game of the regular season will be at Chamberlain.
For highlights of Bryce Martin’s day at Xecutives recently, click the link BELOW—>