Kosciusko boasts one of the most talented wide receivers in the state of Mississippi, and the Whippets coaching staff is doing all it can to ensure Antonio Harmon has the best chance to get the football.
Kosciusko has parted ways with its triple-option attack on offense and will debut a spread offense this season.
"We've been running what Georgia Tech runs, so we've decided to open it up a little bit this year," Kosciusko head coach Kelly Causey said. "We feel like we have some athletes that we need to spread the ball out a little more (to). We have the Harmon kid who has offers from (Mississippi) State, Ole Miss, LSU, Georgia, Virginia, and he's going to be a junior. That's one of the reasons. We feel like it's going to help us in some ways."
The Whippets ended the 2018 season with balanced totals under the triple-option last year. Kosciusko rushed for 1,377 yards (125 yards per game) on 414 attempts and passed for another 1,182 yards (107 yards per game) on 164 passing attempts.
Causey began installing his new offense early this spring, and the Whippets have deployed it in their three 7-on-7 games this summer. Causey, who enters his third year as head coach, said his players have quickly adapted to the changes.
"The kids pick it up better than we do as coaches," Causey said. "Sometimes as coaches, we're old school — we're like the old dog. We know how to do one thing, and we do it that way. The kids are like a sponge. They pick it up a whole lot better. We have a long way to go before we get really good at it, probably, and there's a lot of the ins and outs we don't know that we're working through, but it's going to be fine. I think the kids have done a good job adapting."
One beneficiary of Kosciusko's new-look offense should be athlete Kris Brown, a rising senior transfer from McAdams. Brown, who Causey said runs a "4.3" 40-yard dash, lined up at receiver, running back and quarterback at times last season. He tallied 903 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns for the five-win Bulldogs.
Although the Whippets are shifting to a spread offense, rising senior running back Zavier Miller is expected to continue to see his fair number of carries. Miller had a team-best 814 yards rushing to go with seven touchdowns last season. He finished the year with four 100-yard games.
"We're still going to run the ball out of it," Causey said.
Miller suffered a shoulder injury in June and is scheduled for treatment, but Causey is optimistic about his return.
"We'll see how that goes," Causey said. "We're expecting a lot of things out of him if he makes it back.
Kosciusko opens the 2019 season at home against Yazoo City on Aug. 22.
