The Opelika Bulldogs will travel to Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa Friday night to play in a non-region game in week #0. These two teams were thick in the 2014 6A playoffs last season and look to get back their this season.

For Opelika, the Bulldogs have a new quarterback in Jake Bentley. "Jake had a great summer and it is all about the quarterback," said Bulldogs Head coach Brian Blackmon. "We feel real good about him and how he has performed this summer. He is a tremendous competitor. In my opinion he has all the check marks you need in a quarterback. Great leader, high energy guy a lot emotion and passion for the game. He has talent, arm strength and talent and he is going to give us great opportunity to win each Friday night."

The Bulldogs are going to be more balanced on offense due to depth and talent in the receiving core. James Moss comes back from a great junior year and had a solid summer and fall camp. Kyle Fourtenary is another good receiver with good hands. Two more receivers that will fill out the offense will be Caleb Florence (H-back) and Jaleel Heard. "These two are first year starters for us," added Blackmon. "I really I think these are two kids that are going to make a name for themselves this year."

Josh Johnson returns along with Tanner Blatt at running back. "Josh is a big part of our run game," said Blackmon. "Those two kids give us some good depth at the running back position. We feel good about our balance. We feel like we can run it when we need to run it and throw it when we need to throw it. We want to spread the ball around and let our skills guys to use their talent and win."

The Opelika defense starts with defensive end/linebacker Zo Bridges. "Zo has a tremendous chance to help us defensively to defend the pass," said Blackmon. "At his defensive end spot, he rushes the passer so well. He can mess the timing up on a pass play flushing the quarterback out of the pocket so we look for him to have a big year. Opelika has lot a lot of players in the front seven from last season so it's going to be important for Bridges to lead his inexperienced teammates. The Bulldogs have a lot of players that will be seniors on defense with a little bit of experience from last season.

For Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa, the Patriots finished 9-3 overall last season and made a good run into the 6A playoffs. The Patriots have changed their off week to week #10 to give their team rest and picked up this game against Opelika for week #0. "Were hoping that we can heal up," said Patriots Head coach Sam Adams. "We hope to be at full speed along with being in full health before we go into the first round of the playoffs."

Hillcrest is coming into the season with a new quarterback. Cole Frederick will take the reigns and lead the Patriots offense. The junior QB was the #2 receiver last season as a sophomore. "Cole brings great competitiveness to the table," added Adams. "He started on the baseball team as a freshman here and last year when he knew he wasn't't going to be the starting quarterback, he came to us and asked if he could move to receiver because he just wanted to play. Being out on the field and being involved in a game plan will help him a lot moving to quarterback this season."

At running back Brian Robinson leads the ground game for the Patriots. "Brian is not a finished product yet and has a lot of physical tools," said Adams. "He is a better football player than he was last year, next year he will be a better football player than right now. He does a great job of catching the football, he is growing in his pass protection, has a lot of talent with the ball in his hands. He can make guys miss, lower the shoulder and be the hammer at the end of the run, and when he caught fire at the end of the season it really changed our team."

Blackmon had some high praise for the Patriots junior running back. "Hillcrest has one of the best running backs that I've seen in the 2017 class," said Blackmon. "Big, strong, explosive running back. Really reminds me of T.J. Yeldon the way he runs the football." Robinson had 1,451 yards on  218 carries & 19 touchdowns. Robinson rushed for 6.7 yards per carry.

On the offense line, the Patriots only have one returning player. The Patriots are more athletic on the front line, but not as big as last year's group. Blake Robbins returns at center, the key lineman in the calling the formations for the lineman. "He is our guy that steers the ship," said Adams. "The center does have to make a lot of calls. He brings so much knowledge to the game and extremely smart. Last season, he started all 13 games for us getting all the schemes correctly."

The Patriots defense gave up 323 points in 13 games and are looking to improve in that area. "We had a new defensive coordinator come June so their was a learning curve their for our kids in the first season," said Adams. "Now after having a whole season, spring, fall camp under our belt, I think we are well ahead of last year and we have some return players that will help us."

Returning players for the Patriots are Cagan Campbell at cornerback, played as a freshman last season, Carson Williams at safety, Kobe Redmond at linebacker, Malik Crenshaw at defensive line, and Jonathan Owens. Last year the defense had trial by fire on some schemes last season and have settled in this season.

The schedule for Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa the first three games is going to be a tough road. The Patriots open with #4 Opelika in 6A, travel to #9 in 7A Oak Mountain, and host #1 6A Clay-Chalkville.