By Justin Graves

Justin@athensnews-courier.com

CAPSHAW – New East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh believes the Indians have made as smooth a transition as possible after Mike Cavnar resigned last week due to lingering health problems.

“If any group of kids know how to survive through situations like this, it is these guys,” Pugh said. “Nobody has gone through as much as these young men have, and it has made them as mentally tough as they come. They know how to handle adversity.”

Pugh is East Limestone’s third head coach in as many years, and every change came under duress. Last summer Indians’ head coach Phil Cavnar – Mike Cavnar’s brother – died after having a heart attack just weeks before the season started.

But Pugh – who was an assistant football coach at East Limestone – firmly believes the East Limestone players will be able to handle the change.

“One thing that helps with this change is that my philosophy is very similar to coach Cavnar’s,” Pugh said. “We have a lot of talented athletes, and they are all very close. We are going to keep on working and battle through this.”

Pugh said that despite last week’s occurrences, East Limestone’s first week of fall practice went well overall.

“We’ve had some very good practices so far,” he said. “The guys were ready to get into pads, and we have thrown a lot at them. They are handling it all very well.

“I’m not the kind of coach who gets overly complicated with things, in fact I try to keep it simple. In my experiences, I’ve found that football players actually play better if they aren’t having to think too much. We just want our guys to play hard-nosed, physical football. That’s East Limestone football.”

Pugh – who was a head coach at West Limestone and Crossville – believes the athletes at East Limestone are a perfect fit for his scheme.

“We’re going to run the ball a lot and use the running game to open up our passing game,” Pugh said. “I like to shorten games and control time of possession. That’s why it is important that our guys play physical football and not make mistakes. We’re going to work on that during the next few weeks.”

Right now Pugh is getting the Indians into shape and planning for the biggest game in the program’s history at the same time. On Saturday, Sept. 2 East Limestone travels to Athens for the first time ever.

“This game is huge not only for us, but for Limestone County football in general,” Pugh said.

“This is something that everybody needs to generate more support for all the local football programs.”