East Limestone quarterback Andrew Parris throws a pass during practice on Tuesday. The Indians will travel to face Fairview in a jamboree Friday night.

The East Limestone Indians are coming off a three-win season in 2016, and the first step to getting back to recovering from that disappointment comes Friday when they travel to Fairview for a jamboree.

Head coach Jeff Pugh is looking forward to seeing how his players look in the first live game action since Oct. 27, 2017.

“We’ll run some base plays, get a look at some of our guys to see how they play under the lights,” Pugh said. “We need to see where we stand against somebody else.”

While most jamborees consist of varsity players playing the first half with junior varsity or freshmen players playing the second half, Pugh said the way his starters perform in the first half will determine how much they play.

“We may play the starters three quarters,” Pugh said. “We’ll see how things go the first half. If we are having some good success, we may get some of those guys out (earlier). If they’re struggling, we may give them a few series in the third quarter or the whole third quarter.”

East Limestone has multiple offensive sets to work on in the jamboree, and Pugh said it will take some time to make sure the players are getting enough game situation repetitions.

“It’s sometimes hard to see how well you stack up in just a half,” Pugh said. “We may only get the ball three or four times. We want to see how we do both in our tight packages and spreading the field, and we have got to have several series to do that.”

The Indians are testing themselves against a pretty good opponent. Fairview is a Class 5A school that went 5-5 last season. However, the Aggies have a potent offense that put up 40 or more points in five of its 10 games last season.

Fairview’s offensive scheme is one reason Pugh is looking forward to Friday’s jamboree. The Aggies run a spread offense that will test East Limestone’s secondary.

“We’ve got to be able to cover the pass better than we did last year,” Pugh said. “This team runs the Tony Franklin System (a spread system developed by collegiate offensive coordinator Tony Franklin) so they’ll spread you 2-by-2 or 3-by-1. They’re going to throw the ball on us, so we’ll see how we do in coverage. We’ve also got to get a good pass rush to affect the passer, and not let him be able to take his time and pick and choose who he wants to throw to.”

Pugh said Fairview’s offensive scheme is similar to one many of East Limestone’s opponents will use this year, which is one reason he’s happy to be facing the Aggies in Friday’s jamboree.

“A lot of teams we play run that type of package,” Pugh said. “Very seldom do we see two tight end sets or a Wing T. We need to see how we do when people spread us out and get our players in open space. We’ve worked hard on man coverage techniques and our guys are better prepared to play in space. That’s what we’re going to have to do to play well in our region.”