News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston Academy’s season begins with a jamboree game against Jackson County Friday and the Wildcats linemen are itching to get back on the field.
Last season ended with Livingston on the outside of the playoffs with a record of 4-7 and a district record of 1-5. Senior lineman Jamie Mansell said if the team expects different results this season, a total shift in mentality must occur.
“We just got to keep everything rolling good,” Mansell said. “We got to have a strong mindset going into the season. We can’t think that we’re going to go in and lose, we got to always think that we’ll go in and win. I think that’s what we struggled with last year, we always thought we were going to go in and have problems with it. I think we just need to go in there and play football.”
Dawson Ledbetter joined the team as a junior and said he did not feel confident in his role until the midway point of the season. Now in his senior season, Ledbetter is a leader of the line and makes sure his fellow lineman are amped and ready to play when the first whistle blows.
“I like to listen to hype music before every game and warm-up, 100%,” Ledbetter said. “And, I make sure that everybody on the line is ready to go and ready to have fun during the game because we love running the football.”
Along with the offensive line, Ledbetter and Mansell are starting defensive tackles in charge of plugging running lanes. Standing at 6’5″, Ledbetter has the size and length to disrupt the game with batted balls at the line of scrimmage.
“I try to maintain my eyes looking at the quarterback’s head and see what direction he’s facing,” Ledbetter said. “I don’t really have to jump most of the time, so I just put my hands up.”
After an injury forced starting quarterback Adrian Jenkins to miss extended time last year, Mansell said it is a point of pride to make sure their quarterback plays a full season.
“If we don’t have A.J (Adrian Jenkins) at quarterback right now… I don’t even know who the backup quarterback is,” Mansell said. “He didn’t get to play his last, sophomore season, so I wouldn’t want to take that from him. I know he wants to go to college for football and I don’t want to take that away from him.”
