Game time is 7 p.m.

Much of the concentration on the offensive side of the ball this spring has been developing a line that will provide holes for the talented group of returning running backs.

“It (the offensive line) had a really good day this past Tuesday,” Grant said. “I’m really excited to see what they do Thursday night and then when they finally get to hit somebody else. 

“We have two that are going to be sophomores, and they have really taken ownership of the tackle spots. We moved some people around that are competing for jobs.”

The biggest shoes to fill up front might be those of Michael Foley, a multi-year starter at center and senior on last year’s team.

Grant said Foley has been working with the players competing to replace him in the middle of the line. The coach knows he won’t be able to replace Foley’s experience of total understanding of the offense, but he is optimistic about the players in the mix.

“Skill-wise, we have a chance to be extremely explosive, but we have to get a hat on a hat, and we have to get the ball to the right person at the right time. We’ve been doing a better job with that,” Grant said. “I’m really excited to see us go after somebody else.”

The spring game with the Braves will be more of a controlled scrimmage to practice game situations than an actual game.

“We are going to have 12 plays (per offensive possession), say starting at the 40, and if somebody scores eight plays, they’ll get four more plays,” Grant said.

Grant’s goals for the game with Walton are simple.

“I want to stay healthy with no injuries,” he said. “I just want to see people compete. I want to see them take this seriously.

“We’ve still got guys competing and battling for jobs. This will give them an opportunity to step up going into the summer.”

The committee was scheduled to interview the final candidate Saturday morning with the hiring process and school board stuff completed early in the week.

The coach will be introduced Thursday evening when Baker holds what can best be described as the annual spring football fling that starts with the girls playing a powder puff fundraiser game followed by the middle school and high school boys taking the field for a scrimmage.

The football fling was originally scheduled for May 13, but it was moved because of the inclement weather that was in the area. Thursday, May 23, was finally settled on so the school could introduce the new coach.

The powder puff game starts at 5 p.m.

The coach will be introduced between the powder puff game and the start of the scrimmage for the boys.

Martello said the school wanted the coach to get a glimpse of his new team in action during Thursday’s scrimmage.

“I think it’s important (that the coach sees the team live) for many reasons,” he said. “The way this process went, the coach didn’t have a chance to go through spring with the team so they will have to hit the ground running.

“We wanted to, as quickly as the process would let us, get him here so he could get hands on with the kids and get the program moving in the new direction.”

As Carlisle had said previously, Martello pointed out a number of quality coaches with impressive resumes applied for the job.

“It was very tough just to narrow it down (the finalist) to a manageable number to get interviews completed,” Martello said. “I appreciate the process because it happened at a pace that gave us the opportunity to meet multiple times.

“We were able to look over the candidates and not just give them the once over. We were able to look over the candidates thoroughly and I believe it is going to give us the absolute best coach we can find.

With spring football wrapping up under interim head coach Andy Valmus and the Baker graduation May 17, Carlisle said the search is coming to an end. The new coach could be named by the end of the month.

“We had 24 resumes we went through, and we narrowed it down to eight and then down to the five finalists,” he said. “We will be doing interviews in the next few days after graduation and hope to have an announcement about the new coach a week or so after that.”

Carlisle described the pool of candidates as being diverse, some with ties to the area, or at least familiarity with the community while other candidates are from other parts of the state as well as the school having received applicants from outside the state.

Carlisle said one thing that impressed him about some of the applicants was their willingness to adapt.

“There weren’t a lot of people putting in what kind of offense they ran, the kind of adapted to what they do depending on what they have with the kids,” he said. “Whoever is coming in, is going to have to take a look at what we have and figure out what we do best.”

Up until the last 10 years or so, in Okaloosa County, the head football coach also was the athletic director, making the position an administrative one requiring approval by the school board.

With that no longer being the case, the school board will still be involved in a more de facto sense while still maintaining a certain influence in the process.

“It’s not an administrative position so there won’t be the pomp and circumstances as there was in the past,” Carlisle said. “We will still need to make sure that the powers that be are aware of the kind of people we are talking to.”

Head coach Thomas Grant is happy with several things he sees from the Bulldogs, but one thing stands out.

“I like our overall team speed,” he said. “The defense has had the early edge right now. They’ve been flying around and making plays.

“The effort is off the charts, which brings a smile to my face. So, I’m just pleased with the overall team speed and the way they are moving in practice.”

It’s not uncommon for the defense to be ahead of the offense during sprint practice. The Bulldogs are no exception, which could be due to the fact the defensive line is the more experienced unit.

“As of right now, the defensive line is doing great sealing on double teams and anchoring and staying the gaps,” Grand said. “We’ve used the speed to create an angle for us and slanting and moving. They’ve done a very nice job in making the offensive line every day.”

As dominant as the defensive line has been, it gives the less experienced offensive line a standard to work towards as they look to the fall.

“Our goal for the remainder of the spring is to continue developing the offensive line,” Grant said.

“He’s a very smart and explosive receiver,” Grant said. “He’s been our program for four years. He understands coverages. He understands when to sit down, when not to sit down (on a route to get open).

“We’re looking at the ball in his hands in a different variety of ways. He’s definitely a playmaker.”

Kolmetz expects to be at his familiar wide receiver spot this fall. He also expects to be on the field most of the game.

Having grown up in the Hub City he knows the history of the Bulldogs and their rivals.

“And now to be playing in Jack Foster Stadium, competing with people like Niceville and facing those type of things, it’s a pretty cool experience,” he said. “It’s probably a good experience, growing up and hating Niceville.”

Kolmetz has played football since he was eight years old. He has played almost every position on the field, which will help him, and the Bulldogs know what to do and when the time comes.

“Karson’s biggest upside going into his senior year is he’s an explosive smart football player,” Grant said. “He leads by example out there. He never complains.

“He is a very fast, receiver and his intelligence is through the roof in the classroom and on the football field. His upside is unlimited.”

The Bulldogs opened spring drills on May 1 with series of drills that served as a combine setting to test players on the physical progress they have made throughout the offseason.

Crestview took to the field for the first time on May 2.

“We wanted to test all the kids to see if their off-season training program paid off,” Grant said. “When they go to a camp (that will have college coaches) they go to, they aren’t going to be shocked by any of these drills.”

Not only does the combine situation provide players with exposure to what they will see at a camp, it gives the Bulldog staff the chance to see the growth they have accomplished since the end of last season.

Grant will take all the statistical data generated by the camp and email college football programs around the country at every level.

“It’s just another way to help promote our kids in recruiting,” he said. “There are several kids that have run in the 4.5 (seconds) range (in the 40-yard dash), 4.6, 4.7. Speed in football is what you want.

“It hurts us not being the biggest team. Hopefully, we are going to make up for it with speed and quickness.”                                                                                                                               

“We are just excited,” he said. “We’ve had a great offseason in the weight room, and the kids are really working hard. We’ve had in school workouts, after school workouts and we’ve had great participation in all of it.

“We are just excited to put the helmets and shoulder pads on again and work to get better at our craft.”

Spring practice is usually the time when teams separate their pretenders from contenders looking to the fall. It’s fair to say no job is safe as the Bulldogs battled to establish a pecking order at each spot on the field.

“It’s open competition everywhere,” Grant said. “We played a bunch of freshmen and sophomores last year … And right now, according to my paperwork, we are only going to have 11 seniors. We are still going to be sophomore and junior heavy. As far as the quarterback position, there are three or four guys that are going to compete for it, and they are going to get an equal opportunity to earn the job.”

Grant said he told the prospective quarterbacks they must earn his trust and that of the coaching staff.

“I told them I have to trust you to make a first down before I trust you to make a touchdown,” he said. “We have to be able to do what the defense gives us and stay on track and stay on the field.”

The quarterback and running backs can only do what the players up front help them achieve. Crestview had one of the smaller offensive and defensive lines in the area a year ago.

“We have definitely gotten stronger,” Grant said. “But we’re still not going to be the biggest team out there. We have some kids that eventually have a chance to be in the 260, 280 (pound range). But they are young right now.

“But it takes time, and there is a certain way you want to do it because you don’t want to put on bad weight.”

Crestview concludes spring drills at Walton on May 23 against the Braves led by former Bulldog assistant coach Keith White.

Upon on graduation from Baker in the spring of 2021, Joe was off to play football at Reinhardt University in Georgia because the Eagles ran the same Wing-T offense as the Gators. But things change and after a couple of season in Georgia Joe is closer to home playing at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala.

“I went to Reinhardt because they ran the Wing-T (offense) like we ran at Baker and were very successful,” Brunson said. I loved doing that. They shifted to the spread and I felt like that wasn’t a good for me.

“And I kind of missed playing defense. I’d much rather be the hammer than the nail. I headed over to Huntingdon and I fit right in with their 3-4 defense.”

The 3-4 defense uses three linemen and four linebackers. They linebackers are known as Will (weakside), Mike (middle), Sam (strongside) and nickel, a hybrid position that is in the past might have been called Monster as part linebacker and part defensive back.  

“There is a bunch of moving around and a bunch of people rotating in so I enjoyed,” Brunson said. “The four guys (linebacker) that were there are great guys, great players. They have been there four years and started four years so I obviously didn’t start, but I wish I would have.”

Brunson played the Sam linebacker this season and was in on different stunt and blitz packages. He served as a backup, but still saw significant playing time.

“My first game against Berry I got about 20 snaps,” Brunson said. “They were getting a feel for how I was going to look, I guess. And then throughout the season they put me in, in a bunch of different blitz packages and moved me around the field.

“I ended up doing a bunch of edge rushing and whenever the starter would get tired or banged up, I’d go in and get some snaps.”

There was a small adjustment from running back and returning to linebacker.

“At running back you want to get the ball and hit the hole fast,” Brunson said. “At linebacker you have to be a lot more patient and read it, let everything sift out and then hit the hole (as the running back is coming through).”

Brunson said there is a different culture at Huntingdon, a NCAA Division III school than the one at Reinhardt, a NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) school. NAIA schools can offer athletic scholarships. Division III athletes can receive financial aid in the way of academic scholarships, grants or student loans, but they don’t receive athletic scholarships.

“At Reinhardt we were getting a bunch of kids out of the transfer portal so there was never really a culture that kids were buying into,” he said. “They just kind of got put into a culture.

“At Huntingdon there are not a lot of kids that transfer out. Whenever those kids get in that program, they stick it out and I think it’s a really strong brotherhood kind of a deal.”

Brunson described the players on the Hawk roster as being a bunch of guys that play like Baker Gators, Freeport Bulldogs and Chipley or Blountstown Tigers.

One advantage of being at Huntingdon is the proximity to Baker and Opp. If Brunson needs something he’s only 90 minutes or so from his dad. And Montgomery is close enough for his parents to come and see him occasionally outside of football season or for him to get home for a homecooked meal.

Joe is majoring in physical education with plans to follow in his father’s footsteps as a coach. He still has two seasons of college football left but would love to coach for his dad to start his career.

In the meantime he’s preparing for the 2024 season as he moves from the outside Sam linebacker to the Mike linebacker in the middle.

“I love Sam because it was constant action,” Brunson said. “Pretty much every play we were like stunt or blitz or something. I’m definitely going to have to switch into a leadership role, running the defense, making calls and stuff like that.

“I feel like I’m going to enjoy it, but starting on the field is going to be a huge change for me.”