Lucas Weatherford and Josh Wright are facing the same problem this week – each other’s football team. Weatherford, in his seventh season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets, and Wright, in Year 4 at Tuscaloosa Academy, are bringing Top 6 Class 2A teams into a Region 5 showdown at Vincent on Friday at 7 p.m.
Their biggest problem is simulating the other’s offense to get ready for The Birmingham News Game of the Week.
Sixth-ranked Vincent (5-0, 2-0) relies on a strong ground game as evidenced by the 1,037 yards the Jackets have piled up. No. 4 Tuscaloosa Academy (5-0, 3-0) has a high-flying offense led by 2023 Class 2A Back of the Year Preston Lancaster, who has already passed for 1,549 yards with 16 touchdowns and no interceptions.
“That quarterback,” Weatherford said, “is the best I’ve ever seen. He could be at a 6A or 7A school and be just as good. He reminds me of (Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback) Brett Favre. That quarterback is fun to watch – if you aren’t having to get ready to play him. He’s a big, ol’ kid and I’ve seen people hit him and in the midst of it, he still throws and hits someone. He makes you pay. If there’s a better quarterback in the state in terms of throwing down the field, I haven’t seen him.
“I talked to (Wright on Monday) and I told him when you play someone who runs the Single Wing or the Wing-T it’s hard to get your scout team ready. It’s even harder this week because we don’t have a quarterback who can do what he does. It’s tough trying to simulate that.”
Wright, who won four AISA state championships and finished second five times at Bessemer Academy before taking over the Knights in 2022, echoed Weatherford’s comments.
“Our offense has been an advantage because most teams we are playing are like they were when I grew up – playing between the hashes. Everybody was two tight ends and two backs. A lot of teams are still like that and it makes it tough to simulate in practice,” he said. “On the other hand, it makes it tough for them to simulate us in practice.”
Besides its road-grading offense, Vincent has the No. 9 scoring defense in the state and second-best in 2A, according to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society. The Yellow Jackets allow 6.0 points a game and have two shutouts in their past three games. Two other opponents scored 6 points and only B.B. Comer hit double figures in a 21-18 Week 2 Vincent victory.
“We blew a coverage on one touchdown and had a late hit to keep a drive alive on another,” Weatherford said of the Yellow Jackets’ lone close call. “We’ve got some guys who are really experienced and they do the extra stuff. (Linebackers) Grayson Gulde (a first-team All-State pick last season) and Aiden Gasaway will stay after practice and they do extra film work. They show up on Mondays with things they saw that the coaches didn’t notice. We’ve got a lot of guys who have played a lot of football.”
Gulde leads the team – by a lot – with 91 total tackles. The 5-foot-9, 191-pound senior has 49 solo stops and 11 tackles for a loss. He had 23 stops in a 37-0 region win over Lamar County and 19 tackles with an interception the next week when Vincent beat region foe Sulligent 29-6.
Gasaway, who also plays running back at 5-7, 176 pounds, is the middle linebacker for the Yellow Jackets. He has 42 total tackles with 4 TFL. Junior linebacker Kenderious Chapman has 35 tackles and sophomore defensive lineman Zahmir McMillian leads the team with 3 sacks.
Senior quarterback Casen Fields has thrown for 331 yards, completing 17-of-41 throws with five touchdowns and three interceptions. He also leads the team in rushing with 405 yards on 45 carries with three TDs.
“Our quarterback is probably the slipperiest runner we have,” Weatherford said. “Being able to run the ball sets up some keys for him and a lot of his yards come from when we’re trying to pass and he scrambles.”
Junior Jayden Roberts has 337 yards on 75 attempts with four scores and senior Gasaway has 247 yards on 49 carries with five touchdowns. “Jayden does not have your typical running back build. He’s about 6-2, 170, and is a track kid – a hurdler. We have worked him at running back since the eighth or ninth grade and he’s good at getting downhill. He has good speed. I asked our offensive line if (Roberts) hated them because it seems like every long run he gets is called back (for a penalty).
“I call Gasaway ‘Mike Alstott’ after the Tampa Bay fullback,” the coach said, recalling the battering ram who played 12 years for the Buccaneers. “He sticks it up in there and gets the tough yardage.”
As a former offensive lineman, Weatherford has a warm spot for his guys up front. “I ride them a little extra because that’s what I played and what I love. Blake White, our offensive line coach, has set up a good culture with those guys.”
Vincent’s offensive line is anchored in the middle by 5-11, 300-pound senior center Braden Abbott, right guard Gulde and senior left guard Keller Finn, who is 5-11, 182. Ethan McElrath is a 5-10, 219-pound senior right tackle with 5-9, 235-pound junior left tackle Dontavion Keith rounding out the starting front. McElrath and Gulde have been starters since they were freshmen.

Tuscaloosa Academy senior quarterback Preston Lancaster launches a pass downfield in this undated file photo. Lancaster has thrown for 1,549 yards and 16 touchdowns with no interceptions for the 5-0 Knights.Olivia Amason
Wright’s Knights score 41 points a game, sixth-best in Class 2A, and allow 11.2, which is No. 9 in the classification. Tuscaloosa Academy has two first-team All-State players back in Lancaster and senior linebacker Ford Beeker. Lancaster threw for 3,941 yards as a junior with 46 TDs and 10 interceptions in 13 games as he completed 254-of-365 passes.
“He’s just got the ‘It’ factor,” Wright said of the 6-0, 210-pounder. “He’s lost about 20 pounds since last year and it’s really helped him become more mobile this season. Certain kids are ‘practice’ kids and certain kids go to camps and do great, but they look like robots. When the lights go on and it’s competition time, that’s the best side of Preston. No moment is too big and no moment is too small. He acts the same if he gets the winning touchdown or if he throws a game-losing pick. Now, he gets mad, but he does not show too much emotion.
“Ellis Hamiter is our leading receiver (31 catches, 562 yards, 4 TDs) and he’s just a great ballplayer. He makes all the gritty plays and has great hands and great vision. He’s great when he catches the ball and plays safety on defense for us some. He’s got a couple of picks.
“Kena Rego is a junior receiver who’s having a great year (27-498, 2 TDs). He’s a quick receiver.”
Beeker is the second-leading tackler for the Knights, behind his younger brother sophomore Harwood, who has 59 total stops. Ford has 51 total tackles with 11 TFL, a sack and an interception.
“Ford is our team leader,” Wright said. “He’s president of the SGA and he’s like a coach on the field – and off the field. He’s very intelligent and is a mature young man.”
A pair of seniors and a junior hold down the front line on offense. Seniors Haston Crawford and Hunter Burleson and junior Patrick Stell will be key this week, the coach said.
“When we first got here, we didn’t have a lot of linemen,” Wright said. “We stil don’t. It’s tough to go every day run blocking in practice and being an inside run team when you don’t have the bodies to do it all the time. Pass blocking kind of fits what we do. We’d like to run it more (thus far, TA has run the ball 79 times for 469 yards), but sometimes you want a purpose to do that. We don’t want to run it just to say we ran it. Most of our stuff is RPO (run-pass option), we get the ball out quick and a lot of our completions are bubbles, quick hitches, screens and stuff like that.”
The two teams have yet to play a common opponent and Wright praised Vincent for its success this season. “No. 1, they’ve played a tough schedule. They’ve been tested,” he said. “They do a great job coaching and their quarterback is a competitor, man. He can make plays with his arm and his feet. They’ve got good running backs and they do everything well. Defensively, they fly around with an athletic secondary. They tackle well and capitalize off your mistakes very well and they don’t make mistakes.”
Weatherford said his team was eager to play another undefeated contender for the top spot in the region. “They are excited and we’re trying to make it a fun week in terms of preparation and how we approach the game,” he said. “We don’t want to get too uptight. You can’t put it all on one game. Our region is so tough, we’ve got four more after this. We try to treat it just like ‘next on our schedule,’ but make it fun. This is not the state championship yet, but let’s prepare like it is.”
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