South Putnam continues to roll

Absolutely dominant.

That is the only way South Putnam head football coach Chuck Sorrell can sum up what his Class 2A second ranked Eagles have done through five weeks of the high school football season. 

South Putnam has outscored opponents 265-27.

The Eagles have had a running clock in every game. 

South Putnam has scored 42 points or more in every contest, and the Eagles are allowing only an average of 6.6 points per game, with its starting defense still not allowing a point. 

Last week against Sullivan, it was much of the same, as the Eagles cruised to a 58-0 road victory. The win improved South Putnam to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Western Indiana Conference. 

In the win, South Putnam put up 337 yards of offense, while the defense held the Arrows to only 118 total yards. 

"Our defense continued to do what we have asked them to do. They stayed in their correct gaps and held Sullivan out of some of their favorite looks. We ended up getting them into the throwing game. Our defensive backs settled down, made some plays, and we had another defensive touchdown for the fifth game. We let them down inside the 10 once and we blocked the field goal. It has been fun running the defense this year, making the calls and watching good players make plays. Our offense is thriving off of what our defense is doing and they have been productive when we get the ball," Sorrell told The Putnam County Post. 

Sorrell said his defense is in a "good situation" because of the personnel that are on the field. 

"We have five defensive backs that can cover. We have three linebackers that can tackle and we have our two best defensive players playing defensive line. When you are in that situation, you have a chance of being a really good defense. I knew this summer when we scrimmaged Tri-West and Danville, that we had a chance of being pretty good. Teams like that couldn't move the ball consistently on us, and I do believe we can do this against a lot of teams. There is going to be somebody who is going to move the ball on us and score points, and we will have to make adjustments. As of right now, we have been holding really good football teams with really good football players to 100 yards or less. We are building. It is good to see, it is fun to see, and as a defensive coordinator, it is nice to see my side of the ball be successful where we don't have to score 49 points every game. We have so many weapons," Sorrell said. 

For Sorrell, the opportunity to consistently win games at South Putnam behind a strong defense and an offense loaded with weapons is something he does not take for granted. 

After all, he remembers what it was like winning only four games in three years at South Vermillion. While at South Putnam, he has had only one losing season, and that was his first season, as the Eagles went 5-6 in 2019. 

"The one difference between the two places and it's no secret, is South Putnam is a football school. When you come to a football school, and you say you have to lift weights at 7 o'clock, come all summer to be a starter and you have to do these things, every one of our parents and players say yes we do. When you are at a non-football school, a place that may think they are a baseball or basketball school or whatever they think they might be, and you have coaches who say you are going to lift at 7, we are going to practice at 6:30 so you don't have to lift. You still have some of those guys out there who think lifting affects your swing. I don't think they've seen Aaron Judge, and I don't think the basketball coaches have seen the NBA guys who are a lot bigger than the guys on our team. When you get to a school that takes the priority first, it is a lot easier. Our schools are small, and we need three sport athletes. I think our basketball team is going to win a lot of games with these football guys," Sorrell said. 

This week, South Putnam travels to West Vigo (0-5, 0-3). The Vikings have scored seven points or less in the last four weeks, are averaging only seven points per game, and are allowing an average of 51 points per game. 

When asked what he sees when watching West Vigo, Sorrell said he sees a team trying to find its way. 

"I see a team that is trying to find its identity. He is taking what he knew at North Vermillion and is taking it over to West Vigo, kind of like what I did at South Vermillion. He runs two formations and says he is going to get better at those two formations. He has four seniors and he knows those seniors aren't going to help him win next year or two years from now. I see him running the stuff they want to run, get better at it and at the end of the year, he will have guys who bought in and want to play in that system," Sorrell said. 

The veteran coach said he knows his team enters as a heavy favorite against the Vikings. 

"You can look at Harrell, you can look at whoever you want, it is no secret who the favorite is going to be this week. It's very hard to be a 90 point favorite when you see it in the papers. How we coach will be the same. We will get after our kids. We got in the pool Saturday, ran Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday will be a physical practice. On Thursday, we will make sure everything is correct for the game. On Friday when we get off the bus, we will show what the numbers are. I think I have done a pretty good job of making sure our twos and threes get playing time when we are up, a lot of guys get a lot of varsity football time," Sorrell said. 

He said the fact that his team has Northview at home next week will help keep his team focused and ready this week.

"I did not sugar coat with our kids, we are working on two weeks in a row. We are working on Northview's offense on some parts of practice, and we are working on West Vigo on other parts defensively. The good thing is they both run the same defense, so our scout defense is going to be the same these two weeks. I will run the defense because I used to run it at Northview. I will run our scout defense the next two weeks, and we will be running that for the next two weeks, which will be really good for our offense to see it. We can't go a week and a half and think we are going to beat the class of the conference in Northview just by taking it easy this week. We are going to put in some stuff this week. Most coaches do it anyway, but I had to be honest with the kids. It is one of those games. I feel for West Vigo, and I've been there. Hopefully, we both come out of it healthy," Sorrell said.