BROWNWOOD, TX— The Argyle Liberty Christian Warriors scrimmaged the Brownwood Lions on Friday and Liberty head coach Jason Witten gave COVER1 an exclusive interview.
The Warriors battled the Lions in the first scrimmage of the new football season, and the Warriors look good. Of course, it was just the first scrimmage. Witten, while pleased, knows they have a lot to clean up.
“It was great, you know, they’re a really good football team,” Witten said of Brownwood. “They’re well coached. It was good for us to come down here. We’re playing a tougher schedule this year and obviously I have a lot of respect for their program. They're tough and we have a lot to clean up, but for the first scrimmage I was really pleased with how we played.”
Last season, Liberty Christian won a state title and are looking to go back-to-back as they have a heavy senior class full of Division I athletes. Seniors Quinton Brown and Brady Janusek have committed to Boise State and Oklahoma, respectively. One player Witten has to replace is at signal caller, where junior Quinn Murphy has taken the reins.
Murphy replaces Cole Welliver, who put up over 3,000 yards and 50 touchdowns last year. Murphy, a Baylor commit, put up similar numbers last year and has played extremely well in his high school career. He put up 3,030 yards, 52 TDs, and eight interceptions last season and as a freshman threw for 2,406 yards and 33 TDs to three INTs.
Murphy will be throwing to a bunch of seniors in Janusek, Brown, and Jaylon Hawkins. Janusek had 54 receptions for 984 yards and 13 TDs, while Brown had 50 for 718 and 16 touchdowns. Hawkins had 38 receptions for 589 yards and 13 TDs.
On the ground, Murphy will have a lot of help in Chase Garnett, who had 232 carries for 1,743 yards and 29 TDs. Blake Brisker was next in line with 40 carries for 202 yards and chipped in four TDs.
“For our quarterbacks in general, we always tell them, ‘Hey, you don’t have to be Superman back there,'” Witten said. “You have a lot of weapons, trust the system, trust the people around you. We feel like our guys are working hard. Our skill group is really good, so I feel more than anything is getting that chemistry down. Any time you have a new quarterback, you’ve got to get on the same page. You’re working through it and there’s nothing better than live reps going against a good team you haven’t scouted. I thought they handled it really well.”
On defense, the Warriors look extremely good as well, led by Witten’s son, CJ Witten, who had 108 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, seven sacks, and four fumble recoveries. Janusek was a total ball hawk for the Warriors last year with eight INTs, and Liberty Christian still has Cooper Witten, Nick Blevins, Jett Haire, and Kade Violi, who had six INTs combined.
Madox Sekyere had five sacks, while Haire and Andrew Michaels each had three. The Warriors flew around to the football and had five players with over 70 tackles, led by CJ Witten with 108, Haire (95), Cooper (82), Sekyere (81), and Violi (78).
Witten also spoke about his defense.
“I feel good about it,” Witten said, “We’re flying around and we’re introducing some new stuff. They’re (Brownwood) physical up front and I thought our guys handled it well. That’s our biggest thing, we want to be a bend-don’t-break defense. We gave up a couple big plays, but I was really pleased with how they came out today and it’s always good to go against a different opponent. Our defense is really flying around, and I was really pleased with the effort. We gave up less than seven points a game last year, so our bread and butter is playing really stout defense and we’re going to need that again this year.”
Closing out the interview, it was Jason Witten, a third-round pick in the 2003 NFL Draft out of Tennessee, and a future NFL Hall of Famer. Witten was asked what piece of advice he could give to the young men and young women in not only the Concho Valley, but West Texas in general.
“This is a great community right here,” Witten said, “I would just tell them to dream big. The world tries to put us in a box and tell us we can’t do it. This kid here (Witten) was in a small town in east Tennessee. I had a lot of adversity in my life. I put my mind to it and had a lot of people make a lot of sacrifices to me, and you work hard. You stay humble and good things will happen to you. Stay out of trouble and I know social media and a lot of things try and tell us what that integrity and character looks like, but stay true to your values that you’ve been raised with and believe in yourself, work hard, and be humble along the way when you have success. You can do it. If I can do it, all those kids can as well, so dream big.”
The Argyle Liberty Christian Warriors open up their season against the Ford Bend Christian Academy Eagles at home at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.
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