By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — It’s been a terrific run for Salisbury Hornets football, with six straight winning seasons, including a 31-5 mark the last three years.

The Hornets averaged nearly 40 points per game and were 11-2 last season, with opening and closing setbacks sandwiching an 11-game winning streak.

Conference champs the last two seaons, Salisbury will carry a 15-game Central Carolina Conference winning streak into 2023. That’s a streak that began during Brian Hinson’s coaching tenure and continued in 2022 under the direction of new head coach Clayton Trivett.

Salisbury continued to win after Vance Honeycutt graduated and after Jalon Walker headed to Georgia, and the Hornets figure to keep winning even without JyMikaah Wells, the rugged back who set school scoring and rushing records before signing with Virginia Union University.

“JyMikaah is a special kid who had a great season for us, but we’ve still got some special ones,” Trivett said. “We’ve got an experienced quarterback and that helps a lot. We’ve got a very good senior class. We’ve got 75 kids out for football. We feel good about where our numbers are.”

Nothing lasts forever, but the Hornets have at least one more stellar season in them before there’s any chance of a drop-off. There are seniors everywhere you look, including the very familiar faces belonging to quarterback Mike Geter, who will be starting at the most critical offensive position for the third season, and receiver Deuce Walker, a four-year starter.

Geter’s career numbers include 2,743 passing yards and 1,885 rushing yards for 4,628 yards of total offense. He’s less than 500 yards away from John Knox’s Salisbury career passing yardage record and he also should sail by Knox’s school record for total offense.

The Rowan County Athlete of the Year for the 2022-23 school year, Geter has been able to accomplish those stats for run-first teams because he’s an exceptional running quarterback — either on designed plays or improvisational scrambles — and because he’s a highly efficient passer. Salisbury attempted the fewest passes of any Rowan County team last season, but Geter usually made them count. During his career, Geter has accounted for 77 touchdowns (34 passing, 43 rushing). That includes a few rushing TDs he got as a varsity freshman.

Salisbury doesn’t air it out all that often, but Walker, who owns a tall stack of Division I offers, has turned a high percentage of his pass-catching opportunities into explosive plays. He has 58 career catches for 1,113 yards and 15 touchdowns. All of Salisbury’s career pass-receiving school records are within reach for Walker with a productive senior year.

Geter and Walker are such splendid athletes that they’ll also start on defense, with Geter as the free safety in a 4-2-5 base alignment. Walker will usually man a corner, although he may slide over to safety against some run-heavy teams. Cornerback is Walker’s likely college position.

“We’ve got good enough numbers that Mike and Deuce are the only two we’re counting on to play both ways,” Trivett said. “It’s hard to take them off the field because they can make such a big impact on defense, as well as on offense.  We’ll try to use Mike mostly in a coverage role, rather than being involved in a lot of tackles.”

Jamal Rule is set to be the primary running back. Rule has track-sprinter speed, and while he’s not expected to be as bullish as Wells was, he will still be a tough man to tackle. Wells basically missed two full games with an injury last season, and Rule ran amok in both of those, including a 200-yard game, when he got main-man carries. The Hornets have few worries about the ground game, and they’ll probably be run-heavy again.

“Rule is solid, really put together,” Trivett said. “He’s worked hard in the weight room, and we expect big things from him.”

Hank Webb will be another receiving threat. While he only caught 14 passes last season, he averaged nearly 20 yards per catch and put the ball in the end zone four times.

Webb will again wear many hats for the Hornets. He’s also the punter, the kicker and the backup QB.

Evan Koontz and Jackson Sparger are potential pass-catchers. Sparger also will serve as the long snapper.

Trivett also expects to get catches from Bennie Howard or Torian Brown. Both of those juniors are also in the DB mix. The plan is for one to focus on offense, with the other concentrating on defense.

The Hornets are in very good shape on the offensive line. All five projected starters have experience. Josh Burns returns at left tackle. Antonio Young returns at right tackle. Veteran Anthony Young lost weeks to injury last season but is healthy and is expected to be the starting center. Right guard Bo Brincefield and left guard Isaiah Blackwell, a sophomore, are young players who are battle-tested from last season’s playoffs.

“I think our offensive line can be a little better than it was last year,” said Trivett, a former offensive lineman at Catawba. “Our defensive line has been giving our o-line fits in practice, but we believe our defensive line might be our best position group.”

The defensive linemen will be led by Dashawn Brown, a returning All-CCC player. Other veterans up front are Jelani Ziyad, Jaden Warren and Saderion Robinson, who has an immense presence at 6-foot0-2, 320 pounds.

The starting linebackers are very familiar names — DJ Adams and returning All-CCC player Jaylin Graham-Taylor. They’ve played a lot of football for the Hornets.

The defensive backfield will be anchored by Walker and Geter. Tyree Brown is expected to man the weakside safety spot. Howard or Torian Brown will man the corner opposite Walker.

Kenyon Hairston will be cast in the “Hornet” role, which means he’ll be a combination of outside linebacker/strong safety. He’ll be important in run support against the physical teams but will be able to drop into coverage against passing teams or when running teams are forced into passing situations.

Nine seniors are expected to start on the Salisbury defense, so that’s an experienced group.

“We feel like we’ve got another good team,” Trivett said. “If we can stay healthy and if we can get a little bit of luck, we can make a run.”

The non-conference schedule is interesting. The Hornets will take on North Davidson, East Rowan, Walkertown and (Roxboro) Person before their six CCC contests.

Walkertown and Person are unusual opponents. The Hornets would like to be taking on closer, more familiar foes, but they’ll make the best of it.

“Walkertown was 8-3 last year, and maybe that’s a game that can help us some with the RPI,” Trivett said. “Person (5-5 last season) is a 3A that we don’t know much about, but that might be good for us. We can treat it like a playoff game, getting on the bus for a road trip and going somewhere we’ve never been before.”