Jimtown Jimmies correcting mistakes and toughening defense before battle against Knox

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- This Friday marks another week of high school football in Michiana.   

It's Week 7 for the Hoosier teams with just 2 weeks left to go in the regular season before playoffs.

ABC57 viewers chose Jimtown vs. Knox for this week's Game of the Week.

The 1-5 Jimtown Jimmies are working hard in Week 7 to axe out the repetitive mistakes that keep costing them. 

"This season hasn't been what any of us expected or wanted, but we're really trying to just focus on improvement every week and being the best team we can by playoff time," says Cody Vincent, Jimtown High School Head Varsity Football Coach.

Vincent, in his second season at Jimtown, says he sees improvement each week, but his team has a hard time overcoming the same disciplinary mistakes when it comes to game time, like penalties.

"It's just trying to learn from those and grow from it and be willing to take criticism and get better and just owning where we're at," Vincent explains.

It's a part of the growing pains. 

The Jimmies are a young squad this year, with small senior and junior classes. 

Two senior standouts are helping steer the ship on both sides of the ball, linebackers Owen Glass and Brodric Kaler. 

Vincent says it's going to take a lot to recreate the offensive production they lost from last season's senior group.

"We're still trying to figure out what we do well, who we can lean on, and again putting pieces into different spots every week to see what we can get," said Vincent.

Their defense is under some extra pressure when sizing up Friday's opponent, the 6-0 Knox Redskins and their seismic offense led by Myles McLaughlin, who's the number one rusher in the nation, averaging 351 yards a game.

For Jimtown to stand a chance, the defense will need to slow down that potent rushing attack by any means possible.

"We have a great plan and our defensive coordinator, and our defensive staff have really dialed in and figured out as much as we can about their offense and just tweaking some fundamental things here and there to battle that," explains Vincent. "But we told them on Monday, it's a great opportunity to get to go down to Knox and face the nation's leading rusher and one of the best coaches in Indiana football history." 

The offensive side of the ball is just as important, and the Jimmies need to get reps in there if they want to pull off the upset.

Coach says dialing back on scheme and making plays happen is key.

"It's simple," Vincent says. "It just comes down to execution; we can't shoot ourselves in the foot on drives and we've got to put points on the board."