Known for possessing an aerial attack that strikes fear in the hearts of opposing defenses, the Dragon passing game has been a force to be reckoned with for over two decades.
The airborne spread offense was revolutionary when unleashed upon opponents across the state by former head coach Todd Dodge in 2000. Continued in a similar fashion by his son and current Dragon head coach Riley Dodge, the system is lethal when run to perfection by athletes who’ve studied the system’s intricacies since their youth.
The spread attack and its barrage of slants, fades and bombs remains at the Dragon’s disposal and will undoubtedly help produce gaudy offensive numbers again this season. Nevertheless, Riley Dodge says his team’s strategy will shift a bit this fall.
“It starts with our running back. It starts with our O-line,” says Dodge, who enters his fifth season as Carroll’s head coach. “We’re going to establish the run and run the football.”
“It’s going to start with No. 2,” Dodge says, referring to four-year starting running back Owen Allen. “When you have the career leading rusher in the entire state of Texas [among current players], you better give him the football or you’re not very smart. We’ve got to get No. 2 the football, and then we’ve got to spread the ball around to our playmakers.”
Dodge’s offensive unit has the potential to light up the sky once again, but the luxury of having Allen in the backfield makes utilizing him a no-brainer. The senior is Carroll’s most experienced player, and at 5,474 career yards, he was already the Dragons’ all-time leading rusher before even setting foot on the turf in 2022.
In recent years, passing first would open up opportunities for some big runs for Carroll. This year, the running game could instead open up more passing opportunities. It makes sense, as opposing teams will be expecting a weapon such as Allen to get his carries and will try to focus in on him. But they can’t overcommit to either the ground game or the passing game without getting burned.
“I think it’s the Southlake offense we’ve been running for years. We’ll shove it down your throat with the run, then we’ll hit a play action for 70 yards and get a touchdown,” says Kaden Anderson, senior quarterback and recent University of Wyoming commit. “We’re really powerful this year. We’ve got a lot of weapons.”
Anderson is one of those key weapons. A few weeks before the 2021 season began, Anderson expected to spend his junior season serving as backup quarterback to nationally-ranked recruit Quinn Ewers. But when Ewers departed for college a year early, Anderson was thrust into the starting role ahead of schedule.
He proved ready to take the reins, passing for 3,036 yards and 34 touchdowns to help lead the Dragons five rounds deep into the playoffs before falling to Duncanville in the 6A Division I state semifinals. Now with a year under his belt, there isn’t a person around who doesn’t expect him to be even more dangerous in 2022.
“If there’s any guy that could handle [the situation] the way you should, it’s Kaden,” says Allen, a First Team All-State selection last season. “He handled it the best way that any of us could have last year, being thrown into the fire and into that position with such short notice.
“To think that he gets another chance to do that, except this time he’s got a year of preparation, a whole lot more time, a lot more size and strength — I’m really excited to see what he does this year.”
Allen knows a thing or two about stepping into a role and excelling. As a freshman, varsity injuries allowed Allen to become the go-to option and showed he was worthy of the starting role despite his youth and varsity inexperience.
With his final varsity season in front of him, Allen stands less than 2,800 yards shy of cracking the Top 10 in rushing yardage in Texas high school football history. That’s saying something to join the ranks of Cedric Benson (8,418 yards), Johnathan Gray (10,889 yards) and the all-time great Kenneth Hall (11,232 yards).
An experienced and physical offensive line will be the driving force behind what could be Allen’s biggest yardage season yet. Described by Dodge as one of the bigger O-lines that Carroll has assembled, this year’s starting five have an average weight of 297 pounds.
Three are returning starters in seniors Jake Hall, Garrett Brown and junior Andrew Cunningham, who each will lead the way in opening running holes and slowing the pass rush. If these three First Team All-District performers weren’t enough, 6-foot-8, 330-pound Drew Perez enters the picture as the highest rated of them all. Perez, a University of Colorado commit, is also amongst the top 100 recruits in the area according to “The Dallas Morning News.”
“We have some guys that have played a lot of snaps and a lot of games,” says Hall, who is a captain and returns at left guard. “I think we could probably be the best O-line in Texas.
“We’re going to be able to run the ball in a different way that people haven’t seen the Dragons run it in years before. We’ve kind of got some new schemes coming up this fall, stuff that’s really worked well for us in spring ball.”
Some of that new approach carries over into the receiving unit, where passing targets lining up wide on either side of center has been the untouched norm for years. Dodge did utilize the tight end spot the last couple of seasons, thanks to the size and strength of R.J. Maryland, a 2022 graduate who signed with SMU. But this year, Dodge has two tight ends (junior Harrison Moore and sophomore Jack VanDorselaer) at his disposal, which he admits might make his formations look a little different this time around.
“I think they will give people issues with the way we line up with those two big guys,” Dodge says of Moore (6-foot-5, 240 pounds) and VanDorselaer (6’5”, 230 pounds).
Thanks to some added tight protection, Anderson has had time to connect with some new players after losing top receivers RJ Maryland (1,103 yards) and Landon Samson (864 yards) to graduation. Clayton Wayland and Caden Jackson have stepped up to join the team’s leading returning receiver Jacob Jordan as Anderson’s top targets this year. The trio of juniors are proving to be a formidable complement to the rushing attack.
“This offense is going to be special this year,” says Jordan, who caught 45 passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns, and also served on special teams. “We definitely learned a lot last year. Our receiving corp has even more chemistry, obviously, with Kaden back.
“I want to have a great year as a wide receiver, but I also want to have a big year on special teams in punt returns and kickoffs. I want to bring a few back.”
Known for finding their way to the end zone, Carroll scored a total of 546 points in 2021, including 91 touchdowns. They also relied on the sure-footed kicking of Tyler White, who will handle both place kicking and punting duties as a senior this year.
White kicked 79 PATs and connected 10 of 12 field goals as a junior, including a long of 55 yards which ties the school record. His 109 points were second on the team only to Allen’s 198 (33 touchdowns), and he expects the always-dangerous Dragon offense to give him plenty more chances to put it through the uprights this fall.
“One second we’ll be on our own 10 [yard line] on defense, and then somehow we’ll have already scored a touchdown and I’m running down the field to kick the extra point,” White says. “It’s definitely very exhilarating. You’ve always got to be ready, no matter what.”
Carroll’s opponents this season better be ready as well, as they can expect another tough assignment when trying to stop the Dragons both on the ground and in the air.