Purple Dogs look to make themselves at home on the road

Fayetteville will open the season at home against Little Rock Central Sept. 5. But the Purple Dogs won’t see the Friday night lights at Harmon Field against until Week 6 at home against Fort Smith Northside.
“We played Van Buren, Bryant, Bentonville and Har-Ber on the road last year and won all of them,” [...]

Purple Dogs’ defensive overhaul from 3-5 to 4-3 still progressing

Last season Fayetteville traded in the 3-5 for the 4-3 mid-season. There wasn’t much time to learn the ins and outs of every aspect of the new defense and Fayetteville defensive coordinator Wendell Harris said his players have labored diligently in the spring and summer to implement a more complex version of the defense to [...]

Patton’s goal: A faster pace for Fayetteville offense

If Daryl Patton gets his wish, his Purple Dogs might just have another record-setting season on offense. Fayetteville scored 34 points and threw for 214 yards on 29 pass attempts in the first half of a 37-16 win over Shiloh Christian last Monday in a preseason scrimmage. Patton said he wants to maintain that level [...]

FHS defensive line, linebackers must step up

Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said it will be defensive line by committee this year.
“They’ve just got to keep plugging,” Patton said. “We don’t have a guy who’s going to be Joe Stud on everyone’s scouting report. I want them to say all our guys up front are good and we can’t leave any [...]

Conditioning vital component for Purple Dog linebacker production

It’s no secret that Fayetteville Sam linebacker Cody Hammer will be the leader of this year’s defense. Hammer, though, will be a key cog in the Purple Dogs’ backfield, which puts pressure on the reserves to step up.
“We’ll rotate as many people as we can,” said Wendell Harris, FHS defensive coordinator. “If Cody [...]

Communication key for Fayetteville defense

As Fayetteville dives deeper into the 4-3 defensive playbook, Purple Dog defensive coordinator Wendell Harris said communication on the field will help limit mistakes and keep the defense fresh later in the game.
“They’ve done a pretty good job communicating on the field,” Harris said. “We busted a few assignments in the scrimmage, two [...]

Fayetteville running game strives for improvement

Fayetteville’s first team rushed for just 28 net yards and nearly abandoned the running game in the first half of a 37-16 win over Shiloh Christian in a preseason scrimmage last Monday. Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton, though, said he isn’t too concerned just yet.
“What happened against Shiloh was that we got our guys blocked [...]

Purple Dogs look to get more complex on defense

Fayetteville will vie to achieve a more complex scheme on defense this season as Daryl Patton’s pupils pick up the intricacies of the 4-3 defense after a mid-season switch from the 3-5 last year. Patton viewed the gamefilm from his Purple Dogs’ 37-16 win over Shiloh Christian in a preseason scrimmage last Monday. Patton said [...]

Stable of receivers may be best group ever for Purple Dogs

Fayetteville doesn’t have a Gionni Harris but it has a more receivers who can contribute on Friday night than possibly any group in school history.
Seniors Coy Holmes and Kellen Summers, junior Josh Hale and sophomore Demetrius Dean give Daryl Patton’s Purple Dogs the speed and the brawn as the starting four wideouts for receivers [...]

Patton impressed with offensive line progress

Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said he was initially unhappy with the performance of his offensive line in a 37-16 win over Shiloh Christian in a preseason scrimmage last Monday. Upon further review of the gamefilm, Patton said it wasn’t as poor a performance as he had originally gauged.
“After the game was over, I [...]