HOLLY POND, Ala. – In Will McDaniel’s third season at the helm, the Holly Pond Broncos are looking to take another step forward, get over the hump and into the playoffs.
While the season ended 5-5, Holly Pond’s offense was explosive with Boston Gibbs at signal caller in ’25, averaging over 30 points per game.
This season, the Broncos will need major contributions from fresh faces, after the departure of Gibbs, tight end Cade Albright and tackle Braden Ivey, all of whom are now playing at the collegiate level.
Taking over the offense this season will be Grayson Baggett, a freshman who started the last two seasons for the junior high Broncos. Baggett slots in with three total years of learning Holly Pond’s Wing-T playbook, which they run at all levels.
That playbook was altered last season following a late injury that forced Gibbs into the starting role, giving the offense more looks in shotgun. This season, with Baggett taking over, Broncos head coach Will McDaniel said they’ll return to their preferred approach.
“The Wing was still in everything we did play call-wise and blocking scheme-wise, we just altered the formation a little. We got in the shotgun, but it was still very much our offense. We’re back under center this year, which is where, ideally, we think there’s more variety within our scheme,” McDaniel said. On Baggett’s emergence, he added, “He’s got a bright future. He’s grown a lot in the last year or so and he’s handled adversity really well.“
Helping break in a new QB is a backfield with a variety of experience. Senior halfback Miguel Garcia will return and will be complemented by fullback Hunter Tolbert, who was originally slated to start at quarterback last season.
Vital to the Wing-T offense, the starting tight end spot was left open with Albright’s departure. Returning to the position this year and grabbing that spot is Braxton Rice.
“He’s gained a lot of weight in muscle. We feel really good about the things he can do, especially in the passing game. He’s a very willing and violent blocker, and played mostly defense last year and will continue to play both ways this year,” McDaniel said.
Clearing the way for the backs, the Broncos’ offensive line is in good shape despite the departure of Ivey, who’s now at Morehead State University. Returning from an injury last season, though, Holly Pond has yet another college prospect at its disposal with tackle Braxton Yarbrough.
On the situation around Yarbrough, McDaniel said, “We’ll start two ninth graders on the line who both started the last three or four games last year and really held their own, that’s Travis Horton and Zander McAbee. Jack Sims converted to an offensive lineman as the season went on, too and we saw some good things from him. Connor Mallon, who played center for us last year, he’s probably going to kick out to a guard position. So we’ve got four guys with a lot of experience.”
As much as the Broncos want to run the ball on offense, they want to stop other teams from doing the same. They’ll employ an odd man front defense, stacking the box as much as possible when necessary.
Leading the charge on the line is, again, Yarbrough, who McDaniel and the staff hope can stay healthy enough to play both ways. Rushing on the outside will be Jesse Daniel and Jalen Taylor, who hope to make life easy on the secondary where there’s plenty of fresh faces as well.
On his team’s youth, and their mentality heading into 2026, McDaniel said, “With this team, there’s a lot of newness and I think that their mentality is just to come to work every day. If you look at it generally there’s not a lot of guys who have gotten to be stars in this group- like the seniors from the 2024 team and the seniors on last year’s team that really shined. These guys come to work every day, there’s not a lot of ego and they’ve been a lot of fun to work with. I’m really looking forward to this team, because I just think they’re extremely hungry.”
