ARLEY, Ala. – To say it’s been an impressive start to Daniel Evans’ career at Meek High school would be a disservice.
In three seasons, the head coach has led the Tigers to three playoff appearances, two postseason wins and a 22-13 overall record.
Adding to that resume is not only the goal this season, but it’s likely, as the Tigers return all but one starter on the offensive line, plus four-year starting quarterback Evan McCay.
Despite losing Aiden Benson, who played on both the offensive and defense lines and is now at Berry College, Evans said, “The offensive line is probably as deep as we’ve been in the last three or four years. We lost our best offensive lineman from last year (Benson), but we’ve got more guys. We had to get a lot of guys a lot of reps last year because we got hurt, and we had kids get hurt during the year at pretty pivotal times. So we’ve got young guys that are now going to be, you know, sophomores and juniors that’ve got a lot of reps under their belt because of the injuries that we dealt with last year. So we got about eight and nine guys that I feel comfortable with playing on the offensive and defensive line, which is a luxury.”
The beefed up O-Line will give way to McCay, who helped run Evans’ 21-personnel offense at an extremely high level in 2025, fueling the Tigers’ 36 points-per-game mark.
He’s the complete package at quarterback, with a deep understanding of the offense, decision making and has a good arm, but is also a weapon himself out of the backfield in run-pass options.
The offensive arsenal starts in the backfield next to McCay, with running back Hunter Wyatt returning and sophomore fullback Ethan Miles.
“(Hunter) Wyatt’s kind of a do-it-all guy on offense and defense. He’s played defensive line, he’s played linebacker and he could play secondary for us if we needed him to, but he runs the ball real physically, he’s put some weight on, too, so I expect big things from him this season,” Evans said on Wyatt. He added, “Ethan (Miles) is only a sophomore, but he’s got a lot of games under his belt. He’s got a real football mindset, too.”
On the perimeter, the Tigers expect contributions from Meek basketball star Parker Ferguson, who stands at 6-foot-6. Additionally, Evans named senior receiver Colby Williams as a player who’s vastly improved both physically and mentally, and expects the senior to have a big impact this season.
After running a 4-4-5 scheme defense the last three seasons, the Tigers made a change, and have shifted to a 3-3 stack.
On the adjustment, Evans said, “It’s taken some time getting used to that, but it’s been really good for us. It lets us be a little more athletic up front and at the inside linebacker spot, and it also allows our secondary guys to basically see what’s going on in the backfield and react to it. We feel more comfortable that way. So we’ve spent all summer installing that and getting that ready to go and we feel pretty good about it.”
That stacked box features what the Tigers believe is the strength of the defense in their interior line and inside linebackers. It’s a group Evans said they feel “extremely fortunate to have,” with some of them having 25-30 games of varsity experience already.
“Don’t sleep on the secondary, though,” Evans said. While the group struggled at times last season, Meek believes the group, and the team as a whole, have benefitted from the 7v7 camps they’ve taken part in, as well as the scheme change.
The scheme’s not the only thing changing, though, as the Tigers will walk into a reformed region that now includes Red Bay, a 2A playoff team last season and Belgreen, a recently-established program that took a drastic step forward from 2024 to 2025.
Meek’s confident in their roster’s ability to handle the change, plus any other challenges this season, mainly due to the work they’ve put in, with Evans saying, “We’ve just got some young guys that had to grow up last year for us, so they’ve got that experience now, but then they’ve got another year in the weight room and they’re stronger and they’re taller. We’re bigger than we’ve been in the last couple of years, and it’s a testament to them working their tails off in the weight room.”
