Cards scrimmage Tigers

The Columbus Cardinals completed their last scrimmage of the pre-season against the Sealy Tigers.

Both teams saw it as an opportunity to matchup up a very quality football team and challenge themselves.

It was an exciting time to watch the Cardinals because of the number of starters they lost last season to graduation. For those who need a reminder, Adam and John Schobel along with Anthony Shorter, Grayson Rigdon, Camdon Pitchford, Ayden Carter, Hudson Hauerland, Xavier Woods, Will Fitzgerald, Ace Pavlicek, Orman Sanchez and Zach Janik have graduated and left some holes in the lineup for the Cardinals.

The most notable hole comes at the quarterback position as Cardinals head coach Matt Schobel is tasked with replacing a player who had a 74% competition percentage, threw for 3,743 yards, had 54 touchdowns and only three interceptions. Not an easy task to do, but he believes he has found his next quarterback for the 2025 season.

The younger brother of Adam, Jack Schobel, will be under center for the Cardinals in 2025 after playing defensive back on the State Championship team last year. During the scrimmage against Sealy Jack showed an ability to escape pressure and use his legs to pick up a first down but during the scrimmage they worked on Jack operating from the pocket and running when necessary.

Matt Schobel said it’s going to be a big adjustment for Jack switching to the quarterback position but is pleased with what he has seen so far.

“It’s an adjustment for him, he played secondary for us last year and he’s coming in behind Adam who did it for four years,” Matt Schobel said. “There are some elements to Jack’s game that we have not really used in scrimmages, he’s probably a runner first but we are getting better in the pass game, I thought we had a really good week throwing the football. I have been pleased with him and he’s having fun, and the guys are playing hard around him so were excited about it.”

Looking back at the scrimmage as a whole, the intensity level was apparent from the first snap as both teams wanted to be physical. At times it got a little chippy but that’s football and boys will be boys.

The refs and the coaches did a great job at keeping things calm and making sure both teams played on the preverbal line without crossing it. That did not stop the trash talk and a little bit of extracurricular activities after the whistle.

The whole time though the Cardinals stayed disciplined and composed and avoided having flags thrown on them. But Matt Schobel said while it was good his team matched Sealy’s physicality, he said the scrimmage was more about getting ready for week one.

“We always stress doing it the right way, and playing between the whistles and sure football is an aggressive game. But for us it’s about executing our plays right and fixing our mistakes,” Matt Schobel said. “We did some good things physically our kids played hard, we do have a lot of little mistakes we need to clean up, like taking care of the ball, tackling in space, making sure we are doing our assignments on both sides of the ball. But definitely some good things came out of this scrimmage, so we are excited about the week ahead.”

With the Scrimmage done the Cardinals now look ahead to their week one matchup against the Cuero Fighting Gobblers on their home field at Memorial Stadium on Friday, August 29.