Offensive juggernauts

While Camden Fairview quarterback Martavius Thomas had a career night against De Queen last week, the Arkansas DemocratGazette Player of the Week isn’t the only Cardinal piling up the numbers on offense.

Including Thomas, Camden Fairview has five different players with 500plus yards of total offense this season. Three of those players — senior Brandon Copeland and juniors Jarvis Reed and Aaron Alsobrook — each have 500-plus receiving yards.

As a team, Camden Fairview has already outscored its offense from a season ago in four fewer games. The Cardinals have found the end zone 51 times in eight games, while they found it 47 times in 12 games a year ago.

The offense is also on pace to outgain its yardage total from 2020. If Camden Fairview totals more than 6 yards on offense against Hope this week, it’ll have outgained the 4,061 from a season ago.

“I think the biggest thing is we’re a lot more efficient in the things that we’re trying to do,” Camden Fairview Coach Jake Monden said.

Monden said the Cardinals operate a nohuddle offense that runs with a focus on fast tempo, and that it’s not all that different from what Camden Fairview ran a season ago.

The offensive success is largely a result of the Cardinals’ personnel this season, Monden said, but it also comes with a new offensive coordinator, as former Blytheville head coach Lance Stone took over OC duties in June.

Stone’s hire in early June was a “no-brainer,” Monden said, and his transition has been a smooth one. Monden also noted that Stone and assistant coaches Will Houston and Justin Carpenter all have a great deal of input on the offense, and that Houston and Carpenter have done a “great job” of getting on board and working with Stone.