FMQ: Donovan Roberts powers Norman to 5-0 start

Here’s your Friday Morning Quarterback look at Norman’s 50-20 win over Shawnee.

In case you missed it, here’s the game story.

Norman breakdown: The game story pretty much says it all, Donovan Roberts is a stud. Big and fast, runs angry. Thursday was my first time to see him, and I’m already a fan.

You can say, ‘Oh, sure, he did it in a blowout, blah blah blah.’ But the 168 yards is actually short of the 171 he was averaging coming in, on 25 carries, five short of his season average. He’s a workhorse who is right there with any of the backs in the super-talented junior class.

As for the Tigers in general, here’s the biggest thing about them: no matter what level of football, no matter what era, no matter what other conditions, if you can play defense and run the ball, you will win games. Norman does both well.

When Roberts isn’t carrying the load, they’ve got Jaime Myers, another power-speed combo back who rushed for 43 yards on four carries and returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown.

I wrote about the defense last week, and the experience that coach Greg Nation talked about in that story certainly shows through. They don’t seem to make many mistakes and they have talented players at all three levels.