With playoffs in mind, Aynor tweaking its Hammer offense

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It’s been a long time since Aynor football was much more than a power football team.

Probably will be a long time until Aynor is anything but a power football team.

But even the smallest of tweaks could be the difference from the Blue Jackets having another nice regular season and putting together a strong run in the playoffs. Jason Allen is convinced he’s found the right mix of personnel to move — ever so slightly, mind you — away from Hammer.

“We’ve been a battering ram for five years, six years,” Allen said of his power-running game. “I feel like people will study you and at some point it makes it difficult [to succeed]. I don’t believe in standing still. The core will always be there.”

Just the same, it was time for a change. And the impetus was clear.

Aynor football has won 28 of its 31 regular-season games since Allen took over the program prior to the 2018 season. All three of those losses came to state powerhouse Dillon.

On top of that, the Blue Jackets were dumped from the playoffs in the second (or the equivalent of that stage, in 2020) in all four seasons.

Allen and his team know that busting up regular-season foes isn’t the end game. There needed to be some introspection.

Moving forward, Hammer will look a little different. For the most part, the team will get away from its two tight end sets and instead focus even more on misdirection while starting to implement a semblance of a passing game.

“I was heartbroken last year,” incoming quarterback Daniel Stanley said of his team’s 2021 playoff loss at Camden. “I felt like we had such a great team. It came to a halt. It was a rough game. Everyone is looking for a little bit of change to get us further. We’ve seen that what we’ve been doing can only get us so far. What we’re doing is in response to that. It will get us further, get us to Columbia.”

Stanley’s abilities weren’t what spurred Allen to make the adjustment, necessarily, but they didn’t hurt.

As the coach pointed out, the converted tailback has had some great performances during passing leagues this summer.

Receiver Rivers Johnson and running backs Gavin Kirby and Wyatt Cody also have no problem streaking downfield when needed.

But make no mistake - Aynor isn’t about to start looking like a pass-first offense.

Everything the Blue Jackets do from the rec league on up is built around the run. It helped them to seven wins last year while averaging 6.61 yards per carry and 332 yards per game on the ground. All those carries amounted to 91% of the team’s offensive plays.

Aynor will always run the ball.

Of course, Allen knows that everyone on his schedule understands that, too.

“Teams put 9, 10, even 11 in the box,” the fifth-year coach said. “You may see a game where we throw for 200. It may not be but 10 passes, but it’s going to be when they’re so committed to stopping the run.”