J-Hawks out to prove they’re for real

Editor's note: Cedar Rapids Jefferson's football team is the focus of our 'The Program” series this fall.

CEDAR RAPIDS - It's no secret the last two weeks have meant a lot to the Cedar Rapids Jefferson football team.

To not acknowledge that would be a lie considering recent history. But two wins - by a combined 104-7 against Davenport North and West - against teams not on their competitive level does not predict success for the rest of the season.

And especially after losses to metro teams in Cedar Rapids Washington and Prairie, the J-Hawks haven't proved a thing to anyone yet.

'No, and I've told them that. Like I told the guys, until we beat a metro school or an Iowa City school, nobody is really going to look up to us as being any different than we've been,” said Coach Brian Webb. 'We've yet to prove ourselves in a close game, that we can finish those. So, yeah, without a doubt I would like to see that at some point, in a tight game, we can close out the deal. In my three years, we have yet to do that.

'That's something that's uncharted waters for us, so we're going to cross that bridge when we get there.”

That mindset is shared by his players, who have made a great effort not to let the two blowout wins get to their head.

Quarterback Jesse Furrow, who didn't play in the second half of either of the last two games, said it would've been easy for a team that's never experienced sustained winning - let alone in that fashion - to rest on their laurels.

But that hasn't happened, and could mean a great deal going forward.

'I thought we would be a little bit complacent, but it was more of once everybody got a taste of (winning), it was like, ‘Man this is awesome. Let's do it again,'” Furrow said. 'Because we knew that those were very winnable games for us, so we needed to have the mindset of ‘That's what we're supposed to do to those teams. We need to dominate those teams.' We did that. It was good we did that for a confidence thing, dominating those teams. I think we just built off it instead of becoming complacent, so that was excellent.”

The juxtaposition of the first four weeks for the J-Hawks could have an understandable effect on the players mentally.

Playing with one of the best teams in Class 4A in Washington the first week, then having key penalties erase go-ahead touchdowns against Prairie - a team that beat then-No. 7 North Scott last week - could distract from what's ahead. Not looking in the mirror is a skill that's hard to master, but Webb and Furrow said the team is doing their best in that regard.

It doesn't hurt that a rivalry game against Cedar Rapids Kennedy looms. Things are much different these days, and Webb believes they'll be able to keep eyes focused forward and not worry about what could've been.

'Offensively, we're light years away from where we were when I started. Defense has gotten tremendously better. Special teams is just night and day better than we have been. We just continue to get better. That's it. I don't think it's rocket science,” Webb said. '. Just the energy and want to be here and the will and want to be here is half the battle with teenagers. The kids want to be here, they want to work hard. They just want to win, that's it.”

The evidence for that came in the moments after Jefferson beat Davenport West, and the team was huddled on the field. Furrow called the team together before they ran to sing the fight song for their parents and classmates and said, simply, 'Let's go get Kennedy now.”

Because proving they're a team to be reckoned with and that they're no longer the sometimes-automatic win for opposing teams starts Thursday at Kingston Stadium.

'Everyone can feel it. We don't like Kennedy, straight up. We don't like Wash, we don't like Prairie, we don't like Kennedy,” Furrow said. 'It changes for every person, their severity of dislike for other teams, but, I mean, we don't like Kennedy and they don't like us. No one wants to lose to Jeff and we don't want to lose to anybody else. We'll see how it goes Thursday.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com