The sophomore wide receiver wore 82 during varsity games and 4 during freshman games a year ago. He fashioned 80 Friday.
His preference is 1, which he last displayed as an eighth-grader. Long story short, 1 is currently not available.
“it's my go-to,” Easley said. “But the red (1) jersey got lost. (We discovered) it a few weeks ago before picture day. I have no clue (what happened). We ordered another one and it should be here soon.”
The hope is FedEx or UPS will deliver the 1 jersey in time for Ozark’s upcoming season-opener versus Willard.
"We're working on getting the jersey back,” coach Jeremy Cordell said. “It’s coming. It could be here next week.”
Easley was in fine form wearing 80. He finished with a handful of catches opposite Kickapoo and Nixa and factored on an Ozark touchdown run against the Chiefs.
“I don't have a problem with (80),” Easley said.
Easley was on the receiving end of multiple passes from quarterback Peyton Russell out of the Tigers’ run-pass-option set. Russell repeatedly ran toward Easley and flung a bubble screen pass to him, setting Easley up to make defenders miss and gain yardage after a catch.
On other occasions, Russell kept the ball and found room to run upfield.
“It's kind of like a triple option,” Russell said. “That's a fun play. It's very unpredictable. It’s not very hard to read and is usually wide open. You’re reading your first read-key, I'm seeing if anyone is on me. If no one is one me I'll pull it and run. If someone is on me, it's a spit-out (to a receiver).”
"It's unpredictable, which is why it's really good,” Easley said.
“It’s triple-option football in space,” Cordell said.
Naturally, it’s taken Russell a while to get accustomed to throwing on the run.
"At first, it was a little chaotic,” Russell said. “(I was) either hitting them right on their chest or it was going over their head. Now we're getting consistent with it and it's a good play for us. It’s about having your body centered, not being off platform or sporadic. You're under control.”
"It's like anything else, you rep it every day and you get good at it,” Cordell said. “If that's something you do, you need to do it well, simply it, rep it and make it your own. When you can play fast and free, you tend to make more plays. That’s what it comes down to.”
Against Kickapoo, a 20-yard pass-and-run from Russell to Easley set up a three-yard touchdown run by wideout Anthony Cordell. On an end-around, Cordell followed blocks in the open field by Easley and wideout Taygen Scott.
“I did my job on the outside ‘backer, taking him to the left side and Taygen took the corner to the right side and we made a gap — easy touchdown,” Easley said.
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