The practices will heat up in July for Mexico football, but the Bulldogs had some time on a field in late June.

Meixco, North Callaway at California 7-on-7s Photo Gallery

On June 28, the Bulldogs participated in a seven-on-seven drill session that involved North Callaway, Eldon and California in California. Before it will be able to practice with helmets and pads next month, Mexico had the chance to see its athletes in action in the spot former defensive coordinator Kenny Grubb will make his home as the Pintos’ new head football coach.

“That’s one reason we came is he invited us,” head coach Steve Haag said. “He’ll do well as he is a good coach and was very valuable to our program in the nine years he was there. He’ll be missed. You want assistants to move on and be head coaches. If they want to do that, you help them in any way you can.”

Haag said he wishes Grubb and California good luck in the upcoming season as the Bulldogs shouldn’t see the Pintos this season. He believes Mexico will have good fortune on the defensive side of the ball now that Travis Simmons has taken over the playcalling on that side of the ball.

Simmons and the Bulldogs’ defensive unit had plenty of opportunities to try out their pass coverage as the rules of the seven-on-seven dictated that. Haag said the offensive units were only able to pass while defensives were prevented from pass rushing with contact being at a minimum at this point of the year. 

In the past, Mexico has been a run-heavy team with its flex bone offense. Now the Bulldogs will have a new quarterback after the graduation of Ty Sims, Haag said it was a good opportunity to try out new arms and see the Bulldogs’ passing offense and defense.

“We don’t throw the ball a ton on Friday nights,” Haag said. “This is something that we do that helps us defensively to see pass routes because a lot of teams pass. We don’t, but we still get to see that defensively. We get to work our pass routes as well. Maybe we look at it out here and say, ‘Oh, we don’t like that’ or ‘Hey, we like it.’”

Haag said the informal nature of the session gives Mexico at least something to observe on film as the Bulldogs prepare for its next big preseason event. They have an 11-on-11 scrimmage event scheduled at Quincy University at 5 p.m. July 20.

“We apply some of this and then we’ll start implementing our run game,” Haag said. “Hopefully, by the 20th, when we go to Quincy, we’ll have a lot of our stuff in and then we’ll get some contact.”

Haag said Mexico is careful not to schedule too many seven-on-seven sessions to avoid cutting into other sports as there were several Bulldogs on the field at California that play multiple sports. A couple include Charlie Fisher and Kaden Benne, who have already spent some time this summer at basketball shootouts. 

Having the session still is valuable in developing a new team to complement the time they’ll spend in the weight room.

“It’s an opportunity to get out, run around, sweat a little bit, build a little team camaraderie and go from there,” Haag said.