The Blair Oaks Falcons (3-0) --- now up to No. 2 in the state in Class 3 --- seemed destined for big things this season, but now must deal with the loss of starting quarterback Nolan Hair for the next 6-8 weeks after he suffered a hairline fracture in his lower right leg in Friday night's 34-14 win at Versailles.

"What our kids need to concentrate on is just doing their jobs, and doing it longer, harder and better than the other guys," Falcons coach Terry Walker said. "We ask them to do that week to week, anyway, so this week is no exception."

Hair, a junior and two-year starter, was injured midway through the first quarter with the Falcons leading, 16-0. It was simply a "football play," Walker said.

"When Nolan is getting tackled, every once in a while he'll try to slip the tackle with his shoulders, so he'll turn his shoulders in order to try and throw the defender. Well, he tried to do that and in so doing, he flung the defender to the back side of his body and the weight of the defender caused his leg to collapse underneath him.

"His right foot was already planted in the ground, so the lower part of his leg had nowhere to go."

When Hair left, the spirits of the Falcons seemed to leave with him.

"If you watch the game film, I'd have to say their reaction wasn't always positive," Walker said. "The kids were certainly concerned about Nolan's injury, but injuries are a part of all sports.

"We spend a lot of time talking to the kids about dealing with adversity. Well, here's a prime example."

Hair may be able to return this season, perhaps as early as Week Two of district play --- if the Falcons make it to Week Two.

"Hopefully, we can get the cast off in four or five weeks," Walker said, "then give him a couple weeks to get comfortable and feeling confident enough to do the job. Depth is always an issue at a smaller school and we're no different than anyone else. It certainly won't be plug and play, but we'll put a guy in there and hopefully everybody else will raise their level of play."

Hair has developed into a quality high school quarterback in his 16 varsity games.

"Nolan has a lot of autonomy," Walker said. "He has the ability to change the play at the line of scrimmage, he was doing pre-snap reads, he was doing post-snap reads ... those things just take time to develop. Nolan was to the point where he was really executing the offense at a high level."

Physically, the injury will take some time. Mentally, Hair is dealing with it "pretty well."

"He seems like he's doing fine, because he still anticipates playing again this year," Walker said. "A lot of that depends on his recovery --- you don't really know, because each kid heals differently. But that's certainly what we're hoping for."

Earlier, we mentioned what life's like with a lousy quarterback. Well, Hair's replacement is anything but lousy, but he's green --- freshman Cade Stockman.

"We'll simplify our offense and try to give him some easy reads and pick plays that are in his wheelhouse to execute, just like we do with all our kids," Walker said. "He can throw the football a little bit. We're not going to totally abandon everything we do, because that's not who we are."

Against Versailles, the 6-foot, 160-pound Stockman finished 10-of-19 --- and three of those nine incompletions were drops --- for 100 yards.

"Cade came in and did a really above average job, given the situation he was in --- a freshman having never played varsity," Walker said. "He was composed, he didn't look like the moment was too big for him. He's a tough kid and he's a competitor.

"If Cade wasn't capable of doing what we need him to do, we wouldn't put him in there."

Stockman's first varsity start will be anything but easy, as Shannon Jolley's seventh-ranked Eldon Mustangs (3-0) come rumbling to Wardsville with a full head of steam for Friday's 7 p.m. clash.

"They have a lot of kids coming back on both sides of the ball from last year; they're a very good football team," Walker said. "Shannon and I have become pretty good friends and of course, my brother (Steve) is down there, so I know they had high expectations for this year. Their kids are living up to them."

Eldon's defense seemed to be suspect, to say the least, after giving up a staggering 69 points to Owensville --- in a game the Mustangs won, 72-69.

But last week against a solid Southern Boone team, Eldon only allowed seven points in a 29-7 win.

Will the real defense please stand up?

"Just from watching the two game films," Walker said, "Owensville had the ability to spread them out and the ability to throw the football, and they did a good job of keeping Eldon off balance. Against Southern Boone, it looked like they were somewhat limited throwing the football, so Eldon was able to get really aggressive in the box.

"With us having a young quarterback back there, I feel quite confident they'll try to do the same thing to us."

The prospects of Hair returning this season seem good. In the meantime, the prospects aren't that bad, either.

In other words, this isn't a lost cause.

"Cade's not Nolan, Cade just needs to be Cade," Walker said. "He's the second-best quarterback we have, and he'll step in there and do a fine job.

"I feel confident the kids are going to come out Friday night and play extremely hard. At the end, that's all you can ask them to do."

Loeffler's Link

With the loss of quarterback Nolan Hair, the Blair Oaks Falcons need to circle the wagons around freshman Cade Stockman for at least the next 6-8 weeks.