'Long wingspan, great punch, strong base': Banks looks to end two-year playoff drought at Summer Creek

The Summer Creek High football team is largely pinning its hopes of ending a two-year playoff drought on the broad shoulders of 6-foot-5-inch, 300-pound offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr.

“Banks has a long wingspan, a great punch, a strong base and a physical nature about how he plays,” Rivals posted on its Twitter page about the University of Oregon recruit.

With the Bulldogs’ quarterback situation still iffy and new offensive coordinator Bruce Swinton in his first season, Banks is being looked to carve out space for star running Torrie Curry and emerging wideout Andrew Alexander to have a chance to do what they do.

“The process is going good,” Alexander told the Houston Chronicle. “The last few years we haven’t been productive as an offense. Now that we have this new scheme, we’re working together and helping each other out to get the offense down.”

Much of the responsibility falls to Banks, ranked the No. 2 offensive tackle in the country and No. 14 recruit overall by MaxPreps and already drawing comparisons to Miami Dolphins star Austin Jackson.

With three-year starting back Bryan Bush gone, junior Jahik Jones and North Shore transfer sophomore Darius Clark-James are battling for the job.

Again, Alexander likes what he sees in the early going.

“They’re doing pretty good,” he said. “They’re learning the system just like everyone else is. They both have done a good job so far in practice. The coaches will do what’s best for the team. Everyone on offense is learning and we like the new system. We just have to make sure we do our jobs and on game day we will see (it) on the scoreboard."

On defense, Rocky Jack leads a unit that returns all four linemen and linebacker Julian Ortiz.

“I think we can be one of the best defenses in the state,” Jack said. “We just have to come out and prove it each game. I expect a lot from our team. We want to get better every day we come out to practice.”

Back in 2018 in coach Kenny Harrison’s first season at the school, the Bulldogs advanced to the Class 6A Division II regional semifinals for the first time in school history.