MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week: Niceville football

Forget the school name for a moment. The Eagles from Niceville can't be all that kind. Not on the football field anyway.

Football players simply don't have that nice reputation. They are traditionally rough and tumble and tough.

But these Eagles, despite the assumed niceties, are ranked the No. 9 team in Florida and after a 28-21 win at Fort Walton Beach they are 8-0.

For their perfect record — and a 336-86 point differential on the season — the Eagles are the MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week, presented by the Florida National Guard.

"We are fortunate to a have a solid group of seniors who truly lead our football team," said assistant coach Adron Robinson. "We have had many players contribute offensively, defensively and scoring. We do have offensive and defensive players that have stood out, but our success thus far has been a team effort, from our players and coaches, our band, our fans and the our student section, which is one of the best nationwide."

In the win over Fort Walton Beach, Tyre McCants rushed 11 times for 138 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead the way. He got 101 yards rushing on 23 carries from running back mate Tayjon Culley.

Junior Drew Frederic also rushed for a touchdown on one of his nine carries for 65 yards. All told, Niceville piled up 298 yards rushing and with an efficient passing game — junior quarterbacks John Secord and Frederic were a combined 8-of-9 for 69 yards, the Eagles remained perfect.

Cody Moore earned Defensive Player of the Game honors for recording one of his team's three interceptions along with Eli Stove and Austin Willis.

Zach Bailey was once again perfect on his PAT attempts — 4-for-4 — making him 40-for-41 on the season, the second most PATs in the state.

Culley leads the team in rushing with 703 yards and eight touchdowns on just 111 carries, while McCants is second with seven rushing touchdowns on just 28 carries and 347 yards.

The team's starting quarterback, Ashton Hooker, has missed the last two games with a hand injury, but has still completed 85 of 124 (69 percent) for 1,218 yards and nine touchdowns. He's also rushed for 358 yards and five scores.

"Fort Walton Beach is an in-county rivalry so motivation was not a problem," said head coach John Hicks. "The biggest challenge was to prepare without our starting quarterback and center. We ended up using three quarterbacks with Tyre McCants being more of a wildcat quarterback. They all did a good job."

McCants, the state's No. 97 recruit according to 247Sports.com, is also the team's top receiver with 31 catches for 377 yards and four touchdowns, followed by Jalen Douglas (25 catches, 362 yards).

The Eagles fly all over the field on defense and are led by a trio of tacklers in Austin Willis (57 tackles), Zantiago Zamora (55) and Jacob Clark (50).

Under Hicks, the Eagles have won 84 games since 2004, with a 13-1 campaign in 2009 and 12-2 season in 2005. They won their only 4A state championship in 1988.

"When you have had good teams year after year it is sometimes hard to make them hungry," said Hicks. "This group has the desire to be great. They won’t settle for good. I just hope injuries don’t stop us from achieving our goals."

If Hooker gets healthy, this team could make history.

And that's not just being nice.