The Clinton Red Devils graduated 25 seniors off of their 2022 team that did not lose a game until they lost to eventual 3A state runner-up Powdersville in the Upper State Championship game. One of those seniors was quarterback Austin Copeland and his backup Bryce Young, who filled in for several games at the end of the season was set to take on the starting role.
Then Young decided not to play football.
“We have a ‘next man up’ mentality around here,” said Clinton head coach Corey Fountain, who is in his fifth year leading the Red Devil program. “(Richardson) has a certain calmness about him on the field. He’s able to extend plays when they break down which is really what you look for in a quarterback.”
This isn’t just any team Richardson has led to 4-0 start. It’s the Clinton Red Devils and their long tradition of playing great football. The team with some of the most die-hard fans you can find, as evidenced by the random shouts of “Go Big Red!” from vehicles as they pass by the practice field along Highway 72.
The shouts don’t faze Richardson, much like the outside noise around the program doesn’t faze the junior.
“All summer people were saying that Clinton wasn’t going to be good this year because of the players we lost,” Richardson said. “We trying to prove them wrong and keep proving them wrong every week.”
The Red Devils are indeed proving the naysayers wrong, steam rolling to a 4-0 record and looking every bit as dangerous as the 2022 team that laid waste to all but one opponent. They have scored no less than 42 points in the first four games of the season and have given up seven points or less in three of the four contests. Richardson and his steady demeanor are a big reason for that dominance.
“When you study a lot of film, you know the game plan, you execute the game plan in practice then you feel prepared,” Fountain said of his quarterback. “When you feel prepared then you are a little more calm when the game rolls around.”
Richardson has been more the storm than the calm before it in his attack of opposing defenses. The 5-foot-11, 160-pound junior is completing 68 percent of his passes for 484 yards, with eight touchdowns and just one interception. Add to that 236 rushing yards and three scores on the ground and it’s easy to see why Richardson was ranked sixth in the SK Media Lakelands Top Quarterbacks preseason list.
The addition of a prolific passing attack to a Red Devils running game that had three 1,000-yard rushers last season may make Clinton an even tougher out in 2023 than it was in 2022. It’s that multifaceted attack that Richardson believes will carry his team to the promised land.
“We’ve still got the guys to be a good team this year,” Richardson said. “We are more versatile this year and we can get if done in a lot more ways.”