Javin Cash, Canyon football, Sr.
On the field: It’s hard to imagine anyone having more productive an all-around game on both sides of the ball than Cash did in last week’s 44-30 win over Andrews. On the second play from scrimmage for Andrews, Cash, a starting linebacker, forced a fumble, picked it up and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown to get Canyon on the scoreboard. In that regard, it’s no surprise that Cash had 16 total tackles (including 11 solo) and an interception as a leading defender for the Eagles. What was unexpected was his contributions on offense. With quarterback Derrek Clements out with a shoulder injury suffered the previous week at Midland Greenwood, Canyon was forced to look at other options offensively, and even though Cash had never played quarterback, Canyon’s coaching staff installed a wildcat package for Cash to run the ball. Cash responded by running for 128 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries.
Coach Todd Winfrey: “When you lose a quarterback like Derrek, you make the drive home from Midland and think a million thoughts. We’ve set lofty goals and they don’t change because one person goes down. We sat around and asked what things can we do with the backup quarterbacks we have. We cut that down a little bit and asked what other options do we have. Necessity’s the mother of invention. It turned out to be a pretty good plan and we’d like to expand on it. Obviously Javin’s a heck of a linebacker and we can’t play him on every snap, so we’ve got to fine tune what our offense is. I bet we don’t throw that package away. To see his preparation and focus on both sides of the ball was a big deal. He set the mentality for our team all week. He took a different role in practice and embraced it. When he had to take that first snap in practice he dropped it, and turned around and said ‘This isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.’ ”
Cash: “That was probably the best game I’ve played in a long time. We had to put on a new formation during the week. I was kind of nervous but once the game got closer and closer I knew my O-line was going to do the job and our defense was going to do what it always does. (The fumble return) definitely brought up the energy and it was going to be one of those kinds of games for me and the team. They told me I (would run the wildcat) and I was kind of surprised. We started practicing it and it clicked and felt kind of natural. The O-line had confidence in me so I should have the utmost of confidence in them. If it worked like that against Andrews we expect it can work against other teams too. I feel like I’ll always be a defensive guy first just because I’ve played that the longest. I call the defensive signals so I’ll always have to put that first before I do anything else.”
About Cash
Favorite band or musician: Tupac
Favorite social media platform: Instagram
Favorite athlete: Ray Lewis
Bet you didn’t know: Enjoys playing video games
Parents: Ricky and Carrie Cash