Red Level’s going to face one of the, if not, most athletic and fast football teams in McKenzie on Friday night.

RLS head football coach David Godwin said it begins with Nacarius Peterson, who is a Division 1 recruit, who is seeing offers from South Alabama and Troy.

“They do a tremendous job getting the ball to their athletes in space and try to let them work,” the coach said.

Red Level is coming off a 16-12 loss to Pleasant Home last week to start Class 1A, Region 2 play.

RLS did well in guarding the pass with its fast secondary, minus a couple of passes from Eagles freshman quarterback Garrett Barton.

“I was proud of them,” Godwin said of the secondary’s effort. “(Tray Atkins) took the interception back for the touchdown. He ran it back, but what other people didn’t see was that there were a lot of people blocking their fanny off getting him to the end zone.”

While that may have been a good game for his defense, Godwin said he still isn’t “satisfied” with where they’re at.

“I do feel like we can play defense with whoever lines up there,” he said. “We’ve got some offensive struggles that we are addressing, which we’ll probably continue to address for the remainder of the year.”

For this week, Godwin said his Tigers need to be “assignment ready,” especially in the defensive back field.

“Our outside linebackers and corners have got to have proper leverage when they get outside on us,” he said. “We need to recognize formations and plays that come out of the formations.

“We’ve got to have 11 people running to the ball,” he said. “They may start right and end up left. So, we need to play until the whistle stops.”

Defensively, MKHS runs out of a 3-4 scheme.

“They send a lot of linebackers,” Godwin said. “The secondary is more of a man to man with one free safety. They send linebackers on every play. They’ll make you throw it. They’re not going to sit back and watch you make a play.”

Last week, RLS was plagued with penalties on both sides of the ball.

Godwin said the team will focus on the penalties that were committed and those they can overcome in tough situations.

“We have to be good enough no matter what the down and distance it is, and what situation we’re in to make the plays necessary to overcome any mistakes that we make,” he said.

Game time Friday night is at 7 in McKenzie.

Godwin said he hopes a big crowd will turn out for another road game as they did last week at PHS.

“It’s important for these guys to feel the crowd support,” he said. “Our community and school spirit — I’ve been real pleased with that. Our kids deserve to see that.”