Northside’s Josh Adkins doesn’t mind being aggressive on the football field.

Adkins, the Grizzlies’ starting senior right guard, also doesn’t mind driving back the player lined up on the other side from him.

?(Football is) pretty much the only legal way you can actually hit somebody and for me at least, it’s a huge stress reliever. ... It’s a way to get away from everything,” Adkins said.

?(I like) driving the guy right in front of me.”

Two weeks ago, Adkins was in quite an ornery mood. The Grizzlies were set to face Little Rock Central a week after suffering their only defeat, a rain-shortened loss to Bryant.

So Adkins knew this was going to be a must-win situation when the Grizzlies went to Central. He more than did his part as Northside rolled to a 35-7 win.

“Coming off that Bryant game, I had a bad taste in my mouth and I was out for revenge,” Adkins said.

“I was driving (the Central player lined up opposite of Adkins) 3 yards out of the play every time for Deuce (Wise, the Grizzlies’ quarterback) and it worked out really well.”

It’s also worked out well for Adkins on the right side of the line. He played center as a junior last season but was moved to right guard.


“It’s the best thing that could have happened,” Adkins said. “For me at least, right guard is a lot more comfortable and it’s a way I can use my skills to the best use.

“I enjoyed being a right guard at Chaffin (where he attended junior high school) a little bit, so the switch was easy for me and I was happy with it.”

Adkins (6-foot-1, 320 pounds) also gives the Grizzlies an imposing right side of the offensive line, as he is lined up next to right tackle Stevie Young, who goes 6-3 and weighs nearly 300 pounds.

“With Josh and Stevie on that right side, we feel real confident that we can move the ball running behind those two,” Northside offensive line coach David Little said. “Both of them have started there the last couple of years and they do their job well.”

Little agrees with Adkins that the move from center to right guard has been beneficial.

“I think it’s gone really well for him and it’s gone well for our team,” Little said. “He started out as a center, but in our scheme, our guards are very, very important to push the line of scrimmage forward and he’s really good at doing that.

“We found out when he was a sophomore, that he’s a guy that can get good hip level and when he locks on to people, he moves them and he does a good job of that.”


With a bevy of playmakers on the offensive skill positions, the Grizzlies’ line (also consisting of left tackle Alex Bustillo, left guard Zach Stephens and center Jacob Arnold) is being heavily counted on to help create holes.

But Little said while there’s not really a ton of pressure on the line to make holes, they still put in the work to make sure that it happens.

“We’re not perfect, but with the guys that we have in the backfield and our skill guys, sometimes we don’t have to be perfect, we just need to be good because they can do the rest,” Little said. “But our goal is to be perfect; we’re not there by any means, but we’ve got some kids that work hard.”

Adkins, who admittedly is a huge Miami Dolphins fan because of their legendary quarterback Dan Marino, is ready to line up again today in another pivotal 7A-Central game as the Grizzlies travel to Conway in a match-up between two 5-1 squads.

“They’ve got some big nose guards but they’re always fast and strong,” Adkins said. ”(Conway) is a big team and they’re always going to be a big team and they’re always going to have talent, too.

“No matter what system you run, it starts with the o-line, it starts with that snap. If you don’t have that o-line, your quarterbacks and your halfbacks, they’re not going to get much room to run.”


