Today’s interviewee is Loganville coach Brad Smith, whose team defeated Walton County rival Monroe Area 45-39 in four overtimes Friday. Video of the game’s biggest play – a no-look, over-the-head pass that set up the winning touchdown – went viral over the weekend. With the game tied 39-39, Loganville had a third-and-7 at the Monroe Area 13-yard line. Fullback Connor O’Neill, a senior recruited from the student body and playing in his first football game, threw the pass with his back to the receiver and goal line. Tight end Josh Rudder caught it and got the first down inside the 1-yard line, where Mason Lawson scored. The video, taken by Loganville freshman Austin Davis, first appeared on TikTok but quickly spread, eventually making ESPN’s top plays.
1. What are the origins of the play? “If you go back and look at old-school wing-T from the 1950s, it’s called a flap jack play. Our defensive coordinator, Ryan Angel, pitched me on it. He ran it last year at Ola High School, and he showed me a clip of it and another one that Tucker Pruitt ran at Fitzgerald last year. I said that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, and he said it’s just crazy enough to work, and that’s how we left it. But we’re always showing things at practice, and it was just an end-of-practice thing from the goal line. We practiced it a total of three times, and it only worked once out of three. And it was always at the 2-yard line, never from the 13 on third down and seven.”
2. Why did you decide to call it at that particular moment in the game? “We were just watching the series as a staff, and we had a couple of missed blocks and lost two yards on first down. We ran another play and got five. We’re sitting third-and-7. On the previous play, I watched their safety on the front side streak up and make a play on the run, and I said, ‘Man, they’re biting on it. So let’s do it. We don’t have anything to lose.’ I told the kids and coaches, and they kind of stared at me, like, ‘Are you serious?’ So I called a timeout. The kids didn’t even want to run it. They wanted to run the ball again. They said, ‘We’ll get the first down.’ And I said, ‘I’ve got so much faith in you, this is going to work.’ And the rest is history. It wasn’t intended to score. We just wanted to flip it over their heads. They didn’t bite as much as I hoped, but they never saw the pass. The linebacker froze. Our tight end did a great job and split the safeties and tracked the ball and caught it.”
3. The player who threw it, Connor O’Neill, how could this be his first game? And why put the game in the hands of a rookie? “Well, that’s a heck of a way to go. You go viral in your first game ever. He’s just been a big kid who’s been a student here. We talked him into playing. His uncle [Bernard Merriweather] is on our staff, the running backs coach, and we’ve been poking and prodding him. We’re trying to grow the program. He leads our student section in basketball. He’s always involved in things. He wasn’t going to play a lot, but he’s the hype man on our sideline. He embraced the role. The thought process on this play was that he’s got a little swagger to him, an air, and that whatever the moment was, it wouldn’t be too big for him. We never knew that it would be against our archrival on a key down, but he was the one practicing it, so there was no changing it now.”
4. What’s been the reaction to this play? How many people have asked you about it? “It’s been crazy. Barstool Sports is where it started. ‘Pardon My Take’ reached out to me. My cousin, [Georgia wide receiver] Ladd McConkey, he called last night and said Coach [Kirby] Smart showed it in the team meeting, and our coaches couldn’t believe that. It was wild. My buddy [Josh Stepp] coaches wide receivers at Louisville, and they showed it. Coach [Andrew] Thacker [defensive coordinator] at Georgia Tech texted me, and Grant Chestnut [offensive coordinator] at Kennesaw State, saying just how much guts it takes. But it’s not my moment, so I’m not trying to take credit. It’s those kids. Loganville is getting some publicity, it’s neat for our kids. I’m really happy for them.”
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