Submitted photos – The CR players at last weekend’s preseason scrimmage.

By Ray Hamill — Defense stole the show at last weekend’s College of the Redwoods preseason scrimmage at the Redwood Bowl, as the local community college team gets set for next week’s season opener.

The CR players and coaches have been working hard most of the summer, including three weeks of preseason practice, which began on Aug. 4.

Last weekend, the players got their first taste of action when they hosted Southern Oregon University in their annual preseason scrimmage.

And it was a good day for the Redwoods defense, which looks ready for the new season.

The scrimmage included a series of plays for each team, as well half of a game.

“We played very well defensively,” CR head coach Jason White said. “We kind of started out a little slow, like we did last year, but when we played the half of football we were really good. I was very impressed with what we did defensively.”

The linebackers in particular look ready for the new season, including a couple of former H-DNL standouts.

“We’re really deep at linebacker,” White said. “We’ve got a lot of kids that can play.”

That group includes former Fortuna Husky Cayden Wilkinson, who is in his second season with the team, and former Arcata Tiger Dayquan Dunn, who helped lead his high school team to a state championship in 2024.

Levi Walker is also back at linebacker for Redwoods this fall, with newcomer Caleb Morgan from Ashland High School looking like he can make an immediate impact at the collegiate level.

“That was a place we felt we definitely needed to improve,” White said of the linebackers. “And I feel like we’ve done that at this point.”

White and defensive coordinator Damaro Wheeler also have added some depth in the secondary with 22 defensive backs on the roster.

Offensively, however, there are a lot of newcomers on the team, with just two starters — quarterback Bryton Livingston and lineman Ethan Bunton — back from the Grizzly Bowl winning 2024 team.

And the offense is still a work in progress with CR making “a lot of mistakes” at the scrimmage, according to the coach.

Livingston is one of three quarterbacks who have been battling for the starting job, along with returner Quinton Buckland and freshman Devon Forehand out of Kennedy Catholic High in Washington.

All three have impressed the coaches during preseason practice, with White this week naming Buckland as the starter for the season opener against Sacramento City at the Redwood Bowl next Saturday.

“He’s very athletic,” White said. “And he had a great spring, so right now we’re going into our first game with Quinton as our starter.

“It was a tough battle, but we’re going to start with Quinton and see how it goes from there.”

Overall, White has been happy with what he’s seen from his players over the summer, which also included two weeks of conditioning before preseason practice began.

“The practices have been really good,” the head coach said. “We’ve maybe had one or two bad practices, but not really. 

“The attitude of our players and the culture is really good right now. It’s competitive every day.”

The biggest change for the upcoming season is the switch from the American Division to the more competitive National Division, which was announced in the spring and opens the possibility of competing for a state championship.

The team, which will play all of its home games at the Redwood Bowl once again this fall, opens against Sacramento City next Saturday at 1 p.m.

CR will also play home games this fall against Diablo Valley, Monterey Peninsula, Santa Rosa and American River.