When Dillon Wade was playing football as a fourth-grader in the local city league, he did not ask any questions when his coach told him to line up at running back.

"My coach put me there, and I said, 'Yes sir,' " he said.

Not much has changed in seven years for Wade, now a junior at Middle Tennessee Christian School.

When his current coaches decided to change offenses for the coming season, Wade never questioned their motivations or the merits of such a move even though he rushed for just shy of 1,200 yards last fall in the previous system. He simply went to work, studied the scheme and tried to figure out just how well it would work for him and for the team.

"It'll be good in the long run, I think, looking down the future for us," he said.

Exactly what it will mean to Wade this season remains to be seen.

In the new spread offense, with which coaches familiarized themselves at a couple of offseason clinics, the Cougars will use multiple-receiver sets and will throw the ball more often.

The thinking is that they won't have the size and strength on the offensive line to overpower Region 5-1A opponents and create holes for the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Wade. The idea, therefore, is to make the opposition respect the pass ? or at least the threat of it ? get defenders to back away from the line of scrimmage and create running lanes that way.

"We're going to try to open up the passing game some and get some pressure off our line to open up the holes," Wade said. " I think that's our goal."

A year ago, playing as an independent, the Cougars made no secret about their plans. In a season-opening victory against Zion Christian Academy, Wade was one of two MTCS players who rushed for better than 100 yards. Two weeks later against Community ? one of this season's region foes ? he was limited to fewer than 50 yards yet the Cougars rolled up more than 200 rushing yards and passed only three times. By season's end, Wade was the area's leading rusher, regardless of classification, with 1,174 yards.

"Getting over 1,000 yards was surprising, but we were all confident," he said. "And we're going try to do it again this year."

http://www.dnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? - AID=/20070823/SPORTS08/708230311