The McKenzie Tigers have 11 seniors returning this year and head coach Miles Brown said those upperclassmen made themselves heard on Thursday when the team strapped on pads for the first time.

“We had a great practice,” said Brown. “We had a lot of leadership shown by our seniors. They were being a little more directive in handling things…making sure everyone had great intensity. That’s a good deal.”

The Tigers finished 10-2 last year. Athlete Emmanuel Johnson totaled 3,400 all-purpose yards as a junior last season and committed in July to play for Southern Miss when he graduates in 2011.

Johnson will do a little bit of everything for McKenzie, but Brown is counting on Johnson’s brother, Sir Wallace Presley, to give the Tigers’ steady play from the quarterback position. He will take over for departed senior Calvin Henderson.

Presley is a junior.

“He’s (Presley) looking like a first-year starting quarterback,” said Brown. “But he had a good spring and a good summer. I’m trying not to put a lot of pressure on him and bring him along slowly. We’ve got a lot of good skill people around him, which is going to help him out.”