FULTON - The sights will be familiar for Trey Barrow when he steps on the field at Larry K. Noel Stadium.
The faces of friends and family members will be sprinkled throughout the bleachers. The field itself - where he starred as a three-way standout for the Moberly Spartans - is one he's traipsed up and down many times before.
But it will be a new sideline and objective he's both manning and trying to attain. When Barrow - now the head coach of the Fulton Hornets - looks across the field prior to today's 7 p.m. kickoff, he'll see colors he used to wear and faces he used to play for and with.
And while that nostalgia still lingers, Barrow sees Moberly as something else - an obstacle standing between him and his first head coaching victory.
"I don't care who it comes against, I'm ready to get one," said Barrow, a 2008 Moberly graduate. "The team is ready, they're hungry as well. They want to win. The effort has been there, the attitude has been there, we just have to execute."
For Fulton (0-3, 0-1 North Central Missouri Conference), glimpses of that execution shone through - late as it was - in last week's 42-19 home loss to Kirksville in the conference opener. The Tigers scored on six-of-seven first-half possessions before the Hornets found their offensive footing thanks to a rejuvenated rushing attack.
After gaining a meager 36 yards against Southern Boone, the duo of senior Taeon Logan and junior Zaylin McNeil racked up the bulk of the Hornets' 222 yards on the ground last week.
"I thought our line did an alright job up front against Kirksville's D-line," Barrow said. " We were physical up front."
Logan finished with 140 yards rushing on 15 touches, but it was McNeil's seven carries for 90 yards and two scores that sparked a Fulton offense trying to piece some forward momentum for senior wide receiver-turned-quarterback Garrett Johnson."(Logan and McNeil) work well as a tandem," Barrow said. " They're two athletically gifted players, and Zaylin likes to bounce it outside like Taeon did when I first met him, which can be a positive when you're in space."
After a week as the presumed starter and taking first-team reps, Barrow looked to get Johnson's confidence going early against Kirksville by calling a couple of screen passes and a few deep routes.
"Garrett has a good arm, now we're working on footwork in the pocket and timing," Barrow said. " He's worked on the footwork and on our zone read, he's worked on pulling it and throwing it, and that's a bit of complicated footwork for a quarterback who has never done it."
The late push from the Hornets' offense came about due in large part to a defense seeing its most balanced opponent to date. Of Kirksville's 438 yards of total offense, 228 came through the air via a mix of intermediate and deep throws against the Fulton secondary.
Kirksville's concerted effort to stretch the field didn't catch the Hornets off-guard, though it did provide the defense a glimpse into some areas in which it can shore up its approach going forward.
"We did some alright things on defense, but we did make some mistakes that cost us big at times," Barrow said. "We had a defensive back forget his zone, then, all of a sudden, it's a 65-yard touchdown. We need to limit those mistakes so it's not a 60-yard gain, but six."
Moberly (2-1) - which will be playing its NCMC opener tonight - sports an offensive philosophy that will look similar to what Fulton saw in its opener against School of the Osage. Sophomore quarterback Dominic Stoneking directs the Spartans, who run a two-back, one tight end set that features veer, power and triple-option looks to go along with some run-pass option mixed in.
Moberly's offensive line is a solid unit in Barrow's opinion, meaning the Hornets' defenders will need to keep their heads on a swivel to impede the running spaces the Spartans will try to create.
"Their O-line is good, they know where they're going, and they execute their blocks," Barrow said. "So, we'll need to be ready to fill all those gaps at the line of scrimmage.
Defensively, Moberly runs a 4-2-5 look and has mostly stayed in that set against wing-based and spread teams it has faced. Barrow predicts the Spartans may walk their safeties up to the line of scrimmage to even out the front against Fulton's running game, another wrinkle the Hornets saw at Osage.
"We're going to have to prove, just like we have the last two weeks, that we can pass before they honor it," Barrow said. "By this weekend, I think we'll be at a point where we're ready to do something."
Asked about his favorite moment at Noel Stadium, Barrow mentioned - by coincidence - the 2007 meeting between the Hornets and the Spartans. Both teams came in undefeated and state-ranked, but Moberly came away with the decisive victory.
Should it occur tonight, Barrow's first win as a head coach would almost certainly have to rank among those great moments on that field he knows so well.
Related Media: Fulton Hornets Football Podcast [Moberly preview, Sept. 14, 2018]