Two-a-days: West Metro preview

Tuesday’s weather forecast calls for hot and crappy, with continued hot and crappy throughout the week, so you know what that means — it’s football time in Oklahoma!

Nothing goes better with a 110-degree heat index than two-a-day football practices, and even with the crazy heat, high school kids across the state are jacked up for the start of practice on Tuesday. There seems to be quite a bit of excitement around the West Metro, and I’ll visit all five schools over the next few days.

But to get the juices flowing, here are some thoughts on big issues or interesting story lines in camp at Yukon, Mustang and the Putnam City trio:

PC West: Despite two winless seasons, there’s a genuine excitement at PC West, a type of excitement among the players that wasn’t there last season. Don’t get me wrong, last year’s team wanted to win, but heading into coach John Jensen’s fourth year, you sense the program is close to turning a corner. 

There’s a solid group of seniors leading the way, and numbers are up across the board. The offense will have a slightly different look, but Ray Young seems to be coming into his own at quarterback. He has plenty of receivers to work with, and he’s dangerous with his legs, too.

Yukon: Time for the Millers to show last year’s playoff appearance was a piece of the team’s growth rather than the peak of their progression. And though they’ve got to develop a few offensive linemen, the rest of the offense has a lot of weapons, starting with the Jones boys, QB Corben and RB Terry.

Then you’ve got the stacked WR group with guys like Kollin Retter, Kaiden Horn, Eric Granada and Derek Deeds. As long as the O-line comes along, that offense could be scary.

Steve Chard’s defense lost a lot of starters, but with guys like Jordan Edwards stepping into full-time roles, the team speed should be improved over last year.

Putnam City: There’s one big need in PC camp, and that’s the development of the run game. The Pirates feel good about the passing ability of Caleb Lee, and there’s a good group of athletic receivers to utilize. But without a run game to take some pressure off, they’ll be facing a lot more blitzing defenses with one thing on their minds.