Scrimmages: Week 1 review...

By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com

Whew, time to take a breath and relax. It’s been a busy, busy time at HQ working on all our high school football previews, but I think you’re going to like what you see come Friday and Sunday.

It feels like we can finally start concentrating on the work at hand instead of all the craziness that came with the previews.

So with that being said, I was at Putnam West on Thursday for the Patriots, Deer Creek and Capitol Hill. And Friday hit up Carl Albert for the Titans, Del City and Owasso.

Three thoughts from Thursday:

1. I like PC West’s Johnny Smith…a lot. The problem for the Patriots the last couple of seasons has been their lack of size. And true, this team doesn’t have a lot of beasts like Smith, but he adds a lot. Smith was dominant against the Antlers and Redskins. He adds another dimension to go with Ray Young.

2. It is incredibly strange to watch the MTV crew follow the PC West team around. It took me about 20 minutes to snap out of it and just do my job. By the way, as Scott Wright reported earlier, nobody with the team or the school is allowed to comment about the documentary being shot. It’s the elephant in the room whenever you talk to those kids. Definitely see a little pep in the step because of it.

3. As someone who has been on the Colten Sander bandwagon since he was a sophomore, it was good to see the Deer Creek senior looking like himself again. That first run was about a 20-yard carry, and you can see all the explosiveness back. But he’s so much bigger than the kid I remember asking ‘what’s your name’ to at a Tecumseh scrimmage two years ago.