Three Points and a Pick: Douglass at Tulsa Washington

In case you missed it, here’s my story from Friday’s paper about the renewing of the Douglass-Tulsa Washington football rivalry. It’s been awhile since I had that much fun doing interviews for a story. Talking to guys like Stanford White, C.T. Wells and others was a blast.

Now to the game.

Three Points

1. No Re-Ward. My prediction, based solely on my knowledge of OSSAA rules, not any type of inside information, is that D.J. Ward will be back at Douglass before the season ends, but he won’t be there with the team tonight. Willis Alexander isn’t the type of coach to look at something as a negative. He always finds the positive in a situation. So he isn’t worrying about Ward’s absence at defensive end and tight end. But it will make a difference. Johnny Jones likely moves back to DE, though he had impressed the team at linebacker in the preseason.

2. Highlighting Clark. Washington can pay a little closer attention to Deondre Clark at the other end now, without Ward, which will make life a little tougher for him. But he’s still an incredibly gifted player who had double-digit sacks without Ward last year. Of course, he didn’t have to face many Class 6A-level offensive lines. Clark moved to fullback on offense, but the team probably needs him more at tight end now to fill Ward’s void. But did the Trojans have enough time to make that shift in practice with just a couple days to work on it? Possibly. Clark knows the TE position, and Terry Harris was already playing a lot of fullback.