New McAlester High School head football coach Bryan Pratt favors a one-back offense, a 3-3 defense andconsiders special teams an equal element of the game.
He talked about his coaching philosophy in an interview after being hired by the McAlester Schools’ Board of Education, and he had a glowing recommendation from superintendent Dr. Lucy Smith.
“I’m a one-back offensive guy.” Pratt said of his offensive style. That’s with it in the shotgun about 85-90 percent of the time.
The offense is with the quarterback making reads and running the ball a lot, throwing the ball and play action.
“Obviously, we’re going to run the football. Running the football is where you win football games.”
He stated the team will try to be balanced, and that they will try to get the ball in as many people’s hands as possible.
His defensive scheme will be one the Buffaloes have experience with, and one Pratt — who comes to McAlester from South Grand Prairie school system in Texas where he was defensive coordinator — has been using for several years.
“Defensively, we’re a 3-3, which they ran here last year.”
Pratt has been running that defense for the last four years at South Grand Prairie.
From the coach’s college days, Todd Graham was his defensive coordinator at East Central University, who is now the head coach at Rice. Graham used the 3-3 at Tulsa and at West Virginia.
“We got to speak at eight clinics this year, on that defense, because we’ve been running it for longer.”
He said the defense was kind of new to a lot of people, and they have learned some of the mistakes that people just starting out are running into.
“A lot of speed. A lot of excitement, running to the football.”
He feels it will be exciting for those coming to a game.
Another element Pratt stresses heavily, is special teams. He considers it worthy of equal status with the offense and defense.
“I’m a big special-teams guy,” he said.
“That’s a phase of the game that we can win.”
He went further than most coaches in relating that of offense, defense and special teams, you can win the vast majority of games if you win any two of those three areas.
Sports
Coach plans to win with running
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City deer spotted out of season
Friday afternoon, while driving on West Jackson in McAlester, I noticed two females who appeared to be lost.
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Mcalester Summer tennis, swimming programs set
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Eastern to host 40th annual Kiamichi All-Star Classic From submitted reports
Eastern Oklahoma State College will host the 40th annual Kiamichi All-Star Classic sports competition Saturday in Wilburton.
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Top MHS athletes earn senior honors
At the annual senior assembly held last week, the Outstanding Senior Athletes for McAlester High School were named, this year in a dozen sports.
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McAlester High School baseball team head to state tournament
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Buffaloes to end baseball season with Cougars
McAlester clinched the district championship with their final district game win, but will not have an “A” game with Ada to close out the regular season on Monday.
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Day of golf to support Eufaula Ironheads
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McAlester United soccer season continues
Teams for the McAlester United Soccer league played on Thursday and Friday as overall the league is preparing for the Oklahoma Soccer Association sanctioned state tournament known as the Kohl’s Cup to be played in Lawton April 28 and 29.
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McAlester baseball drops grinding game to Duncan
At the end of a long and grinding baseball game that was the fourth in as many days for the fifth ranked Buffaloes, the home team for McAlester found themselves behind on the scoreboard 3-7.
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Buffs baseball crushes Lawton MacArthur
There wasn’t much doubt about the outcome of the game after three innings of Buff baseball on Thursday night in the late game of day two in the McAlester Shootout tournament at Mike Deak Field.
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