Coach plans to win with running

John Yates

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.

Text Only