HOME AWAY FROM HOME: MUSKOGEE’S FIRST-YEAR DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR GOES AGAINST HIS FORMER POST IN OPENER

Jason Sexton hadn’t checked the Twitter account he used to help find colleges for many of his former Midwest City kids. The new Muskogee defensive coordinator won’t be surprised if he sees some orneriness there or maybe a time or two in pre-game of tonight’s season opener. One year ago today, he was readying the Bombers’ defense to go against Muskogee and came out on the losing end, 16-12. He insists it will be in fun. “Wouldn’t surprise me if I hear ‘I’m coming after you coach,’ stuff like that,” he said. “When I left, I told them I loved them and they told me they loved me. They said ‘coach, do what’s best for you’ and I was like ‘always do the best for yourself.’ It’ll be good competition on both sides of the ball but no bad blood.” Sexton was at Midwest City for 14 seasons. Take these seniors, that’s four years of relationships just through the high school doors. “I know them and they know me,” Sexton said. “Defensive kids as a whole, I asked them to give up their lunch break and come down and eat and watch film. We’d drive all over the country together for camps.” And while the Bombers have a new offensive coordinator and scheme, a new defensive coordinator, and a new special teams coordinator, relationships help discover tendencies. And those are points he’s shared this week with his new unit. “He knows all the kids, he can tell us every detail about every kid and that’s an advantage we can use,” said DJ Mayes, who will use some of that knowledge both as a wide receiver and cornerback. Those things are more personality than anything. Talent is seen on film. Schemes are new, though nothing anybody in coaching hasn’t seen at some point with some team. “They’ll have new wrinkles this week just for us, things coaches do every week,” Sexton said. Close to all, he knows Jalen Redmond (6-3, 228) is a four-star recruit at one defensive end. He had 14 sacks last year. At the other is 6-4, 260 Elijah Manuel, who has also had some D1 attention. In the middle is nose guard Jaideon Hayes-Robinson (6-2, 274).Another D1 prospect is T’Aces Vick at safety. They’ll operate out of a 3-4 but they’ll also come at you with a motion to the point of the snap, similar to Stillwater in last year’s first-round playoff game for Muskogee. “I’ll say this — the defensive personnel there is as good as there is in the state of Oklahoma,” Sexton said. “From athleticism to strength, they’ve got it all. But they’ve got to put it together like we do and they’ve had to learn a different offense and defense and with the new special teams coordinator, it’s a complete flip, and that’s a lot of learning. “I expect them to be fast and aggressive and violent, not much different from the way they were last year when Muskogee won. It’s all about execution and discipline.” Sexton went against the offensive personnel in practice and saw a brief glimpse of how Paul Hix, former head coach at Moore, will operate. “Power read concepts he employs are tough to deal with because they try and make it where you can’t be right. If you fly up on the power play then the quarterback pulls and throws behind the will linebacker to a wide receiver on the seam. So we’ll have to play well. Sexton’s defense is a blitz-oriented, 4-2-5 look which Midwest City’s players will be familiar with. Except that the Bombers don’t know the players and how they react, who gets frazzled when someone gets under their skin, etc. “This offense fits them perfectly,” Sexton said. “It accentuates the athleticism. They have a really good dual threat quarterback (Preston Colbert, 1,687 yards passing as a junior), got top four rushers and top three receivers. I expect that when the season is over but hopefully not on Friday they’ll have an offense that averages in the 40s. “Generally if we can get the offensive line to not feel comfortable with all the movements we do and the blitzes and things like that we get the quarterback on the move, if you make the offensive line unsure on what their rules are based on the moves you are making, then you are ahead of the game. And that’s our intention every week is to disguise and move and blend and morph into different defenses and different blitzes and line movements.” Mayes, for one, is comfortable knowing what he knows and considers wideout Juwan Walker, their leading receiver from a year ago, the most impressive player. “They do a lot and they have a lot of talent over there,” he said. “I think we’ll be ready for anything they throw at us.”

HOME AWAY FROM HOME: MUSKOGEE’S FIRST-YEAR DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR GOES AGAINST HIS FORMER POST IN OPENER

Photo Credit: Muskogee High School Athletics

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