The Sulphur football team had another successful spring, as the Dogs look to return to the state playoffs and build off last year’s success.
Sulphur attended a team camp in late May, competing in a one-day event at Southeastern in Durant against McAlester, Broken Bow and Durant.
The Dogs are coming off of an 8-4 season and state quarterfinal appearance.
“Team camp was another huge success for us,” said Sulphur head coach Corey Cole. “We changed it up a little this year and went back to Southeastern. We also did just one day instead of two and went a little longer.”
“Our kids got tons of reps, which was great. All of the work you put into spring ball just makes it even better to go compete against and hit someone else. Our kids got more reps than we could ever want.”
The Dogs loved the competition, as Cole cited being the smallest school of the four gives his team a great look.
“McAlester is always one of best teams in 5A and Durant has had some of the best players in the state the last few years. Broken Bow always has talent and is hard nosed,” he said. “We like being the smallest school there. Our kids were able to compete at a high level and I was really proud of the maturity they showed. We accomplished a lot, grew as the day went on and got better and better with each rep.”
One of Cole’s big takeaways from the scrimmage was how well the Sulphur defense played, especially the secondary.
“Defensively, we have a chance to be really good,” he said. “Of course our front seven gets a lot of credit but the secondary was very aggressive, they challenged people, we mixed some coverages and just made it hard on the opposing offenses. I thought our guys back there competed really, really well.”
Cole talked about the importance of that group that includes safeties Maddax Boyd and Eli Vinson, as well as corners Briar Davenport, Bridge Barrett, Nick McGill, Keller Eidelman and Drake Wood.
“You have to have a great secondary and it has to be a confident group,” Cole said. “Coach (Aury) Barrett and the kids did a tremendous job. Our corners were aggressive, the safeties played great. I thought Briar had an outstanding camp at corner. I thought Vinson and Boyd both played well. We are getting Nick McGill back after being out for a couple of years. He has settled in nicely. And then I thought Keller and Drake both did a good job with Bridge being out due to injury.”
The Dogs back end allowed just one big play during a slew of snaps, which gives Cole a lot of confidence to go with the rest of the defense and all of the returners in the front seven.
“We gave up only one big play the entire night and we played about 100 snaps defensively, so that is pretty good,” he said. “On the first snap of the scrimmage, Eli Vinson picked a pass off and that sort of set the tone for us back there and on defense.”
“Our defensive line has a chance to be way good, and we have all three of our linebackers returning. It’s often easy to blame the secondary for big plays but I have been very pleased with the way they have played. They have been screaming to the ball and coming up to make plays on passes that are completed short. They haven’t been passive at all.”
On offense, the Dogs are still working to implement new coordinator Channing Hickman’s spread offense, which will take some time.
But Cole liked some of what he saw at team camp.
“We got better as the night went on and that’s expected when you are installing a new system,” he said. “We are going to spread people out and lean on the RPO game. I thought we were good considering we’ve had only eight practices in the new offense. To go out and have some success against someone else that isn’t our JV or second team, doing it against another team that’s going as hard as we were on defense, that makes you feel good.”
Sulphur returns quarterback Colten Cole, who started as a sophomore a year ago, and saw some new elements of his game on display in Durant.
“Colten ran for two or three touchdowns and even ran over a couple of guys, which is something we didn’t see a lot of last year,” Cole said. “He has changed his body a lot in the offseason and you can tell. He didn’t throw it well early but then settled in passing wise and made some good throws. We had a lot of guys play well in the passing game.
Davenport caught a touchdown from Cole, as did Jett Runyan at tight end. Vinson also had two scores on the night.
Cole was also impressed with the running game and the work of the offensive line.
“Austin Garrett and Cash (Matlack) both ran well,” Cole said. “We held (Maddax) Mobly out with an injury. We also had Baer Webb out, so we were missing some guys on offense but I thought we got better as the night went along. The offensive line has a chance to be great for us. They went out and competed. The good thing for them was that they got a lot of different looks and that will only make us better.”
As the Dogs shift focus, Cole and his program now hit the dog days of summer, which is arguably the most important time of the year.
“They all have a great taste in their mouths and are ready to go,” he said. “We have had four workouts since team camp and attendance has been great, the excitement is great, and our kids are attacking every workout like its 4th quarter of the state title game. They know everything we do has to be of that mindset.”
“We preach to them to have a belief in our system, our culture, their teammates and their coaches. Ultimately, we have to have belief in ourselves to go do something special. That’s our motto this year is to believe, It’s early in summer and there is a long way to go but I am really proud of the start we have had in May and June.”
