Football time is right around the corner and it can’t come fast enough for Sulphur.
The Dogs will start football practice in just about a month, as they look to build off a very successful 8-4 season that ended in the Class 3Astate quarterfinals.
Sulphur returns many starters, as the Dogs look poised to make an even deeper postseason run.
The Dogs were 6-1 in district last year, finishing as runner-up to Heritage Hall, who lost in the state championship game.
Sulphur fell in the quarterfinals to eventual state champion Lincoln Christian.
After losses to Washington and Davis to open the season, the Dogs responded with six straight wins and eight victories in nine games, including a 42-7 win over Kingfisher in the first round of the playoffs.
Sulphur returns almost all its talent on both sides of the ball, and expectations are high once again.
Over the next month, as we prepare for the season, we will have a bunch of preview coverage coming out. We will look at the schedule, the offense, the defense and more.
Up next is the back half of the schedule preview, as we take a look at the Dogs final five regular season games in 2024.
The schedule is almost entirely new, as the Dogs play only three opponents from the 2023 season - Washington, Davis and Lone Grove.
Sulphur will enter a district with a bunch of new foes, including Perkins-Tryon, McLoud, Bristow, Victory Christian and Mannford.
Seminole and Lone Grove will round out district 3A-2 as familiar foes for the Dogs.
Sulphur will start the year hosting defending, back-to-back Class 2A state champion, Washington. The Dogs suffered a tough loss last season, falling 35-10 in the season opener at Agee Field.
The Dogs started the series in 2020 with Washington and have fallen to the Warriors in all four contests.
The annual Murray County rivalry game will take place in week two, as the Dogs host Davis, looking to rebound for the first loss in the series since 2015.
Sulphur fell in a heartbreaker at Wolf Field last year, losing 15-14 to drop to 0-2.
Sulphur hosts Cache in week three to close out the non-district slate, playing every game at Agee Field.
The Dogs last faced Cache in 2019, winning 14-3.
Sulphur will be on the road to open district play and close out September, when the Dogs face Perkins-Tryon.
In the back half of the schedule, which will be previewed this week, the Dogs will host McLoud in week 6 for homecoming, followed by a trip to Lone Grove.
Sulphur hosts a playoff team from last season in Bristow, as the Pirates come to town in week seven over fall break.
Sulphur will follow that up with a trip to a historic venue in Seminole to play the Chieftains for the first time since 2016.
Senior night will see the Dogs host Victory Christian, a team up from Class 2A that was 10-3 and made the quarterfinals a year ago.
The Dogs close out the season on the road at Mannford.
The schedule is once again tough, as Sulphur plays an always tough non-district slate and will have its hands full in District 3A2, just like last year.
The Dogs will open practice on Monday, Aug. 12.
Sulphur will host a media day on Aug. 10, followed by the Red/ White Scrimmage on Aug. 17.
The Dogs will scrimmage at Lindsay on Aug. 23 and at Plainview on Aug. 29.
Let’s dive into the second half of the Sulphur schedule for 2023.
WEEK 6 - OCT. 11 at LONE GROVE
The Dogs will look to win nine of the last 10 against Lone Grove when they travel south in week six.
Sulphur trounced the Longhorns last season, winning 41-0.
The Dogs have won every contest since 2015 aside from a tough, 27-20 loss in 2022.
The Longhorns finished last season 7-4, including a 4-3 finish in district 3A-2.
Lone Grove made the playoffs and fell at semifinalist Perkins 48-6 in the first round.
The Longhorns will be replacing 15 seniors, many of whom started for multiple seasons.
Sulphur has a 21-7 record against Lone Grove all-time, including a 13-2 mark from 1988-2010.
WEEK 7 - OCT. 17 VS. BRISTOW (THURSDAY) The Dogs will welcome Bristow to town, as the two teams will face off for the first time since 1997.
Sulphur beat Bristow in the first round in back-to-back years in 1997, as they advanced to the semifinals in both seasons.
Bristow was a playoff team a year ago, going 5-6 and falling to eventual state champion Lincoln Christian in the first round 56-6.
The Pirates will be looking to return to the playoffs under first year head coach Chris Cole.
Cole comes to Bristow from Bixby, where he was a part of the defensive staff at the premier program in Oklahoma.
Bristow has made the playoffs every year since 2016.
The Pirates put together an impressive six-year stretch from 2016-2021, going 53-17 and winning nine games in five of six years.
Henry Powell, a senior strong safety, is back to lead the Pirates defense under Cole. Powell is a state placing wrestler.
Sophomore Promised Johnson is a talented athlete who should be able to provide versatility to the Pirates and play in multiple spots on the field, including running back, quarterback, wide receiver and corner.
WEEK 8 - OCT. 25 at SEMINOLE
The Dogs will rekindle one of the classic rivalries of the past 40 years when they travel down Mike Snyder Dr. in late October.
Sulphur will be at Seminole for the first time since 2016.
The two programs have played 16 times since 1982, with Sulphur holding a 9-7 edge.
Sulphur beat Seminole twice in 2002, including in the Class 3A state title game, en route to the school’s first championship.
The two teams have played just twice since the 2002 and 2003 seasons, when they were both in district 3A-2.
Sulphur lost at Seminole 35-7 in the first round of the playoffs in 2014 before winning a district game 43-6 two years later.
The Dogs beat Seminole in October of 2002 at Agee Field, as the top two teams in Class 3A faced off in a huge district matchup on a Friday during fall break.
Sulphur won 20-6 and then beat the Chieftains again six weeks later in the state title game, winning 26-13.
The Dogs won at Seminole in dramatic fashion a year later on a last second field goal, edging out the Chieftains 10-7.
This will be the first matchup since the tragic loss of longtime Sulphur head coach Jim Dixon.
Dixon and Seminole head coach, Mike Snyder, were close friends.
Snyder is the all-time wins’ leader in Oklahoma, coaching 44 years and winning 385 games.
Dixon was the head coach at Sulphur for 48 years and is third all-time with 347 wins.
Seminole was just 3-7 a year ago, following another 3-7 season in 2022.
WEEK 9 - NOV. 1 VS. VICTORY CHRISTIAN
(SENIOR NIGHT)
Victory Christian will come to town for the just the second meeting ever on senior night in early November.
The Dogs beat Victory 41-17 in the state quarterfinals in 2003.
Victory was 10-3 a year ago, losing to Jones 56-36 in the quarterfinals.
The Conquerors were 10-4 in 2022 and 9-3 in 2021.
Victory will be ushering in a new quarterback, but will lean on returning rushers in junior Dallas Dyer, who ran for 625 yards and four scores in just seven games in 2023.
Senior Eric Peterson is also back after running for 340 yards and three scores last year.
Peterson also had 31 catches for 484 yards and four touchdowns last season.
Junior Ward Johnson had 327 yards and three scores last year, while fellow junior Jackson McCrary had 259 yards and three touchdowns.
WEEK 10 - NOV. 8 at MANNFORD
Sulphur will face Mannford for the first time ever to close out the regular season in the final week.
Mannford was 2-8 a year ago and 1-9 in 2022.
The Pirates are just 12-46 across the last six seasons.
Junior quarterback Max Moore is back for Mannford. Moore started all 10 games last season, throwing for 747 yards.
He also ran for 282 yards on the ground as a 6-foot-3, 200 lb. prospect.
Mannford has junior running back Brayden Rodriguez returning after running for 1,075 yards and six touchdowns on six yards per carry in 2023.
Rodriguez caught 19 passes for 267 yards and a touchdown last year, as well.
He also led the team in tackles with 89 stops last season.
Mannford is approximately 16 miles directly west of Sand Springs, a suburb of Tulsa.
