Bishop Kelley Team Preview

Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy! Stay tuned to Prep Redzone Oklahoma every day as we release more individual team previews as we get closer to the start of the 2021 football season. In case you missed it, you can check out our Preseason Rankings <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2021/06/2021-preseason-rankings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RIGHT HERE</a>. Overview (Class 5A Preseason Ranking: #9) Year in and year out, you can count on the Bishop Kelley Comets to be one of the better and consistent teams in Class 5A. I’ve said this in the past and I’ll say it again here, "In Tappana I Trust". Head coach JJ Tappana just gets the most of his kids year after year. Bishop Kelley isn’t exactly a hot bed of college prospects but it doesn’t matter when they line up on Friday nights. They’re always contending for district championships and the next goal is to go after that state championship. Last year, expectations were certainly high with the Comets coming in at #3 in our preseason rankings. It wouldn’t take long for them to hop up the #2 spot behind Carl Albert and they stayed there for a while. Things didn’t end the way they would like as they traveled to Carl Albert in the quarterfinals and got taken out by the eventual state champs. Now as we head into a new season, the Comets are still a top ten team, coming in at #9 in our preseason rankings. They will return five starters on offense and another six starters come back on defense. The biggest question mark around this season will be who can replace superstar running back [player_tooltip player_id="38548" first="Owen" last="Heinecke"], who was one of the best players in 5A football a year ago. The Comets think they have that guy but only time will tell. The schedule is once again one of the toughest in the state as they’ll face three ranked teams in non-district play and then open up the district against preseason #1 McAlester. The district will feature a three team race with Bishop Kelley, Coweta and McAlester. The Comets were able to navigate a tough schedule a year ago but fell short in the playoffs. Even though they don’t have as much hype as they did a year ago, we don’t expect the Comets to have any kind of drop off and will still be one of the better teams in Class 5A this season. <hr /> 2020 Results (9-2 Record - Lost In Class 5A Quarterfinals) Aug. 28 - Beat Poteau 28-7 Sept. 4 - Beat Sand Springs 28-24 Sept. 11 - Beat Bishop McGuinness 35-21 Sept. 25 - Beat McAlester 17-14 Oct. 2 - Game VS Durant Cancelled Oct. 9 - Beat Edison 55-7 Oct. 15 - Beat Will Rogers 54-0 Oct. 23 - Beat East Central 49-7 Oct. 30 - Lost To Coweta 42-27 Nov. 6 - Beat Shawnee 31-12 1st Round - Bye Week 2nd Round - Beat Tahlequah 35-0 Quarterfinals - Lost To Carl Albert 36-20 <hr /> Players To Watch [player_tooltip player_id="38683" first="Cash" last="Hudson"] - 2022 Offensive Lineman While Bishop Kelley will have some new faces that we’ll learn about as they start their season, the one prospect we’ve known about for about a year now is offensive lineman [player_tooltip player_id="38683" first="Cash" last="Hudson"]. Based on his sophomore film, we were really high on the interior lineman and liked his game. When we saw Bishop Kelley early on in the season and asked the coaching staff about him, they were very complimentary and it was obvious he was one of the better linemen that they’ve had in recent memory. Look for Hudson to dominate opponents as the Comets want to run the ball this fall. JT Whorton - 2022 Running Back/Linebacker We mentioned above that one of the biggest questions that we have about Bishop Kelley centers around who will replace their star running back and defensive back [player_tooltip player_id="38548" first="Owen" last="Heinecke"]. Well, we know at least who they’ll attempt to replace him with and that’s JT Whorton. Like Heinecke, Whorton will play on both sides of the ball and will certainly have high expectations coming into the season. However, with a solid offensive line in front of him, Whorton will be able to do just fine this fall. At this point, we’re just unsure of how high the ceiling is for the senior. [player_tooltip player_id="119101" first="Will" last="Pickard"] - 2022 Quarterback A lot of what we wrote about Whorton can be repeated here with quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="119101" first="Will" last="Pickard"]. He’ll be up next running the Bishop Kelley offense and could provide the difference in the Comets going far in the playoffs or bouncing out early. When it comes to Bishop Kelley football, as we mentioned above, we have no doubt that they’ll be in the mix. However, if the offense can put up some points week after week, combined with the defense being one of the better units in 5A, they can go places. Pickard will be a first year starter at QB but he’ll have some talent around him. <hr /> Notable Bishop Kelley’s 2020 season was one of their better starts in recent memory. The Comets haven’t gotten off to a start like 2020 in over a decade. They always play a tough non-district schedule and the district is always competitive as well. Because of that, the Comets will trip up one or two times. However, they would start 2020 with a 7-0 record with wins over two teams that ended up in the Class 5A semifinals. The last time Bishop Kelley started out with a 7-0 record, they would finish the regular season undefeated at 10-0. That was in 2009 and coincidentally, the Comets would have their season come up short in the quarterfinals against Carl Albert. The Titans would go on to win the state championship that season. That’s how last year played out as the Comets lost to the Titans in the quarterfinals and the Carl Albert dynasty continued as they captured their fifth consecutive state championship. Hopefully for Bishop Kelley, the Comets don’t have have history repeat itself. The 2010 season featured a 5-6 record, the Comets starting out 0-3 and losing in the first round of the playoffs. That’s all something that this Comet team will want to avoid. <hr /> 2021 Schedule/Games To Watch Aug. 27 - AT Poteau Sept. 3 - Sand Springs Sept. 10 - AT Bishop McGuinness - Bishop Kelley has several games on this schedule that might be a little more important in the big picture but let’s not kid ourselves. You have to have the annual Bishop Battle as one of the top games year in and year out. Especially over the last five years or so with both teams consistently in contention in Class 5A. The Comets have watched their rivals from McGuinness make it all the way to the title game in four of the last five years and that’s where they want to go. A good first step towards that is going to OKC and dominating their rival and keeping the prized Shillelagh. Sept. 24 - McAlester - After three very tough non-district games against ranked opponents from 6A-D2, 5A and 4A, the Comets will have a week off before starting district play in week four at home against McAlester. As mentioned above, the trio of Bishop Kelley, Coweta and McAlester are the top dogs in this district and this is only week four and it’s the first district game of the year. But it will go a long way to deciding the district champ. The Buffaloes believe this is their year as they are the preseason #1 team in 5A. Week four is going to be one of the best weeks of the year. Oct. 1 - AT Durant Oct. 8 - Edison Oct. 14 - AT Will Rogers Oct. 22 - East Central Oct. 29 - AT Coweta Nov. 5 - Shawnee <hr /> Championship History 1 State Championship 1981 - Beat El Reno 33-6