Broken Arrow 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 6A-D1 Preseason Ranking: #5) 2021 will be the first year of the Josh Blankenship era for the Broken Arrow Tigers. After seven seasons and one state championship in 2018, David Alexander was let go as head coach of the Tigers late last year. Broken Arrow would bring Blankenship back to Oklahoma after he was the head coach of Adams State up in Colorado. This will be Blankenship’s second head coaching gig in Oklahoma after being the head coach of Muskogee about a decade ago. After that, he was strictly in college until the opportunity at Broken Arrow opened up. The Tigers come into this season as the #5 team in our 6A-D1 preseason rankings and Blankenship will have some playmakers to work with on both sides of the ball. Six starters return on offense and another six starters make their return on the defensive side of the ball. With Blankenship at the helm, it’s safe to say that the offense will be a little more wide open and passer friendly compared to what we’re used to seeing from Broken Arrow’s offense. The Tigers have a brutal schedule and 6A-D1 appears to be relatively deep this year, which won’t make it easy in year one for Blankenship. However, this is still a team and a program that is only a few years removed from winning a state championship. The expectations are to win and to win titles. We’ll see how quickly Blankenship is able to get that job done. <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2021/05/podcast-coaches-corner-josh-blankenship/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED - Josh Blankenship Interview</a> <hr /> 2020 Results (7-4 Record - Lost In 6A-D1 Quarterfinals) Aug. 29 - Beat Bentonville West 50-23 Sept. 4 - Beat Union 14-7 Sept. 11 - Lost To Owasso 32-6 Sept. 25 - Game VS Westmoore Cancelled Oct. 2 - Lost To Jenks 38-30 Oct. 9 - Beat Edmond Memorial 46-3 Oct. 15 - Beat Yukon 27-22 Oct. 23 - Lost To Edmond Santa Fe 35-28 Oct. 30 - Beat Norman 35-7 Nov. 6 - Beat Enid 42-13 1st Round - Beat Putnam City 44-12 Quarterfinal - Lost To Union 26-14 <hr /> Players To Watch Griffin Stieber - 2022 Quarterback If you're looking for a player who has a big opportunity to break out this fall, how about 2022 quarterback Griffin Stieber for Broken Arrow. The Tiger QB has great size and is a former tight end that is now taking snaps at QB. The reason Stieber has a chance to be a breakout player is the new offense that the Tigers will be rolling out. With Blankenship as the head coach, you know the quarterback is going to throw the ball around. Stieber will have a chance to go from unknown to one of the top passers in 6A-D1. And as you'll see in the rest of this feature, he has some legitimate stars to get the ball to in this Tiger offense. [player_tooltip player_id="38672" first="Maurion" last="Horn"] - 2022 Athlete One of the best overall athletes in Oklahoma is Broken Arrow’s [player_tooltip player_id="38672" first="Maurion" last="Horn"]. After breaking out during his sophomore year as a cornerback, Horn got his opportunity last fall to showcase his skills on offense as a running back. He was one of two running backs in the Tiger offense but Horn was the guy who could break a game wide open in the blink of an eye. Because of his junior season at running back, Horn opened the eyes of colleges at the possibility of him playing offense. Horn recently committed to Texas Tech and it’s still up in the air of which side of the ball he’ll end up on. [player_tooltip player_id="61133" first="Robert" last="Spears-Jennings"] - 2022 Wide Receiver Similar to Horn, [player_tooltip player_id="61133" first="Robert" last="Spears-Jennings"] is a two-way star and has been recruited as such. Like Horn, Jennings recently committed to Oklahoma but it was specifically as a safety prospect. However, we still have him listed here as a wide receiver because that’s where he’s going to make the most impact at the high school level this fall. And until he signs on the dotted line with OU, that’s all that matters. Jennings is going to give Stieber a massive target and home run threat to throw the ball to. In this new Broken Arrow offense that will be more wide open, expect a monstrous year from RSJ. More Names [player_tooltip player_id="38789" first="Dietrich" last="Moore"] - 2023 Linebacker [player_tooltip player_id="38729" first="Jadahian" last="Floyd-Wright"] - 2022 Linebacker [player_tooltip player_id="38681" first="Javion" last="Franklin"] - 2022 Defensive Back Nate Jones - 2023 Running Back <hr /> Notable As you’re about to see with the 2021 schedule, the Tigers are going to be road warriors this season and the home fans will have to wait quite a while before they can see the Josh Blankenship era beginning on the Tiger Field turf. The first four games of the year are all on the road, including a trip down to Mansfield, Texas. The first home game isn’t until week five on October 1st when they host Jenks. The first four games will be on the road and all in all, the Tigers have six road games with only four coming at home. And with how tough the district has been with Jenks and Edmond Santa Fe, the third place finisher will have to go on the road in the first round of the playoffs. The Tigers will certainly be battle tested and they’ll have to deal with things that other schools simply don’t have to deal with. The unbalanced schedule, especially at the start of the year could present a challenge that the Tigers will have to overcome. <hr /> 2021 Schedule/Games To Watch Aug. 27 - AT Mansfield, TX. Sept. 3 - AT Union - After facing off twice last year, we'll see the annual Broken Arrow-Union match-up in week one this fall. Broken Arrow got the best of Union in the regular season but Union got the last laugh by beating Broken Arrow in the quarterfinals and sending them home for the year. This will be one of the first games in Union's new stadium and it will certainly have the fans out in bunches. It'll be a big game in the 6A-D1 landscape to see where each team is early on in the season. Not to mention that it'll be Blankenship squaring off with his alma mater and former boss in Union head coach Kirk Fridrich. Sept. 10 - AT Owasso - It’ll certainly be one of the biggest games of the year. We broke it down in the <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2021/07/owasso-team-preview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Owasso Preview</a>. Sept. 23 - AT Westmoore Oct. 1 - Jenks - Finally, the Tigers won't have to get on a bus to head to a game. Broken Arrow has to wait all the way until week five and on the first day of October to get a home game. And it is a monumental one. The defending state champion Jenks Trojans will come to town and in most years, the district champion will be crowned out of this match-up. But with the emergence of Santa Fe over the last two years, the loser here will be in must win mode the rest of the season to avoid having to go on the road to open up the playoffs. Broken Arrow will hope that the momentum of that first home game can give them an edge against the champs. Oct. 8 - AT Edmond Memorial Oct. 14 - Yukon Oct. 22 - Edmond Santa Fe Oct. 29 - AT Norman Nov. 5 - Enid <hr /> Championship History 1 State Championship 2018 - Beat Jenks 28-20