Owasso Team Preview

Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy! It’s the month of July and that means it’s preview time! Throughout the month of July, we are publishing 100 team previews to get you ready for the 2022 season. This is something that began last year and has become even bigger and better this year. We’re looking forward to diving deep into the top teams across the state. From defending champs, to top contenders and dark horses, we’ll have complete coverage every single day with new teams from Class 6A down to A. In this post, we take a look at the Owasso Rams. Once again in the mix, the Rams are looking to contend for another gold ball. Owasso Rams (6A-1 Preseason Ranking: #4) At this time last year, the Owasso Rams were loaded for a championship run and came into the season as our preseason #1 team in 6A-1. Owasso started the year 3-0 and looked rather dominant and then they fell to Union to open up district play in week four. The Rams would also fall later in the year to Mustang and eventually got upset by Broken Arrow in the quarterfinals after beating them by 39 points in the regular season. The Rams are now looking bounce back in a big way and despite losing quite a few playmakers to graduation, the Rams are still considered one of the top teams in Class 6A-1 as they come into the year at #4 in our preseason rankings. Owasso brings back four full time starters on the offensive side of the ball but they rotated quite a few players in there that didn’t technically start. The same can be said for the defensive side of the ball as they bring back just three starters on that side but plenty of players that will be starters this year got into just about every game last season. However, the defense does lose some serious star power at all three levels as they has multiple guys on that side of the ball sign with D1 programs so that’s not exactly easy to replace. Despite that, the Rams should once again be in the mix in 6A-1. They’ll be searching for their third state championship in the last seven seasons and first since 2019. <hr /> 2021 Results (8-3 Record - Lost In Class 6A-1 Quarterfinals) Aug. 27 - Beat Edmond Santa Fe 45-22 Sept. 3 - Beat Fayetteville, AR. 48-42 Sept. 10 - Beat Broken Arrow 42-3 Sept. 24 - Lost To Union 10-7 Oct. 1 - Beat Norman North 70-28 Oct. 8 - Beat Edmond North 41-3 Oct. 14 - Beat Southmoore 52-8 Oct. 22 - Lost To Mustang 47-41 Oct. 28 - Beat Moore 48-28 Nov. 5 - Beat Putnam City 56-7 Quarterfinal - Lost To Broken Arrow 41-40 <hr /> Key Losses To Graduation Brandon Ramsey - Defensive Back Chris McClellan - Defensive Lineman Derrick Overstreet - Running Back Jake Clifton - Linebacker Kelan Carney - Wide Receiver Korbyn Green - Defensive Back Michael Jamerson - Defensive Lineman <hr /> Players To Watch [player_tooltip player_id="45651" first="Cole" last="Adams"] - 2023 Wide Receiver While Owasso returns just a few starters on the offensive side of the ball, they do benefit from returning one of the top playmakers in the state with 2023 wide receiver [player_tooltip player_id="45651" first="Cole" last="Adams"]. The Owasso star committed to Alabama in the last month and he is ranked as a top five overall prospect in the state’s 2023 class. Adams will be one of the top players to watch this season and it’s really been that way since he was a freshman. Adams had a breakout season that year and became one of Owasso’s most valuable players over the last three seasons. He’s determined to help lead the Rams back to the state championship this fall. [player_tooltip player_id="38786" first="Emery" last="Neeley"] - 2023 Running Back Similar to the wide receiver position, Owasso also had several running backs who got plenty of reps last year but now going into the 2022 season, they’ll have one marquee player. That player this fall is 2023 running back [player_tooltip player_id="38786" first="Emery" last="Neeley"], who we’ve thought was the best of the bunch in terms of being a prospect over the last two seasons. Now he’s going to get his chance to prove that this fall. Neeley is a great mix of size and speed as he has blazing speed to go along with good size at the running back position. The biggest hurdle that Neeley will have to overcome this fall is staying healthy with a bigger workload. [player_tooltip player_id="38821" first="Mason" last="Willingham"] - 2023 Quarterback Owasso 2023 quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="38821" first="Mason" last="Willingham"] eventually won the starting job at QB1 as he took over late in the 2021 regular season. Willingham spent his first two seasons as QB1 at Skiatook before moving to Owasso before last season. Willingham would take advantage of his opportunity when he was put in the lineup. Willingham threw for over 1,000 yards and comes into this season with more confidence after starting the last few games of the year. Willingham showed off his passing ability but he’s also a strong athlete that can tuck the ball and run. Willingham will be challenged by Owasso’s early season schedule. [player_tooltip player_id="47158" first="Tyler" last="Rich"] - 2023 Defensive Lineman As mentioned above, the defense for Owasso took some big hits to graduation and will have plenty of new faces at all three levels of their defense. One of the returning starters that has plenty of experience coming into the season is 2023 defensive lineman [player_tooltip player_id="47158" first="Tyler" last="Rich"]. The 2023 lineman is absolutely dominant up front and was part of a defensive line unit that terrorized opponents last season. Rich will be clogging up the middle as a defensive tackle. We first saw Rich as a young sophomore and he was a problem early on in his career. Rich took advantage of his wrestling background to beat his opponent. More Names To Know [player_tooltip player_id="350246" first="Blake" last="Cherry"] - 2025 Offensive Lineman Braeden Foster - 2023 Linebacker Eli’Sha Malveaux - 2023 Linebacker Jake Adams - 2023 Defensive Back [player_tooltip player_id="350245" first="Ryker" last="Haff"] - 2025 Offensive Lineman Tariek Johnson - 2025 Athlete <hr /> 2022 Schedule/Games To Circle Aug. 25 - Bixby (TU’s Chapman Stadium) - There are a lot of marquee match-ups in week zero to kick off the 2022 football season but this match-up should have the state’s main stage. Owasso will open up their season against Bixby on a Thursday night at TU’s Chapman Stadium. The game has been branded the "Battle Of The Burbs" and will be sponsored by QuikTrip and while almost every game will be played on Friday that week, these two teams will have all the attention by playing on Thursday. Owasso will be welcoming Bixby into 6A-1 and while they’re at it, they’ll be looking to end Bixby’s state-record 49-game winning streak that they bring into the season. Sept. 2 - AT Jenks - It’s a renewal of a rivalry as Owasso will travel to Jenks to face off with the Trojans in the regular season for the first time since 2017. That year, they faced off in the season opener and that was the first game for Owasso head coach Bill Blankenship and the Rams absolutely blitzed the Trojans. However, they’ve met plenty of times in the playoffs and they last met in the 2020 semifinals and Jenks handled business, on their way to the first of two straight state championships. The Rams will be looking forward to traveling to Jenks to face off with the two-time champs as Jenks is holding a crown that Owasso wants to take back. Sept. 9 - AT Broken Arrow Sept. 23 - Union Sept. 30 - AT Mustang - So the district opener against Union in week four is going to be huge as that features the top two ranked teams in the district. But the Rams will also be challenged the following week as they go on the road to take on Mustang. Regardless of what happens in the Union game, Owasso will have their eyes on this match-up after being upset by the Broncos at home last season. Because of that loss, they fell in the district standings and were knocked off by Broken Arrow in the quarterfinals. Mustang will give the Rams a tough challenge once again but if Owasso can go 2-0 after the first two district games, they’ll be in the driver’s seat for the district crown. Oct. 7 - Edmond North Oct. 13 - AT Yukon Oct. 21 - Edmond Memorial Oct. 28 - AT Edmond Santa Fe Nov. 4 - Norman <hr /> Notable Owasso’s schedule is a unique one as the Rams are part of what is now considered the "Big Five" in the Tulsa area. That includes Bixby, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Owasso and Union. The last four are four of the biggest schools in the state and all five programs have won championships in the last six years. Some more than others. And Owasso not only plays all four of the other programs but they play all four in their first four games We wouldn’t make this an official prediction, but it’s not inconceivable to see Owasso start the season 0-4 when you consider how tough that schedule is early on in the year. We don’t think that will happen, but the Rams will definitely be challenged every week in the first month of the season. <hr /> Championship History 2 State Championships 2019 - Beat Jenks 14-6 2017 - Beat Union 21-14