Midseason Surprise Teams

Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy!   It's hard to believe but we're at the halfway point of the 2023 regular season. Fortunately, we have a little over two more months of football before we're crowning champions in Edmond in early December. This week, we're taking a wide look at the state as we're now at the midseason point. We'll be looking at some of the surprise teams to teams that might have bad records but will still be in the mix when the playoffs roll around. Then we'll put a spotlight on some of the best players in the state. From midseason MVPs to midseason breakout stars.   In this post, it's all about the surprise teams. Some of these teams were coming off tough 2022 seasons and others might have been hit hard by graduation. And then you have some that were just on the outside looking in on the preseason rankings but they are there now. These teams not only have exceeded expectations so far but they are set up for a good second half of the season.   EDMOND SANTA FE (3-1)   We knew that Edmond Santa Fe was primed for a bounce back season after a forgettable 1-9 campaign in 2022. But the Wolves got everyone's attention in the very first week when they went on the road and beat Jenks. They are now sitting at 3-1 and are perfect in district play. The Wolves have been led by a strong rushing attack as junior running back [player_tooltip player_id='188013' first='Demarius' last='Robinson'] has emerged as one of the top players in the state. And at this point, he's not just one of the best running backs, he's one of the more impactful players overall. The only slip up was a three-point loss to Norman North but the Wolves are a long way from the woes of 2022. They have a tough road test against Mustang this week and then back to back games against Union and Owasso looming in the future. But the Wolves are back to contending once again as one of the best teams on the west side of the state.   BISHOP McGUINNESS (4-1)   Bishop McGuinness is a good example of a program that should never be overlooked and just simply reloads and never rebuilds. The Irish lost some good players to graduation and then in the offseason, two of their best returning players moved away from the program. We'll admit, we thought the Irish were going to take a step back in 2023. That simply hasn't been the case as we've reached the halfway point of the 2023 football season. The only stumble was against rival Bishop Kelley in week two. But the Irish have looked solid ever since. Quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='922869' first='Damon' last='Cochran II'] has taken the reigns and ran with it so far this season. The Irish have also gotten solid production from running back [player_tooltip player_id='1088229' first='JP' last='Spanier'] throughout the year. But we're now entering the portion of the schedule that's an absolute gauntlet. They'll face #3 Guthrie and #1 Carl Albert in back to back weeks. Nobody should be overlooking the Irish heading into the second half of the year.   CUSHING (4-1)   Over the last few seasons, Cushing has been one of the best teams in Class 4A. In fact, at this time last year, the Tigers were #1 in the 4A rankings and were about to beat up on Wagoner 42-0. We know how that story ends and more importantly, the Tigers lost a very successful and productive senior class. So much of their production was gone and they had to replace the majority of their starters heading into the 2023 season. We'll admit, just like some of the other teams on this breakdown, we thought Cushing was going to take a step back and that has been simply wrong. The offense has remained one of the better units in Class 4A. Wide receiver [player_tooltip player_id='633075' first='Brady' last='Matheson'] has stepped into that playmaker role for the Tigers and has been incredibly productive. And we know this team has a sour taste in their mouth with the way last year ended. They want to prove people (like us) wrong all year and this week is another opportunity as they travel to Wagoner.   CHECOTAH (5-1)   Checotah is another example of a team that has had the talent but they have just been chipping away at becoming a serious team in Class 3A. The Wildcats find themselves at 5-1 and in the top ten after back to back seasons of winning just three games. The only stumble was a 22-point loss to Claremore Sequoyah but they got a strong 20-point win over Seminole last week. But the measuring stick game is coming up this week. They'll play host to #2 Lincoln Christian on Friday. night. The Bulldogs have absolutely dominated district opponents over the last five seasons and now the Wildcats play host to them on Friday. But there's no doubt that Checotah will have arguably the best player on the field Friday night. Junior OU commit [player_tooltip player_id='353415' first='Elijah' last='Thomas'] has been absolutely electric in all three phases of the game. Quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1031234' first='Jacob' last='Jones'] has also emerged as one of the top passers in Class 3A and they'll need that firepower on offense this week.   GORE (5-0)   We're happy to admit that we got this one completely wrong. At this time last year, Gore was on top of the Class A rankings and were dominating every team in front of them. They would make it all the way to the state championship game before falling short to Fairview. But we'll admit we thought the Pirates were about to take a big step back. They lost an incredibly special senior class that had a lot of their starts and production. They lost their coach to Sallisaw and this offseason, the one bright spot was that they had a playmaker returning at quarterback but then he moved away. Despite all of that, the Pirates are 5-0 under new head coach Brandon Ellis and have won every game by at least 20 points. But we're about to see just how strong this team is as they face Pocola and Central Sallisaw in the next two weeks. Gore is a perfect example of the "next man up" mentality.

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