Bristow Pirates OK 2024 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 and even into August, we are publishing well over 100 of the most in-depth team previews that you'll find anywhere to get you completely ready for the 2024 football season. This is something that began for us at PRZ-Oklahoma in 2021 and it continues to get bigger and better every single year. We're looking forward to diving deep into the top teams across the state in every class. From defending champions, to the top contenders and plenty of dark horses and other teams to know, we'll have complete coverage every single day. There will be multiple previews dropping every single day! In this post, we take a look at the Bristow Purple Pirates!   Bristow Purple Pirates   Preseason Prep Redzone Ranking: UR In Class 3A Preseason Coaches Ranking: UR In Class 3A   Head Coach: Chris Cole - 1st Season   2023 RESULTS (5-6 Record - Lost In Class 3A 1st Round)   Sept. 1st - Lost To Cushing 34-21 Sept. 8th - Lost To Chandler 21-14 Sept. 15th - Beat Mannford 21-14 Sept. 22nd - Beat Inola 37-12 Sept. 29th - Beat Dewey 54-13 Oct. 6th - Lost To Verdigris 12-9 Oct. 12th - Beat Jay 38-8 Oct. 20th - Lost To Cascia Hall 14-8 Oct. 27th - Lost To Holland Hall 21-7 Nov. 3rd - Beat Central 28-26 1st Round - Lost To Lincoln Christian 56-6   2023 Offensive Scoring Average: 22.1 Points Per Game 2023 Defensive Scoring Average: 21 Points Per Game   The Bristow Purple Pirates would finish the 2023 season with a 5-6 record but when you put the season under the microscope, there are so many different ways it could have gone. Five of their eleven games were decided by a possession and Bristow would go 2-3 in those games. A ball bounces a different direction in just two and maybe they go 4-1 in those games. Or on the flip side, they could have gone 0-5 and missed the playoffs. But their playoff streak remained intact and they would ultimately lose to eventual state champion Lincoln Christian in the first round. The season began with back to back losses to Cushing and Chandler. They would respond to the 0-2 start with three straight wins and they looked really good in the last two victories. They lost a heartbreaker to Verdigris in week six and that would begin a stretch where they dropped three of four games, including back to back losses to Cascia Hall and Holland Hall. That set up a week ten head to head match-up with Central for the last spot from this district in the playoffs. So for Bristow, it might have been week ten but it felt like the playoffs started a week early because it was win or go home. They would win 28-26 and get that final playoff spot. The reward was a 56-6 loss to Lincoln Christian in the first round. The season came to a close at 5-6 but the real headlines with this program took place shortly after the start of 2024.   2024 OUTLOOK   The Purple Pirates will take the field in 2024 under a new captain of the ship. Chris Cole heads into his first season as Bristow's head coach after Brett Jones was let go in January. Jones was head coach for a little over a decade but Bristow decided to go in a new direction and that direction was Cole. And he takes over a program that has talent returning, coming up and expects to win after making nine consecutive trips to the playoffs. Seven starters return on the offensive side of the ball and they have a great mix of veteran leadership that have started for multiple seasons and young talent that have incredibly high ceilings but it's unproven right now. The offense will also look different after they've run the flexbone for nearly a decade and they'll go into a new system where they look to take advantage of their athleticism with spacing and it will be interesting to see how that transition takes place. Seven starters are also back on the defensive side of the ball and this was a defense that was very underrated last season. They didn't get into many shootouts and they could be even better in 2024. But the biggest hurdle for the Pirates will be the schedule. It's absolutely brutal. They play three of the top eight teams in our 3A preseason rankings and the number two team in the 4A preseason rankings. By the end of the season, they will be battle-tested but the expectations remain the same. Win games and make it to the playoffs.    KEY LOSS TO GRADUATION   Sloan Dixon - Defensive Lineman   PLAYERS TO WATCH    Every now and then you get a player that is a three or even four-year starter and it feels like they've been in high school for longer than that. Senior running back [player_tooltip player_id='917724' first='Darien' last='Dansby'] is another example of that. Dansby grabbed our attention very early in his high school career and is going to be a fun player to watch this season. For the first few years, Dansby was known as a running back and that's what we still have him listed as. But we're very intrigued with what he's going to be able to do on defense in the secondary. Dansby could turn himself into one of the better two-way players in Class 3A this season. We have no questions about what he can do on offense.     When we watched Bristow in person at one of the team camps this spring, sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='1293011' first='Promised' last='Johnson'] was one of the top players that we saw there at a camp with about ten different teams. Johnson did a little bit of everything for the Pirates and it was clear very quickly that he's going to be arguably their best athlete this season. He'll play quarterback and wide receiver as his main positions on offense and then turn around and play in the secondary on defense. It was only one day for a few hours but Johnson really impressed us. The ceiling is really high but he's also somewhat unproven. He gets to change that when Bristow takes the field this fall.     Looking back at our notes from this time last year, tight end and linebacker [player_tooltip player_id='1350361' first='Talon' last='Bigpond'] was listed as one of Bristow's top returning players. He would certainly live up to that and now he's in the same position going into his senior season. Bigpond is in a similar position to Dansby where he comes in with so much experience after the last several seasons that he's naturally going to be one of the leaders of this year's team. Not only is he going to be able to help the Pirates with his production on both sides of the ball, but he's going to be able to help them with his experience and there isn't much that he hasn't seen. Bigpond will be valuable on both sides of the ball.    MORE NAMES TO KNOW   [player_tooltip player_id='1689520' first='Grahm' last='Streater'] - 2028 Offensive Lineman Hank Powell - 2025 Linebacker Hayden Yocham - 2026 Wide Receiver/Linebacker Nation Johnson - 2025 Tight End/Linebacker   2024 SCHEDULE/GAMES TO CIRCLE   Sept. 6th - AT Cushing Sept. 13th - Berryhill Sept. 20th - Wagoner - In the final non-district game, Bristow will host 4A's #2 Wagoner and these two were actually district rivals a few years ago when Bristow was up in Class 4A. Now, this game is the final tune up before they start counting towards playoff seeding. And it's the final measuring stick game for Bristow to figure out where they are right now before heading into district play. The Bulldogs are a very good football team once again and will be arguably the toughest team Bristow plays all year. Sept. 27th - Victory Christian - The Pirates aren't easing into district play this season. They'll host a top ten Victory Christian team to kick off their district slate. The Conquerors expect to contend right away after moving up from Class 2A but this district is going to be an absolute beast. This will be their first meeting since they met in non-district play in 2016 and 2017. The winner of this game is going to be in a good position in the district moving forward while the loser is going to have to bounce back quickly. Oct. 4th - AT Seminole Oct. 11th - Mannford Oct. 17th - AT Sulphur - On a Fall Break Thursday night, Bristow hits the road to face a Sulphur team that is a top five team in our 3A preseason rankings. And on paper, they are the favorites to capture the district championship. But football isn't played on paper and there's a lot of time between now and October 17th. If the Pirates go on the road and stun the Bulldogs, they could be in the driver's seat for the district crown. We said earlier in the preview that the schedule was brutal and this is just another example. Oct. 25th - AT McLoud Nov. 1st - Perkins-Tryon Nov. 8th - AT Lone Grove   NOTABLE   Chris Cole takes over this Bristow football program after being an assistant coach at Bixby. There's no doubt or debate that Bixby is at the very top of the mountain in Oklahoma high school football and they've done a great job of retaining their staff. Cole is in the minority of Bixby coaches that has moved on to a new opportunity. Bixby head coach Loren Montgomery is arguably the most successful branch of the Allan Trimble coaching tree. Now, we get to see Montgomery have his own coaching tree with Cole taking over at Bristow. Are the Purple Pirates about to become the most dominant and undeniable force in their class over the next decade? It's not something that happens overnight. But Cole has the blueprint and he knows what a winning program looks like and what it takes to get to the very top of the sport.    LAST FOUR SEASONS   2023 - 5-6 - Lost In Class 3A 1st Round 2022 - 6-5 - Lost In Class 3A 1st Round 2021 - 9-3 - Lost In Class 4A Quarterfinals 2020 - 8-4 - Lost In Class 4A Quarterfinals 2019 - 9-2 - Lost In Class 4A 1st Round   CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY   3 State Championships   1985 - Beat Vinita 22-7 1976 - Beat Vinita 13-10 1975 - Beat Clinton 20-7

Get 25% Off Your Subscription By Entering Knight25 In The Coupon Code Area. Enjoy!