First Look Friday – Oct. 3rd

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em><strong>Get 25% Off Your Subscription By Entering Knight25 In The Coupon Code Area. Enjoy!</strong></em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 2025 football season is in full swing and Prep Redzone Oklahoma will have new content every single day from now until the end of the season in December. Every Friday on Prep Redzone Oklahoma, we're throwing on the film and looking at prospects that we've never written about. For most of the players that we feature on these breakdowns, we'll know the names but we haven't had the chance to really write about them and break down what they bring to the football field. Here is where we do that. So check back every Friday as we look at five more names that we've never written about as we continue to provide the deepest coverage of Oklahoma high school football.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1834818' first='Jake' last='Matthews'] - Junior Offensive Lineman - Ada</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We really like what the Ada Cougars have this season from a personnel standpoint and the offensive line group is incredibly impressive to watch. Junior offensive lineman [player_tooltip player_id='1834818' first='Jake' last='Matthews'] is one player that we didn't know much about coming into this season. But after taking a look at the film from the first month of the season and some of his clips from various college camps this offseason, Matthews is going to be a name that we're paying more attention to moving forward. Matthews lines up at right tackle for the Cougars and based on some of the film that we've checked out, he is equally valuable in the run game as he is in the pass game. And there isn't much difference in his game when he's going one on one with defensive ends or linebackers. Then we watched a clip of him lining up at defensive tackle and he put a spin move on his opponent and got into the backfield in a hurry. The athleticism and quickness off the line is there. Matthews really impressed with the film and Ada is a team that's going to be in the 4A title hunt so we'll be seeing more of him down the line this fall. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1833154' first='Jason' last='Wilkett'] - Senior Running Back - Wilburton</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wilburton senior running back [player_tooltip player_id='1833154' first='Jason' last='Wilkett'] has been arguably the most productive running back in the state through the first month of the season. Wilkett has run for nearly 750 yards and ten touchdowns through his first four games. Last season, Wilkett ran for over 1,500 yards and 12 touchdowns in ten games. Wilkett is on pace to blow away his numbers from last season. We haven't had luck in finding film on Wilkett this week but we do have his game logs and he has been unbelievably consistent throughout the first four weeks. Wilkett has had exactly 21 carries in three of his first four games. The only other game he didn't, he finished with 23 carries. The 23-carry game against Panama in week three was his best performance of this season. He finished with just shy of 250 yards and three touchdowns. Speaking of touchdowns, in all four games this season, Wilkett has found the end zone at least two times. Behind Wilkett, Wilburton has jumped out to a 4-0 start and look like an interesting team to watch in Class 2A-2. They'll face Vian and Valliant later this month and we'll learn more about him then.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1836302' first='Jordan' last='Deroin'] - Junior Quarterback - Nathan Hale</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nathan Hale is off to a 3-1 start this season but they are about to enter the gauntlet of their schedule. Four of their next five opponents are all ranked in the top ten in Class 5A. If the Rangers pull off the upset in any of those games, we'll go ahead and predict it's because junior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1836302' first='Jordan' last='Deroin'] continued to dominate. The Nathan Hale junior has been off the charts good through the first four games of the season. As a passer, his numbers continue to improve, including last week's 300+ yard and five touchdown performance against Memorial. He's thrown for just under 800 yards and nine touchdowns while adding nearly 350 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. Deroin deserves to be talked about more for the start that he's had this season. But we're looking forward to seeing what he does in the next month. Not taking anything away from the start that he's had, but the competition is about to get ratcheted up in a major way in October. If he continues to put up the numbers he's put up in the last month, the Rangers could send quite the statement to the rest of Class 5A.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1262599' first='Oakley' last='Caruthers'] - Junior Defensive Lineman - Norman</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We'll throw our hands up here and say we got this one wrong. We thought Norman might take a step back this season considering the players they lost from last year's team that went 9-1 in the regular season. Wrong. Going into Friday's game with Jenks, the Tigers are 4-0 and have looked like the team that can be one of, if not the best 6A-1 teams on the west side. Now, they've won games in different ways. Defensively, they've looked great on the line of scrimmage and junior [player_tooltip player_id='1262599' first='Oakley' last='Caruthers'] is one part of that. Through the first few games, Caruthers was incredibly productive. The stats back that up from a player that's playing on the interior of a defensive line. Then you throw on the film and you see that prototypical defensive tackle that eats double teams from opposing OL but it's actually a win. He opens things up for his teammates to make plays and they've made plenty of them. Another part about Caruthers that deserves mention is his work in the classroom. His GPA and test scores are off the charts. He still has one more of high school ball to go after this season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1830746' first='Ryder' last='Karn'] - Senior Linebacker - Owasso</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Senior linebacker [player_tooltip player_id='1830746' first='Ryder' last='Karn'] is the second defensive standout from Owasso that's been featured on this "First Look Friday" series so far this season. Owasso was relatively inexperienced on the defensive side of the ball coming into this season. We talked with head coach Bill Blankenship last week and Karn was one of the first names that he mentioned that is having a breakout season. You throw on the tape and you see exactly what he's talking about. The Owasso senior is one of the team's leading tacklers and he plays the game with a ton of energy from the opening kickoff to the final seconds go off the clock. One thing that has impressed us about his game is his nose for the football and ability to fit in just about anywhere and get into the backfield. Now, Karn does have the advantage of playing behind arguably the best defensive tackle in the state but he does plenty of damage in the open field as well. Another thing that we like about Karn and this Owasso defense as a whole is they've regrouped from the first two losses and have played outstanding defense in their last two games. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->