By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Yukon wraps up spring drills this week with their final two practices.
The Millers will practice Tuesday and Thursday from 3:45-5:45 p.m. at Miller Field.
YHS wrapped up its second week of spring on Friday following two days of team camp at Choctaw. The Millers practiced with Choctaw, Southmoore and Putnam City and Edmond North.
The Millers did hold a full contact scrimmage at the end of the first week of drills. With most of the talk about the YHS offense leading up to the scrimmage, it was the defense that stole the show.
The offense scored only one touchdown and kicked two field goals in the scrimmage. The scrimmage went four quarters with a 12-minute running clock with a full compliment of referees.
“We did some really good things in the scrimmage,” YHS head coach Jeremy Reed said. “I thought our defense was aggressive and really flew around. I thought they gave us some problems from our offensive standpoint. I really liked a lot of the things I saw from our defensive team. They were really aggressive and playing the style of defense that we have been trying to play. You could tell we have a quite a few returning starters on that side of the ball.
“Offensively, I thought we did some good things, but then we did some things that made me close my eyes and had to breath deep three times,” he added. “We are playing a lot of new kids on that side. Even though it is year two, we are playing a lot of kids that maybe were only defensive kids last year, now they are asked to really be starters.
“By no means am I making any excuses, it’s just the reality of where we are at. I still like where we are going to be offensively, we just need some more time needed to get to where my expectations are. And, that is probably the biggest deal. Our coaching staff’s expectations are so high, it’s sometimes hard to live up to those on day six. It was no disappointment, it’s just we have a little further to go than we would like.”
The defense, with the returning starters back and a year under their belt in the system, is a step ahead of the offense after the first week of practice. But, it does have Reed excited about that side of the ball.
“I am super excited about the defense,” Reed said. “There were a lot of long faces on the offensive group, which I wasn’t disappointed with. I know our kids have a belief that we are going to be really good and I think a little of that became over confident and relaxation this first week. We had no bad days of practice, which means we practiced really well. There were days where you would struggle and last year we would have two good days and one bad day. We didn’t have any bad days this past week.
“Our kids think we are going to be so good that they did have long faces,” he added. “I said guys you have to celebrate the things that were good today and the defense played really well. We are all on the same team and we want the defense to be playing well.
“I liked that our offense was upset, and loved the way that our defense is playing. We have a lot of length and range out there and that is what gave us problems. It will be exciting to see the kids against some different teams.”
The offense did have a problem of putting the ball on the ground in the scrimmage. The offense fumbled five times and lost five of them.
“I am always concerned about putting the ball on the ground, that is a big thing with us,” Reed said. “If that happens later in the spring, then I will be much more concerned. Our format for Saturday was we were doing two drives with one type huddles, two with two type huddles and two with three, then we would rotate them back.
“There were a lot of moving pieces in that and had guys changing from offense to defense,” he added. “We can’t be putting the ball on the ground like that.
“The attitude the kids have and the expectation of knowing how to practice has made our practices run well. Last year was such a learning curve of even how we practice. They bring the right approach and that gives us more opportunity to coach. We have had college coaches go through here and they have told us our practices are extremely impressive.”
