That Muskogee offensive coordinator Rusty Harris was bringing with him the Wildcat offense this year was made clear from the get-go.

It was after he got here that he added another couple of components.

Thunder and Lightning. And if all goes well, those elements should put a little spark in the prance of the wildcat.

Meet Thunder, otherwise known as Eddie Venters.

Venters was an outside linebacker last season. Harris sat down with the 5-foot-11, 220-pound senior and told him how he could contribute on the other side.

“It was the first day I met him,” Venters said. “He told me he thought I had a good frame for carrying the football and he wanted to try and do some things with me running with it.”

Said Harris: “He’s a great vertical running threat who runs with a lot of authority.”

Then, there’s Lightning, or what his parents named him, Brenton Bogar.

Bogar, at 6-0, 180 the fastest Rougher in the past two seasons (4.28 seconds in the 40-yard dash), might have figured more prominently in the running game with since-graduated Vernon Scott, now at Colorado State. But a high ankle sprain suffered while rushing the punter in the season opener against Owasso limited him for much of the season.

Overcoming some hamstring issues to run late in track last spring, he’s now healthy and comes in with high expectations, both of himself and from the coaching staff.

“If there’s someone faster than Bogar, I don’t know ‘em,” Harris said.

“We’re going to be a good tandem,” Bogar said of he and Venters. “It’s going to be a better offense than last year. The wildcat gives you a lot of fakes and will open things up. The effort everyone’s putting out, the receivers willing to block, I know it’s going to be better than last year. I know it for a fact.”

It was an offense that scored just 234 points in the regular season, fifth-best among District 6A-3 teams, and averaged 22 points over the season which ended with a first-round, 16-9 overtime upset playoff loss at home against Stillwater. That’s a 13-point difference compared to the previous regular season.

As much as their athleticism, Bogar and Venters are being counted on for leadership.

“That loss woke a lot of people up and made for some changes in the way we looked at ourselves,” Bogar said.