By Mike Kays
Phoenix Sports Editor
October 03, 2007 04:51 pm
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Click here to watch this week's Rougher Update video with Coach Matt Hennesy and senior DL, Stacy McGee.
Jameel Owens paid close attention to Malcolm Kelly’s travails Saturday.
The Oklahoma wide receiver had no catches in the Sooners’ 27-24 loss to Colorado on Saturday, a reminder to Owens of a game three weeks ago against Union.
OU coach Bob Stoops was at that game too, and for the time he and assistant coach Jackie Shipp were there, Owens had as many catches as Kelly. After Stoops left at the half, Owens would grab a two-point conversion catch — the first throw in his direction all day — and ended up with only two other catches for 33 yards.
And as with the Sooners, the end result wasn’t positive. Muskogee lost to Union 26-11.
Friday night brings another big stage for Owens and a chance at redemption in various ways, starting with receptions, as 6A No. 3 Muskogee plays host to No. 2 Jenks in a matchup featuring a pair of 4-1 teams with the only 2-0 marks in District 6A-4.
Saturday’s game looked familiar to Owens when it came to Kelly, OU’s primary receiver.
“Almost the same (as Union),” he said. “They didn’t get the ball in the hands of a playmaker too much but that’s football. A receiver isn’t going to get the ball in his hands as often as he wants. That’s going to happen and you’re going to have to live with it.”
Muskogee coach Matt Hennesy said some mixes of coverage and Owens overrunning routes were both factors, saying then that the state’s No. 1 recruit “was trying too hard to make things happen.”
Hennesy is also aware that Owens needs to make things happen this week. He enters the game with 562 yards on 27 catches, a 20.8 yard average, and four touchdowns.
“This isn’t a knock to Jameel from the Union game or Randon (offensive coordinator Lowe) or anybody, but I don’t want to be sitting here looking at the stats on Saturday and see that result this week,” Hennesy said.
He’s even got a number in mind, one that appears in the game plan as often as any X or O.
“I’m using the number 15 in several areas of strategy and that’s one of them,” he said. “Whether it’s punt returns, kickoff returns, catches, put him in at quarterback, I don’t know — whatever it is, he needs to have 15 touches and be a big part of this game.”
In all his candor, Hennesy would probably like to avoid putting Owens in at quarterback. Owens had to do that in the regular season matchup between the two teams a year ago because starting quarterback Rell Lewis, now a University of Kansas redshirt, tore knee ligaments in the opening kickoff and didn’t return until the postseason.
Muskogee lost 28-3, compiling 37 total yards. Owens had minus-46 yards rushing on seven carries and completed 2 of 7 passes for 25 yards. Muskogee’s longest play from scrimmage was Owens’ 14-yard pass to Andre Anderson with 5:10 left in the third quarter.
But in the return matchup in the Class 6A semifinals, with Lewis healthy, Owens had a big-play night: two receptions, both for touchdowns. One was a 21-yarder, the other, a 91-yard touchdown run off a slant pass where he stopped, made the defender commit, then raced to the end zone for what was then a 14-14 tie.
Jenks coach Allan Trimble, whose team won the game 52-35, remembered it.
“It was a simple slant and go and I want to say we had him bracketed with the corner wide and the safety inside and the corner fell on the slant,” Trimble said.
Trimble is also aware of what Owens did against Union, or perhaps Union did against Owens.
“Union has a different secondary. They have good speed in secondary which gives them the ability to offer different matchups, man to man, cover two, quarters,” he said. “We don’t have a guy who can go man on him without it coming back to get us. We hate to change what we do in practice, so hopefully it will be coverage by committee.
“Owens is what he is. But they have some other good receivers we have to be aware of too.”
Anderson (22 catches, 166 yards) and Shjuan Richardson (20, 161) both have over 20 catches. They and C.J. Marshall (14, 164) are those other options. Richardson had a three-catch, 81-yard night in the semifinal. Anderson three catches for 59 yards. Overall, MHS had 362 receiving yards.
“Jenks’ secondary in the past isn’t the strength of their defense,” Owens said. “We need to go out there and run our routes and have a big game.”
And, to Owens, it’s irrelevant which receiver has the biggest game as long as there’s a difference- maker.
“I haven’t beat Jenks on the varsity level yet,” he said. “Winning would put us in position to win district and force Jenks and Union to play each other in the playoffs on the other side of the bracket.”
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