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This Just in: the Bluejays are, in Fact, That Good
By: Craig “Stat Man” Fleck
Sometimes it’s difficult to tell how good a teams going to be when you’ve only seen them on paper or in a meaningless preseason scrimmage. You don’t really know whether all the preseason hype is for real, or just hot air from overexcited fans seeing the upcoming season through rose-colored glasses. So it always gives me a little extra excitement to see a team tee it up for the first time in a season because then we see if they can live up to all the expectations. The only question I have coming out of Guthrie’s performance against Shawnee is whether the hype can live up to how good this team actually is. Here are a couple of thoughts I had from Friday night.
· If it’s possible, Kye Staley seems to be much better this year than last year. He’s still as big, strong, and fast as ever, but seems to have greatly matured in the passing game. In the touchdown pass he threw to Donte' Foster in the second quarter, he checked down through two or three receivers before he found Foster. In the past, he probably would have pulled that ball down and tried to run it in. He showed that he has made great strides in his patience and confidence in the pocket, which is nothing but good news for the Jays.
· Speaking of Foster, how about the junior starting to come into his own. He’s had high expectation’s surrounding him, and with three catches for three touchdowns on Friday, it looks like he’s ready to have a breakout season this year.
· The one question mark for Guthrie coming into this season was the offensive line. Well, I think we can go ahead and turn that question mark into an exclamation mark. They dominated a very talented Shawnee front four all night long.
· Josh King is a freak of nature. And in the words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
My game ball this week goes to the big ugly’s up front, the Bluejay O-line for plowing the road all night long.
Final score: Bluejays:42 and Shawnee:10
Craig Fleck is a guest writer for GuthrieSportsPage.com and is a member of the Guthrie Bluejay radio crew for Hot 93.7FM KSPI.