Oak Grove’s undefeated season could be attributed to many things, such as quarterback Kabe Barnett’s stellar play in the pocket, the one-two punch running back duo of Courtland Harris and EJ Newell, the regular amazing catches by the Warrior wide receivers, or even the team’s aggressive defense. However, the central point of Oak Grove’s success stems directly from its offensive line and its control of the line of scrimmage.
Oak Grove’s offensive line did not give up one sack the entire regular season as the Warriors clinched the region title and a No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
After last season, the Warriors graduated most of its key players who had been part of the back-to-back appearances in the state title game. The one exception was the offensive line, with its five main starters combining to have just under 100 games of experience.
They are by no means the biggest offensive line that high school football has to offer, as the group averages 260 pounds and stands at an average height of 6 feet. Despite the size, it has by no means mattered as the group has helped its offense elevate into the high-powered category by helping the team average 373 yards per game and score 44 points per game.
“You look across the board, and we don’t have the 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4 at 300 pounds,” offensive line coach Chris Lee said. “Our center is 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10 at 265. You wouldn’t look at him and say he looks like a big-time football player, but he blocks like one.
“We are very physical. It’s tough even in 6A football to find five physical offensive linemen.”
Part of the success is because of the several coaching changes the group has undergone. Current offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Russell Mitchell coached the group in 2017, then head coach Drew Causey took over the position until just two weeks before the 2020 season started. After years of joking at the idea, Causey then switched over to Lee, who was the linebackers coach.
“Mitchell and I had talked about it one day and thought it would be a good move,” Causey said. “I had been joking about it for three years that I was going to do it, and I just never did it. He finally wanted to do it. It was the right time. We had an extra coach on defense, so we didn’t lose anything there. It was more of that we needed to add another coach on offense. Chris is extremely smart, and he understands the game. He’s very good at breaking everything down from a simple form.”
What culminated was having multiple offensive coaches equally understanding the offensive line, which has helped the group progress even further.
“The more people that you have that understand offensive line play, then the better you are going to be,” Causey said. “There’s no way you can coach all five of them at once. During ball games, I’ll take one side, and (Lee) will take another side so you can always see what’s going on. As an o-line coach, you can’t watch the ball. You have to focus on the left guard or the left tackle.”
Another reason for the group’s success was setting the simple goal of wanting to be dubbed the best offensive line in the state. As of now, right tackle Darrian King, left tackle Klabron Pollard, right guard Donovan Allen, left guard Sidney Pierfax and center Taurese Sibley have proven just that as the Oak Grove run game has averaged 6.3 yards per carry and with the passing game putting up 189 yards per game.
“Our goal is to be the best,” Allen said. “That’s one of our main goals. That and to bring a (championship) back. For us seniors, it’s our last go around.
“We know if we do our job up front, then those guys behind us can go out and do their job. It’s a team effort. As long we all put in, then we can get things done.”
The group are friends on and off the field. That chemistry allows them to be open and honestly critique each other during games and practice. At the same time, it allows them to keep things laid back.
“Usually to describe us, it would be a brotherhood,” Allen said. “We can depend on each other for stuff. We can depend on the friendship that we have if anything goes wrong with all we have been through.
“We take it as the unknown soldiers. We just have to do our job. We know we don’t get the credit for it, but deep down, it depends on us.”
While some may think that being part of an essentially perfect offensive line would mean tireless practices, that would almost be wrong. One of the secrets to the group’s success has been its no shoulder pad practices on Wednesdays.
“I’m going to say the offensive line has it easy,” Causey said. “They go hit the sled, then they do inside drills, but on Wednesdays, they get to take their shoulder pads off. They get to do all their stuff with no shoulder pads and no helmet and just let their bellies hang out. It picks those guys’ spirits up, not having shoulder pads on and doing things separate. That’s kind of our way that we appreciate everything they are doing. The skill guys have everything on, and they are just in shorts.”
The special practice is a new addition to Oak Grove and was caused because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We started it this year,” Causey said. “Our schedules are actually different this year than when we normally can practice. Wednesday is our early release day, so we can only have an hour of practice. We treat Wednesday like Thursday. We talked about the whole team doing it, but our defensive coaches wanted the whole defense to still be in pads, so we just let the offensive line. We can thank COVID for that one.”
It not only keeps the offensive line fresh, but according to Allen, it plays into the group’s mentality of holding each other accountable for the rest of the team.
“We love it every time,” Allen said. “We take it as that we know it’s a free day for us, but we still have to stay focused. We are different and the only ones out there with no pads on. We still have to keep our focus on our assignments and stay locked in.
“It’s a mentality thing. We come in every week and ask, ‘What do we want to do to be the best? What do we want to do to set us apart and make us different?’ That’s not even a group thing. That’s a team thing. It’s like coach (Causey) says that we go week by week as 1-0, and that’s our plan. If we do that all the way to the end of the season, then we can see where it takes us.”
