2009 season in review

The 2009 Guthrie football season is one to remember. Sure, its not as special as 2002 or 2007, but the '09 Jays will be remembered for many things.

Despite the five losses, the most in one season under Rafe Watkins, this squad was Watkins fourth team to reach the state semi finals in his nine seasons. Still many did not believe Guthrie was a semi final team even when the playoff bracket was released. Of course, it was gloom and doom after the 0-2 start.

Bryan Dutton winning the quarterback race was a much talked about topic in the first three weeks of the season. Turns out the 15 year old not only won the job, but took it to another level. Dutton finished with 2,535 all purpose yards, including 2,101 passing yards, 26 passing scores, and 10 interceptions.

Dutton now ranks second in GHS history with most passing yards and most touchdowns passing in a single season behind Keaton Callins 2008 season (2,352 yards and 31 passing scores). Dutton, obviously, well have a great chance to become the all time passer for a career in Guthrie history before the end of next season.

The numbers are impressive for any quarterback in 5A football, but Dutton's ability to handle the quarterback job on and off the field speaks volumes how tough he is and will be in the next three seasons. Mental toughness is what will make Dutton a tough customer in the future.

Dutton's primary target was Kentrell Brothers, who will be the next Division I athlete to leave the Guthrie football program. Brothers finishes the season with 62-catches for 1,122 yards and 12 touchdowns.

According to my numbers and records that I currently have, Brothers set records in most catches and most yards receiving for a BlueJay in a season. I am still working on Keonta Golston's numbers, but believe Kentrell may have become the first BlueJay to go over 1,000 yards receiving. If not, the list is not very long, but having said that Kentrell is on pace to lead all the Jays receiving records.

The thing that many people may not know that Kentrell leads the entire state with 17 sacks. A season ago he finished with 15. Skyler Smith helped a season ago with the 15 as teams ran away from Skyler, but this season, and next season, they are running away from Kentrell.

The offensive line was a work in a progress. The nucleus from Day 1 was center Dustin Bowman and when he looked to his left and right he saw multiple sophomores joining him in the trenches. The group was much improved by playoff time with Blake Belcher, Hayden Seifert, Ricky Ware, and Bryce Sullivan.

Senior Zach Olsen was a pleasant surprise for the Jays this season, despite his injuries. Olsen finished with 20-catches for 256-yards with a one touchdown, but came up with multiple big catches this season particularly in the win over Piedmont and his catch against Bixby that kept a drive alive.

Continuing on with nice surprises, Corbin Crockett will be remembered for the game winning 55-yard touchdown against East Central, as well as being interfered with on the fake field goal. Crockett finished with 201 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Not too bad after not playing the game in three years.

What a break out season sophomore Landry Chappell had with 177 tackles that ranks him seventh in the entire state. Chappell came on as a freshmen and played an important role, but his role was majorly increased this season.

Cousin Jaden Chappell finished a great career with 145 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions, and three touchdowns in his senior campaign. Chappell, a three year starter, played in the secondary for the '07 title team. Both Jaden and Landry played hurt in the last few weeks, but were not about to use that for an excuse.

Luke Davis finished with 112 tackles and no telling how many of those were open field tackles. The speedy sophomore, who also played as a freshmen, will have a chance to finish his career with maybe close to 400 tackles.

Kentrell was a force that I mentioned earlier, but his fellow mates on the defensive line helped make it hard for opponents to run the ball this season. Martell Oates, Blaine Smedley, Mike Johns, and Felix Scott. The group provided a solid front seven.

John Clark was valuable on both sides of the ball and will be a key player for the Jays next season as a junior. Clark played multiple spots on both sides and played them all well.

Brady Blanchard continue to improve as the games got more and more important.

Devin Williams and Dustin Bohanan, both seniors, played big roles in the secondary and in the playoffs played well. Williams sealed the deal with the interception against East Central and Bohanan finished with numerous knock down passes in the post season.

As I have said many times, the Guthrie coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for what they have achieved this season. The Guthrie offense was tweaked throughout the year to be able to make it as far as they did. The defense was, once again, one of the best in 5A and reflects the great defensive mind of Kelly Beeby.

Beeby deserves a lot of credit for what he does and the results and dominance on the defensive side is proof enough over the past six seasons.