MacArthur football coach Brett Manning met with The Lawton Constitution’s Kevin Green ahead of the Highlanders’ Thursday night matchup with Southeast (2-2) at Cameron Stadium in District 5A-1 action.
Manning discussed a variety of topics, including the loss to Ardmore, the team’s offensive struggles and the Hammer.
Week 4 debrief
It was another tough week for Mac.
Despite some early success, the Highlanders couldn’t quite keep up with the No. 2 Tigers, dropping a 40-14 decision at Noble Stadium in Ardmore on Thursday night.
“The main thing that happened is Ardmore is really good,” Manning said. “They’ve got the best Ardmore team that I’ve seen since I’ve been at MacArthur. We were able to move the ball some — we found a few things we could utilize. But every time we got going a little bit, there’d be something that stopped us, and most of the time it was just Ardmore being really good.
“They have a good chance to win it all this year.”
You have to go back to 2006 to find the last time Mac started 1-3 and lost three-straight games in the same season.
That year, though, the Highlanders recovered and went on a 10-game winning streak all the way to the Class 5A championship game, where they lost to Carl Albert, 14-10, at Gaylord Memorial Stadium in Norman.
That is the silver lining Manning is clinging to as Mac looks to go on a similar run this season.
“I think we still have a lot to play for, and if we can get it together these next few weeks and go have a great game against Altus, that puts us in a pretty good spot to try to finish second in the district, and I think we can do that,” Manning said.
The Highlanders actually took a 7-0 lead over Ardmore with 5:24 remaining in the first quarter, even using some trickery to move the ball down the field during the scoring drive of 64 yards.
However, that success didn’t last long, for the Tigers held Mac to 136 yards the rest of the way — allowing only 200 yards total.
In comparison, Ardmore racked up 454 yards of offense, 392 of which came on the ground. Cameron Petties and Jadrein Monroe contributed the most to the Tigers’ effort, combining for 245 yards rushing and four touchdowns.
Quarterback pressure
The Highlanders finished with only 15 yards rushing, with Nasir Kemper leading the way with 20 yards and a touchdown.
Quarterback Racer Felter was sacked four times and finished with minus-34 yards rushing, which is the main reason for the team’s low tally.
Even when Felter wasn’t getting sacked, he didn’t have much time to throw thanks to Ardmore’s suffocating pressure. He finished with 175 yards passing and a touchdown, completing 10 of 24 throws.
The junior’s lone touchdown through the air came late in the fourth quarter when he found wide-open Aeron Woodson along the right sideline for a 57-yard strike.
“The offensive line is still learning and still growing,” Manning said. “It’s not all them. Our backs need to do a better job in their pass protection responsibilities, also. It’s everybody — there’s nobody doing everything right when it comes to pressure on the quarterback. There were times we had receivers not make the right release, causing Racer to hold on to the ball instead of throwing it to them. There were some times I think he should’ve thrown the ball — we had guys where we wanted them to be, but he didn’t throw it.”
Third-down struggles
The Highlanders’ struggles on third down persisted as well, for they converted only twice on 11 plays of that variety. Mac turned the ball over twice on fumbles as well, which also didn’t help its goal of forging a comeback.
“We’re not having as good of success on first and second down,” Manning said. “If you have 3rd-and-long, it’s a lot more difficult to convert rather than a 3rd-and-short. First down is the most important down because it leads to having those shorter third downs, and you have a better chance of converting on third and fourth down if you aren’t put in a long situation.”
Uncharted territory
Ever since Manning took over for his father as Mac’s head coach in 2009, he’s been accustomed to success.
In his nine completed seasons so far, Manning has led the Highlanders to more semifinal appearances (5) than first-round losses (3). The program has also been to two state championship games — winning one in 2014 — under his watchful eye.
So the fact that Mac has gone 7-8 in the last 15 games is a bit alarming, especially when considering Manning didn’t pick up his eighth loss a coach until game No. 38 — the 2011 state championship.
And from 2012 to 2016 — five seasons — the Highlanders lost only nine games.
Although Manning acknowledged the strange feeling of being dealt more losses, he said the wins and losses tally isn’t the most important aspect of the Mac program.
“Obviously, it’s not much fun, and we’d much rather be 4-0 right now,” Manning said. “Our kids are doing a great job, and I’ve always said it’s not about wins and losses. That’s easy to say when you’re undefeated and going deep in the playoffs. It’s hard to say now, but I still believe that’s true. We’re trying to build the character of these young men that we’re coaching, and failure and taking losses is a part of life. It’s not a fun part, but you have to deal with it. We’ve built character through success in the past, and this gives us the opportunity to build character through failures.
“Hopefully we’re not here for long, but win or lose, our goal here in higher than that.”
Senior captains
Every year, Manning and the coaching staff holds off on naming permanent captains until district play begins.
The reason is so every senior has a chance to be in that role before three select players are chosen to take over the mantel of team captains.
On Thursday night, the coaches’ choices for the position were revealed.
“We elected Michelle Artzberger, Ronnie Johnson and Matt Woods,” Manning said. “They are three really deserving guys.”
In addition to those three, the coaches select an honorary senior captain who displays great leadership each week, bringing the captain total to four.
Mac has 16 seniors on the roster this season.
Prepping for district bottom dwellers
The Highlanders have battled against quite the gauntlet the first few weeks of the season — with Lawton High, Clinton and Ardmore all presenting difficult challenges.
However, with Southeast and Western Heights on the immediate schedule — now is the perfect time for Mac to regain some confidence.
The Spartans and the Jets are considered the district bottom dwellers on a yearly basis, serving as glorified bye weeks for the district powerhouses.
The teams have finished seventh and eighth in the district every year since joining 5A-1 in 2016.
Manning said he is relieved to have an easy schedule the next two weeks, but there remain several areas the team must improve on before meeting No. 3 Altus in Week 7.
“We need to be more efficient offensively, and we need to eliminate our negative plays,” Manning said. “We need to quit shooting ourselves in the foot. A lot of it has been ourselves — the problem is us. We need these next two weeks. We’ve had six weeks in-a-row (including scrimmages) of very high-quality opponents.”