Edmond North Has Task Of Stopping Mustang's Garrett

Mustang High School (3-0) pumps out as much talent as any football program in the state, and Chandler Garrett could be more talented than any of them.

This Friday night in Mustang, the Huskies from Edmond North (1-2) will have the task of slowing down the 6-foot-5, 210 pound gunslinger.

“You can’t game plan for just him. You have to line up in your formations, and it’s hard to do anything special for a quarterback that can both run and pass.  We’ll try to make it difficult and play our schemes on defense,” said Edmond North head coach Scott Burger.

Along with being one of the best prospects in the state and a Wyoming commit, Garrett also possesses the “clutch gene”. In last week’s win over Edmond Memorial, the Broncos overcame a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to come back and win. Did I mention he threw for five touchdowns against the Broncos’ arch rival Yukon, while rushing for one more? The kid can play.

The Huskies are very familiar with just how clutch Garrett can be. In last season’s matchup, North picked off Garrett two times at the beginning of the game, but Mustang was eventually able to pull away for the win behind Garrett’s guidance.

“When you’re facing a kid that has that much game experience, you’d expect him to be calm since he’s a two year starter. There’s not a lot of stuff he hasn’t seen, and he has confidence in his offense and the kids he has to throw to,” Burger said.

Garrett has two legit receiving targets in Bobby Brown and tight end Blake Williams. Both kids have had big seasons thus far, and it’ll be interesting if the Huskies’ new-look secondary will be able to slow them down.

Last year, North lined up in a 3-4 front on defense, but switched to a 4-2-5 before this season. This formation puts more defensive backs on the field while making the defense faster.

“I’ve liked the results of our defense so far. Just looking down through our program from seventh grade up, to run the 3-4 you’ve got to have certain kids at certain positions and we didn’t feel like we had that,” Burger said. “We thought our strength would be our skill kids, so we try to cover the lineman up as much as possible and let a linebacker roam free and make tackles.”

The entire Huskies defense will need to be engaged in order to slow down Garrett, but the Huskies have some pretty good players of their own. Despite being without starting running back Jerry Minifield, the Huskies will have plenty of playmakers on the field. North will play the backfield position by committee with Alex Smith and Darius McGlothin.

Edmond North also has a solid receiving threat in Mitchell Perkinson. The 5-foot-11 wide out has been on the radar for a few division one schools, and he’s definitely a threat to have a big game against Mustang.

“Mitchell does a good job and runs good routes. We try to move him around instead of leaving him in one spot. We need to help him out in order for him to help us out with other people stepping up,” said Burger.

Edmond North has seen a tough schedule so far this season with losses to both Edmond Santa Fe and Edmond Memorial, and that competitiveness may come in handy when they face the No. 3 team in 6A-1.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.