Methodical offense lifts Yukon past Edmond North
Yukon coach Jeremy Reed taught himself the tripleoption flexbone offense from scratch
EDMOND — Watching the Yukon offense is like going back in time.
In the age of pass-first offenses, Yukon runs the tripleoption flexbone.
The Millers pride themselves on methodically moving the ball down the field and wearing down opponents.
That's exactly what Yukon did during its season opener on Friday night. The Millers pulled away for a 21-13 victory at Edmond North.
Many of the younger fans at the Class 6A-I game likely weren't familiar with the Millers' offensive scheme.
That doesn't bother Yukon coach Jeremy Reed.
“I don't think there is any way you can talk me out of what we're doing,” Reed said. “I feel like it's one of the best things you can do for your overall team. I really like it because nobody else is doing it in our class.”
The coach's adoption of the flexbone was unexpected.
Reed, who is in his third year with the Millers, didn't know a lot about the scheme until 2013 when he coached at Dickson.
Reed initially ran a spread offense at the school, but his team struggled to move the ball.
“Although our schemes were sound, we were getting a lot people still overloading the box and making us try to beat them one on one on the outside,” he said. “We didn't have a quarterback that could do that, nor did we have a receiver that could.”
Reed said t hat he began researching different offenses before deciding to switch to the flexbone.
“I didn't know anything about it, so I learned everything from scratch,” Reed said. “I really liked the intangibles it built within our team, as far as toughness, unselfishness – just the whole team mantra was something that you had to have while running that offense.”
The new scheme was vastly different than any of Reed's
previous offenses.
He had pass-heavy schemes at his previous coaching stops. As a high school player at Marietta, Reed was one of the best passers in the state.
“My whole history is spread offense and tempo – all the things that they're doing now,” Reed said.
Reed took his flexbone offense from Dickson to Altus when he was hired by the school in 2014. He proved his system could work when he won the 2015 Class 5A state title with the Bulldogs.
Reed moved to Arkansas before accepting the head coaching job at Yukon, where he thinks the flexbone is a perfect fit.
“The (Yukon) community is built on toughness,” he said. “I just felt like we could be very successful with all the intangibles it (the flexbone) brings in Yukon.”