What should a person do when the high school team he follows, supports, and has loved since childhood experiences a season that resembles a disaster wearing cleats?
- He should stick with his team through thin and thinner.
- He should find an alternative that does not cause him to pull out his little remaining hair (it must, however, be one that does not play his team).
- He should pretend COVID-19 canceled the season.
- He should learn about quarterback Bryce Drummond of Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
The answer is d): Because I have followed Drummond since he was a freshman lineman, this choice was a no-brainer which I am eminently qualified to make. Some background: I may live in Northeast Ohio but I am an Oklahoman. Always have been—no matter where I’ve lived. Always will be—no matter the factors that argue against this. (For instance, Oklahoma’s politics has devolved into a shade redder than its dirt.)
If I could see one player play this season, it would be Bryce Drummond, son of The Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond, famous blogger, author, and Food Network show host) and the Marlboro Man (Ladd Drummond, fourth-generation boss of the Drummond Ranch near Pawhuska). The 433,000-acre cattle ranch in 2019 ranked as the 17th largest spread in the country. (The number varies depending on year and source. Land Report magazine put the Drummonds 23rd on its list of 100 largest landowners in 2017, two notches ahead of Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO and Washington Post owner.) Not only is the Drummond Ranch a profitable cattle operation on which Bryce works when he isn’t flinging touchdown passes, but the federal government rents a portion of the land for about $2 million a year to pasture wild horses and burros.
The Drummonds have Oklahoma roots that extend to when the state was still Indian Territory. Frederick Drummond came to the Osage Nation, whose lands abut the ranch, in 1866 when he was 22. After a year in New York, the Scottish emigre migrated to Texas to try ranching. When that failed, he moved on to a St. Louis whole dry-goods operation where he met customer John R. Skinner, owner of the Osage Mercantile Company that Ree Drummond has revitalized into a town-saving tourist attraction.
Frederick found success not in the Mercantile, as Ree has, but as a trader, after he and wife Addie Gentner, from Coffeyville, Kanas, moved to nearby Hominy and Frederick helped organize the Hominy Trading Company. They had three sons, Roy, Frederick Gentner, and Alfred Alexander “Jack”, all of whom went to college, then into ranching; a dynasty of ranchers was born of which Bryce is now an up-at-4 a.m. certifiable star.
With the work ethic of a rancher and the arm of a quarterback, Bryce Drummond sounds like just another Pawhuska Huskie. “I don’t believe my life is any different from anybody else on the (5-0) team,” he told the Tulsa World’s Dekota Gregory. “I’m just another guy trying to get a (championship) ring.” The estimated $250 million that his family is worth can’t buy that. It has to be earned, as was the scholarship that North Texas has offered. Scholarships are not easy to come by when you play in Class A, populated by the smallest schools among seven classifications for 11-man teams.
Drummond’s statistics make eyes pop and cause defensive coordinators’ heads to hurt. His coach, Matt Hennesy, has seen the likes of this before. He coached Mason Fine (2012-15) when Fine broke Oklahoma’s single-season (5,006 yards and 71 touchdowns) and career (13,081 yards and 166 TDs) passing records at Locust Grove. It is uncommon for a coach of Hennesy’s caliber to move from a Class 3A school to Class A but Bryce Drummond may have been worth it. In addition to Hennesy, Bryce has Fine, North Texas all-time passing leader, as his quarterback coach, because after Fine failed to catch on in the National Football League this season he accepted Plan B.
The differences between Fine and Drummond are the fact Fine has done what Drummond hopes to do, despite doubters, and their size. At about 5-feet-10 and 170 pounds, Fine found himself ignored by most colleges, as Drummond has been because he plays in Class A, with its overall lesser overall talent. Has Drummond, 6-3 or 6-4 and 220, been tested? With the size of a classic drop-back passer, he can also run.
In his most recent game, Drummond ran for 63 yards and a touchdown and completed 20 of 25 passes for 310 yards and seven TDs in a 92-0 victory over Fairland. Hennesy preached to his players starting fast and playing hard and smart—for the first half. They did. It was 80-0 at halftime and the JVs mopped up. The final was the largest margin of victory for an Oklahoma team since 1964 when Ada beat Seminole 98-0, according to the Tulsa World’s Barry Lewis. Oklahoma’s big-city newspapers, the World and The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, track Bryce’s accomplishments religiously and both have him high on their list of the state’s outstanding players, regardless their class. Maxpreps, which tracks high schools nationwide, places him fifth in yards per game (347.2) as he closes in on 7,000 career passing yards. Not bad for a former freshman O-Lineman whose team was 0-10.
My team, Nowata, and Pawhuska used to be the smallest schools in the Verdigris Valley Conference. It was on Pawhuska’s field during the 1961 season that I made my first start at fullback as a sophomore, a convert from single-wing center. (A fuller account can be found in: Football, Fast Friends, and Small Towns: A Memoir Straight from a Broken Oklahoma Heart.) I was no wunderkind like Bryce Drummond.
Drummond has made himself the quarterback he has become. Before his senior season, he worked to make his throws as accurate as his arm is strong. Each season Drummond and the team have improved, climbing out of their winless hole to 6-5 when he was a sophomore and then reaching the state quarterfinals last season before losing to Ringling, eventual state champion. And now? “He’s just a different player,” his coach has said. Drummond’s work ethic comes from The Pioneer Woman and Marlboro Man. No surprise there. Anyone could have watched it happen on Ree’s TV show.
Hennesy saw it in person: “When your dad gets your ass up and takes you out to work cattle at 5 a.m. before you come to (lift) weights . . . and that’s just the way they do things,” it can create an athletic “freak”—one who freaks out foes under Friday Night Lights.
Updating the Accomplishments of Bryce Drummond
Oct. 9—Pawhuska 52, Quapaw 19: Drummond completed 22-of-26 passes (85 percent) for 429 yards and four touchdowns, all to junior receiver Mason Gilkey who accounted for 236 yards on nine catches. Pawhuska kept its record spotless at 6-0.
Oct. 15—Pawhuska 68, Rejoice Christian (Owasso) 35: Pawhuska had been scheduled to play Oklahoma Union in a District A-5 game but instead wound up taking on 2A Rejoice Christian, which was to have played Nowata. Coronavirus concerns forced the change. Unfazed, Drummond accounted for 403 yards and eight touchdown, six on runs. With the victory Pawhuska pushed its record to 7-0 and remained No. 1 in the Tulsa World’s Class A rankings and No. 3 in The Oklahoman’s.
Oct. 23—Pawhuska 66, Afton 0: In what Coach Matt Hennesy considered “our worst game of the year offensively,” his Huskies nevertheless decimated overmatched Afton. They did it because the “defense lit it up all night” and the “special teams played great.” A “worst game” for quarterback Bryce Drummond meant completing 16-of-26 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns before taking a seat and letting younger brother Todd throw for a TD. No doubt made mom and dad both proud and happy.
Oct. 30—Pawhuska 86, Wyandotte 0: As if to make up for the un-Drummond-like percentage in the previous game, Bryce completed all 13 of his passes for 291 yards and six for touchdowns. He has thrown 44 TD passes in the Huskies 9-0 season. Oh, yeah, Drummond also rushed for 66 yards and, of course, a touchdown.
Nov. 6—Pawhuska 95, Ketchum 7: With another resounding offensive display to end a 10-0 regular season, the Huskies broke the Oklahoma single-season scoring record of 646 points set by Locust Grove in 2014. Pawhuska, with Bryce Drummond at the controls for 338 yards and eight TDs, put up 695 points. There is, of course, a commonality in the Locust Grove and Pawhuska records: Matt Hennesy coached both teams, and Huskie quarterback coach Mason Fine quarterbacked Locust Grove before going on to set still more records at North Texas, where Drummond is a 2021 commit.
2020 Oklahoma State Class A Playoffs
Nov. 20—(5-5) Hominy at (10-0) Pawhuska: Pawhuska advanced by forfeit, presumably pandemic related. The Huskies will play host to Warner in the Round of 16, their first game due to a first-round bye and the forfeit.
Nov. 27—Pawhuska 58, Warner 0: Completing 28-of-38 passes for 338 yards and four touchdowns, Bryce Drummond led the 11-0 Huskies into the quarterfinal round. No. 1-ranked (Tulsa World) Pawhuska will play host to unranked 7-5 Mooreland, which advanced with a 38-18 victory over Gore. The Huskies reaped the largest share of the honors when District A-5 recognized its best, including Most Valuable Player Bryce Drummond, who threw for 50 touchdowns in the regular season and more than 4,000 yards. Matt Hennesy was named Coach of the Year. Other Huskies honored were: Lineman Jamar Goff (Co-Defensive MVP), offensive lineman Dylan Doyal (shared Offensive Player of the Year), outside linebacker Tell Richardson (shared Defensive Player of the Year) and all-district players Cody Starr (defensive back), Holton Justus (wide receiver), and honorable mentions Lane Cosby (defensive back) and Goy Camargo.
Dec. 4—Pawhuska 44, Mooreland 6: Dual-threat quarterback Bryce Drummond threw for five touchdowns and ran for another as the No. 1-ranked Huskies stayed undefeated (12-0) and moved on to play host to undefeated, No. 2 Cashion in the semifinals. Drummond completed 19-of-25 passes for 286 yards to rushed for 48 on only three carries. It is Pawhuska’s first semifinal appearance since 2009.
Dec. 11—Cashion 7, Pawhuska 6: The semifinals proved a cold night in Pawhuska in more than one way. The Huskies, who had averaged 66.4 points through a perfect regular season and previous playoff games, played excellent defense against three-time champion Cashion but surprisingly could score only once despite multiple 24-of-50drives inside the 20-yard-line. Prolific quarterback Bryce Drummond who threw for 50 touchdowns during the regular season had none, missed a two-point conversion throw, and finished 24-of-50 for 158 yards. “You can’t win when you get the ball in the red one four times like we did tonight,” Pawhuska Coach Matt Hennesy told Mike Brown of the Tulsa World, “and can’t score.” Cashion’s defense did more than it had ever done to make that happen Coach Lynn Shackelford told Oklahoman staff writer Nick Sardis. “I’ve coached [Cashion] for 17 years,” he said. “We’ve never played defense like we played tonight.” It took that and a fourth-quarter 52-yard bomb Ben Harman to London LaGasse with 3:28 to play to send Cashion to the final against Thomas, which Cashion defeated 28-7 in September. Lance Christensen’s extra-point kick made the difference, and sent Bryce Drummond home to the Drummond Ranch no doubt disappointed but with a college career ahead.
Dec. 17—Quarterback Bryce Drummond honored his verbal commitment to North Texas and signed during the early signing period. In leading Pawhuska to the Class 2A semifinals, Drummond completed 257-of-356 passes for 4,011 yards and 50 touchdowns. He also ran for 18 touchdowns. The Tulsa World’s Barry Lewis reported Drummond also had offers from Tulsa and Texas Tech. Though I can’t know Bryce’s reasons for his choice, from my perspective he made an intelligent decision. Coached by Matt Hennesy and his position coach Mason Fine, Drummond had to have had access to more information about North Texas than any of the schools hoping to sign him. Hennesy was Fine’s coach at Locust Grove when North Texas recruited Oklahoma’s all-time record-setting passer despite what was considered his less than ideal size. Fine turned out to be perfectly ideal, setting more records at North Texas. As good as Bryce Drummond is, it is a leap from Class A high school football to even the lower level of FBS football at which North Texas plays. Drummond’s best chance to succeed, would seem to be at the school that was first to believe in him and want him.
Jan. 30, 2021—Already enrolled at North Texas in preparation for his first spring practice, Bryce Drummond was named one of five Tulsa World Offensive Player of the Year finalists on its 2020 All-World football team. Here are the statistics on which High School Sports Editor Barry Lewis made his selection (they differ slightly from those listed above, which I will not change as I relied on both the World and The Oklahoman for the earlier stats): Completed 256-of-353 passes for 4,015 yards and 59 touchdowns; rushed for 713 yards and 18 TDs on 101 carries; on defense, made 24 tackles and an interception; punted 11 times for an average of 44 yards. Drummond was listed both as a quarterback and all-around player and took the Pawhuska Huskies to the Class A semifinals.
Feb. 7, 2021—After football signing days, The Oklahoman published its final version of a season-long list of Oklahoma’s Top 30 players in the 2021 class. Bryce Drummond ranked No. 24 on the list for leading “one of the highest-scoring offenses in Class A”—and, for that matter, of any class in the state.
Oklahoma All-State Teams
Tulsa World—A finalist for All-World offensive players of the year, Drummond was named to the World’s All-State first team as an All-Purpose player. He passed for 4,015 yards and 59 TDs as a senior (9,455 yards and 93 TDs for his career) and ran for 101 yards and 18 TDs (1,951 yards and 53 TDs for his career). He also punted for an average of 44 yards and had 24 tackles and an interception on defense.
The Oklahoman—Drummond was chosen All-State second team quarterback and was joined by Mason Gilkey, his No. 1 receiving target.
