The Wayne Bulldogs open their 2024 football campaign against the Crooked Oak Ruf Nex at 7 p.m. tonight (Thursday) in Oklahoma City.

Wayne is expecting to square off against a very athletic team and head coach Brandon Sharp said his team will need to be disciplined.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Sharp said. “They have a really talented senior running back. We have to get our run fits on defense and get the tailback to the ground.”

Sharp said the Ruf Nex offensive line will be big and physical and his players will have to match that physical play.

Offensively, Crooked Oak runs a spread offense out of the shotgun and will try to get their play makers into space.

“They’re going to spread you out on defense,” Sharp confirmed.

Defensively, Crooked Oak will base out of a 3-4 front.

“They have big lineman and real physical linebackers,” Sharp said. “Their back end is extremely athletic. We will need to sustain blocks and try to get blockers to the second level.”

Southwest Covenant

Wayne scrimmaged Southwest Covenant last Friday and Sharp said there were things he was pleased with and other issues that need improvement.

“Overall, I was pleased with their effort and attitudes,” he said. “That’s what I’m looking for in these scrimmages. If they mess up, as long as they’re going hard we can accept some mistakes.

“We can fix them not getting lined up right or some busts. But effort and attitude – that’s on them.”

Sharp said he and his staff expected a few miscues as the team adjusts to running a new offense.

“We had a few busts on the offensive line,” Sharp said. “The front they gave us was a little different than we were expecting. The guys had to adjust on the fly. With this offense, as long as they stick to the rules, it doesn’t matter what the front is.”

Sharp thought his backfield did a good job during the scrimmage as well.

“The offense is different, but they’re adjusting,” he said. “If we can get a crease, Sloan (Jackson) is a home run threat on any play. Logan Simpson is a good pounder back there and it’s a good one-two punch.

“Jaxon Dill is doing good things. He is correcting some of the things he was doing wrong on the boot legs. He’s a senior and he’ll get it corrected.

Wayne stayed in their base defense the whole scrimmage and Sharp was happy with the way they swarmed to the ball.

“We always had six or eight getting to the football,” he said. “We forced them into a lot of negative plays and that’s what you’re looking for in your defense.”

Wayne gave up a few pass plays during the scrimmage and Sharp said he left his cornerbacks on an island.

“We’ll adjust and do some things to help them in a game,” he said.