Oak Park Scouting Report.

Written Sunday October 20th, at 2:10 AM

Oak Park really has not been much of a football power until coach and athletic director Greg Carter took over the program in 2010.

Carter came over to Knight Valley from Inkster where he had success in coaching players like Devin Gardner along with a successful coaching campaign at Detroit DePorres had made Oak Park and his players to be good students academically in the classroom and keep his kids out of trouble.

Carter has turned around the culture of the Knights especially when he got there. Oak Park was struggling academically and athletically. He turned the athletic program around over there. Carter has hired two good coaches in Basketball in Bryan Tipton over from Detroit Cody to coach the boys’ basketball team and also lured Diane Jones from retirement after a successful state championship runs at Detroit Renaissance to coach the girls’ basketball team and become the assistant athletic director.

A lot of players look up to Carter as a father figure and for good reason. He is honest and truthful to them and is always there to help them. Carter wants his kids to succeed as students first then athletes.

The Knights last season finished 9-3, 6-2 in the White, made the playoffs for the first time since 2005, won the White for the first time in school history, and beat Southfield twice before losing a heart breaker to Wyandotte Roosevelt 10-6 in the Regional Finals last season.

Now Oak Park’s run to make the playoffs this season rides on this game as the road weary Knights will travel to Lake Orion to face the Dragons on Friday night.

The Knights come into the game with a 5-3 record, and was 4-3 in the White are a spread team who two backs in the I formation set. Oak Park likes to run the ball as well as throw it to their athletes. They like to use their athletes to their full advantage as well.

Oak Park has had a nightmare schedule this season with only two home games against Southfield and Oxford (both losses) and had to play Rochester Adams, Harrison, Farmington, Bloomfield Hills, Southfield-Lathrup all on the road and played Orchard Lake Saint Mary’s at Wayne State. This team has been road weary all season.

The Dragons will have their hands full especially in containing the speedy and gritty Knights. Lake Orion allowed six touchdowns and 234 yards to Ian Eriksen of Clarkston last week, now will see another very good and talented running back in the form of junior running back/free safety John Kelly. Kelly is a very fast and speedy running back, very similar to Eriksen. He is getting some looks especially from Michigan State who gave him an offer to become a Spartan in the summer.

Kelly has had some big games this season including a 167 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries against Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in week one. He had 139 yards on 18 carries and three touchdowns against Adams in a 36-30 victory for his Knights in Rochester. Kelly had 170 yards and two touchdowns against Farmington a few weeks ago. His breakout game came two weeks ago against Harrison where Kelly had over 30 carries for 225 yards and five touchdowns.

Kelly can also pass catch as well especially in open space and in Carter’s spread offense he likes to get the ball to his athletes like Kelly. He had a 36 yard fumble recovery on defense against Harrison as well from his free safety spot.

 “When we play our best, we can be a very dangerous team” he said to reporters after the Orchard Lake Saint Mary’s game.

Oak Park does have a power back as well in Ricardo Brown. Brown is a transfer from Inkster whom is big and talented. He had a one yard touchdown against Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the first game of the season and had an eight yard touchdown run against Adams. Brown is a very good power back and sometimes can become the thunder while Kelly becomes the lightning of the Knights offense.

The Knights have a very good passing game in the form of sophomore quarterback Chauncey Lowman. He has a very good arm and can run when need to. Lowman was huge against Adams where he had a touchdown pass and a two point conversion pass in that game. He also had a huge game against Harrison where he was 12 for 18 for 170 yards and passed for three touchdowns in that game where the Knights lost a heartbreaker 60-52 that day.

Oak Park earlier in the season used Jordan Leonard as their quarterback. Leonard was a transfer from Southfield but Coach Carter moved him to running back especially in Oak Park’s two running back spread offense but at times has been the team’s quarterback. Leonard has a very good arm and can make plays as well as Lowman.

The Knights have three very good receivers and a very good tight end in Drewe Jackson, Donte Only, Juan Hernandez, and Miles Daniel. Daniel is a speedy slot receiver was huge in the Adams game where he had a 62 yard reception to lead Oak Park to a touchdown and has caught big receptions in games. Only is also a good receiver as well he has had some good games this season and had a six yard touchdown pass against Southfield in 20-12 loss this season. Carter has said some great things about Jackson and has played well this season for them. Hernandez was huge against Adams from the tight end position. He caught a 17 yard touchdown pass from Lowman in that game.

Oak Park has a very good defense and is very fast but has struggled in the last two weeks though against Harrison and Oxford. The Knights in the last two games have allowed 72 points in the last two weeks, which is alarming.

The Knights have a very good defensive lineman that is being looked at by college scouts in the form of Shaheed Bellamy. He had eight tackles and two sacks against Orchard Lake Saint Mary’s. Oak Park has a Georgia transfer in 6.3 245 pound defensive lineman Marcell Craig. Craig is a very talented lineman and can play well. The Knights also have talented lineman in Jameer Butts, Anthony Smith, Richardo Smith, and Darrick Harris who also are huge contributors to Oak Park’s defense.

The Knights also have a good line backing core in Chance Savage and Junior McMullen. Savage made a game saving tackle against Farmington to win that game for Oak Park. He is very talented and a good football player in his own right. McMullen is very talented in his own right. He did make a couple of game saving tackles for them against Farmington.

This will be a very tough game for the Dragons (6-2, 5-2 Red) against the Knights. Oak Park however has depth concerns and it affected them in the Harrison game two weeks ago but the Knights know that their season is on the line and if they don’t win this game then they will have to sweat it out on selection Sunday, I still believe that if Oak Park loses this game that they will still get in at 5-4. Lake Orion whom rarely loses at home is playing to host a playoff game. If the Dragons do not win this game then they know for sure they will start on the road. There is a lot of motivation on both sides on Friday night.

We’ll see what happens.