Tiger ties: Muskogee assistants track back to this week's opponent

Oct. 11—An array of playful trash talking went on during Sunday's preparation time for Muskogee's game this Thursday against Tahlequah.

Head coach Travis Hill revealed that a couple of former Tahlequah Tigers — Roughers offensive coordinator Chris Risenhoover and co-offensive line coach Kenneth "Tuffy" Thornton, took some ribbing.

Asked about it, Thornton, who was also head coach at Tahlequah for four seasons, sloughed it off.

"I thought the worst of it was the coaches from Texas (defensive coordinator Steve Craver, tight ends coach Keaton Scott and defensive line coach Prentice Joseph) giving it to us Oklahoma guys," Thornton said, referring to the aftermath of that beatdown in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.

For Thornton, this version of the Tigers (2-4, 1-2 following a 47-0 loss to Tulsa Washington) will remind him of things as they were when he was head coach there from 2006 to 2009. This is Tahlequah's first season in Class 6A since Thornton's third year over the program, but in Thornton's case, there wasn't the two-division split in 6A as it is now.

"Never go home, they say, and I did and was there four tough years," he said. "We got dropped to 5A my last year there and it was a team I lost a ton of starters from and we took it on the chin that year too.

Eventually Tahlequah had success. Four losing seasons were a contrast for Charlie Cooper, whose first of two stints had him as the winningest coach in school history. Then, Brad Gilbert took over. Gilbert was at Sapulpa and plucked from that staff when Thornton left Sapulpa as offensive coordinator.

After going 5-6 in 2014, Gilbert has run off seven consecutive winning seasons, and has yet to miss the postseason even in that first year. The pandemic of 2020 led to an exodus of athletes from nearby Sequoyah High School, which suspended athletics that school year. Those numbers led to Tahlequah's bump to 6A, but already, its current enrollment places them fourth among 5A schools, giving a solid indication this is a brief stint.

"Brad's a good coach and he's had it going now for a good while now," Thornton said. "They'll just have to deal with 6A one more year. Just as I found out, it's a big difference being on the bottom of a food chain and in my case, we had 1,200 or so kids and on the top of the chain is Broken Arrow with 5,000."

Risenhoover was offensive coordinator three seasons, 2001 to 2003. In those years, they managed to qualify for the postseason once. He went on to a highly successful run as head coach at 3A Stigler.

"The 2002 team took Jenks to overtime. I think we had three overtime losses that year and missed the playoffs," said Risenhoover.

And the two coaches played together as Tigers before four more years together at Northeastern State.

In 1983 they won their first postseason game in school history, beating Sallisaw in the first round in 4A. Mustang then beat them in the quarterfinals. The following year, they were bumped to what was then the top classification in 5A and beat Sapulpa before falling to Union in the quarterfinals. The following two seasons, Muskogee reached the finals, losing to Midwest City in 1985 then winning its only title in the post-integration era.

Risenhoover was already in place here when Thornton found himself in an unexpected fix when after six years out of coaching as a principal at Tenkiller School, he stepped down.

"My plan was to go back to Greenwood, Ark., and get one more year in there," he said, referring to a place he coached four years after he left Tahlequah, two in junior high and then as offensive line coach. "I had one more year there in order to be vested. But as I got my paperwork for retirement, I found it was to my advantage to work in Oklahoma a couple more years."

As a result, he checked out a couple of jobs similar to what he'd been doing. As nothing was coming together, he reached out to a former Northeastern State teammate, Muskogee superintendent Jarod Mendenhall.

Shortly thereafter, Thornton was hired as student personnel officer at Tony Goetz Elementary and is sharing offensive line duties with Ryan Dvorak.

"I forgot how much time is devoted to coaching in a day," he said. "I'm also driving back and forth from Tenkiller, so it's a lot of time involved.

"But I'm enjoying it."

Hill called Thornton "a known offensive line coach with a lot of knowledge, a great personality and a great fit. Add him with Rise and Dvorak and it's been a bonus."

Thornton thinks it gives him and Dvorak a bonus in a way that matches some other 6A programs.

"Ryan did a great job last year in a year where they were really young and learning a new system. Now, you've got two sets of eyes out there every day," he said. "You're watching the point of attack and the backside linebacker makes the tackle and before, you might not know how before watching it on film. Now, you can know when it happens. Basically I take the left side, Ryan takes the right side and we share the center."

And he's having a good time.

"It's a fun group of kids to coach. And it's great working for Travis," Thornton said. "I knew of him as a player at NSU before I was there and while we weren't ever closely connected, you get to know coaches through their success. He gives a lot of tough love to these kids, but he has high expectations, and he knows how to get the most out of both the staff and the kids. Great things are getting ready to happen at Muskogee, I can tell you that."

While he was dismissed from Tahlequah, there's no special motivation.

"I've coached against other schools I've coached at before," he said. "I'm from there, I've graduated from there, and I've coached there, but I'm a Muskogee guy now. We're all professionals and I'm here to do the best I can to help the Roughers."

Notes

—While this week's matchup of nearby schools is guaranteed only one more season with the teams meeting at NSU's Gable Field next year, Hill is hoping that it continues in non-district after this two-year cycle is done.

"They're close in proximity, so it's a natural matchup" he said. "We've had them over for our passing league and that's been good. I think it would attract a big crowd at both places and it's definitely something I'd like to see happen."

—After back-to-back blowouts of 167-0, including last week's against Grant which was 52-0 after a quarter and a running clock and deep bench dip from that point on, Hill is looking for a bigger challenge from the Tigers with the success that Gilbert has had at the helm.

"They've had some injuries but Brad's done a great job over there," Hill said.

Gilbert's defensive coordinator is a Muskogee ex, Keith Wilson.

"I like the way he motivates kids and goes about his business," Hill said. "His defenses have always played hard and we expect them to come out and give us a heck of a contest."

—While all MHS games are on RougherTV via YouTube, the game will also be telecast this week on Cox's YurView.com this week, available on Cox Communications TV in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. something Hill thinks will keep his guys focused.

"They're excited about being on TV," he said. "Something that I've liked about this past two weeks is how good of practices we've had. I'm proud of how we've handled ourselves, worked through what we had to, and in the end we're better than we were."