Would You Believe?

With Southlake Carroll's earlier loss to Miami Northwestern and Cedar Hill's loss to Arlington Bowie this past Friday the state's longest class 5A winning streak belongs to, would you believe, El Paso Franklin.

The El Paso area takes much grief over the fact that the local 5A schools usually do not make it past the early rounds of the playoffs and have never had a program win a large school title, but for now Franklin can claim bragging rights over the rest of the state.

Current Longest Win Streaks are Listed Below:
5A El Paso Franklin - 7
4A La Marque - 17
3A Liberty Hill - 15
2A Mart - 17
1A Alto - 18

Longest Current Regular Season Win Streaks:
Galena Park North Shore 64
Lufkin 36
Celina 36

Plenty of undefeated teams left entering week 5, but the least likely to be undefeated (based on their past) has to be Houston Davis. Davis holds the state record for consecutive losses (80 from 1985-1993), and hasn't done much to distinguish themselves in recent years. The 2007 version is off to a 4-0 start and if any team deserves a winning streak it is Coach Chuck Arnold and the Houston Davis Panthers.

Coaches Approaching 300 Wins

Active coaches approaching 300 wins include Harleton's Dennis Alexander (295-102-11), Arlington Lamar's Eddy Peach (295-110-6), Bob Shelton of Hays Consolidated (292-169-7) and Curtis Barbay of Newton (286-87-6).

The all-time winningest coaches in Texas high school football are as follows:
G.A. Moore Celina (408-78-9)
Gordon Wood Brownwood (396-92-15)
Phil Danaher CC Calallen (328-83-4)**
Charlie Johnston Childress (314-96-8)
** still active

The only other active coaches in the top twenty are Jim Streety of San Antonio Madison (276-106-3) T11th, and Randy Allen of Highland Park (244-69-6) 19th.

Tough Schedules

Three undefeated teams all ranked in the top ten your first three week's of the season; that's tough, but that's exactly what The Woodlands (1-3) faced their first three games against Smithson Valley, Galena Park North Shore and Katy. They finally got a break and took a 28-7 win over Klein Collins last week. Break time is over however as they meet their fourth undefeated team of the season when they face Klein Oak (3-0) tonight.

A&M Consolidated (0-4) has faced a tough schedule in their own right. Their first four games consisted of teams with an 10-2 record. Leander (2-1), Austin Westlake (2-1), Pflugerville (3-0) and Katy (3-0). Ouch!!

In class 3A, Wimberley (1-3) has played the state's No. 1 team in Giddings, and now faces the No. 2 team this weekend (Liberty Hill). They also played defending state champion Texarkana Liberty-Eylau last week (lost in OT) and have perennial contender Abilene Wylie on the schedule next week. Can't say they're unwilling to take on the state's best.

Week Three Thoughts

In class 5A, Southlake Carroll survived against Rockwall, 49-42. Was Carroll suffering the post Miami Northwestern blues or is Rockwall that good? Probably a combination. Surprised that SLC administration would agree to a Thursday game after a national spotlight Saturday evening contest. Word is they didn't have much choice though (Hmmmmm ......). Carroll's pass defense looks vulnerable this year, but give them credit for surviving a tough game.

The Katy Tigers look too dominant to me to rank them anywhere but #1 in class 5A, but if you're looking for a potential Katy vs. SL Carroll matchup in the playoffs, don't count on it. Odds are Carroll will go DI and Katy will be DII.

DeSoto was surprised by Bryan last week, 30-27. Give the Vikings credit for a great gameplan, but the Eagles helped out with six turnovers. DeSoto will still make plenty of noise this season.

Two great games to watch this week in 5A (Smithson Valley vs. SA Madison, Plano vs. Allen).

In class 4A, 2-2 Brenham was awarded a first place vote in the AP Poll after losing to Bay City 42-40. Please tell me a voter fell asleep at the wheel and turned in his 2006 vote. Big game this week in Aledo (Aledo vs. Stephenville).

In class 3A, the Liberty Hill Panthers cemented their position as one of the state's top two class 3A programs, along with Giddings, by defeating Cuero 49-35. Both Liberty Hill and Giddings are open October 5th. Too bad they couldn't have met on that date, as LH has only nine games on the schedule and Giddings had a forfeit win over Hempstead. Obviously some bad blood between these two after last years' playoff game won by the Panthers.

Class 2A was tough to rank this week in the 8-10 positions. There's a group of 9 or 10 teams that could have a legitimate beef to be included in this week's top ten.

In class 1A the Munday Moguls continue to impress and moved up to #7 in our class 1A Poll.

A Win for High School Football

The stadium was packed, Michael and Deion were in the house, and a national television audience was tuned in.

All that was left was for the Southlake Carroll Dragons to de-horn the Miami Northwestern Bulls and put to rest the silly notion that a program from another state could compete with the elite of Texas football without returning home fraught with stories of how a maniacal Dragon dominated them with fire-breathing precision.

In the end the raging bull from Miami turned Carroll into Puff the Magic Dragon by shutting them out in the second half and forcing an uncharacteristically high five turnovers. No more win streak, no more record breaking performance and no more Texas high school football invincibility; but somehow it seemed OK.

This was not a loss for Southlake Carroll and Texas high school football, but a win for high school football in general and for two communities specifically.

The looks on the faces of the Northwestern faithful said it all. Most of them had probably never been to the Lone Star state, or witnessed high school football on such a grand scale, but then again, few had. For all those who made the long haul from the Sunshine state this was no doubt a trip that will be etched in their mind indelibly.

For one night, financial disparity was an afterthought, and racial divsion was non-existent. The communities and coaches gave each other respect and the players prayed together in unity at game's end, knowing they will never pass this way again.

Northwestern will likely go on to their second consecutive Florida 6A title and Carroll will be favored to do the same in class 5A Texas high school football, but whatever the outcome for the remainder of the season, they will never forget the night they all came together on a steamy night in Texas and produced a win for high school football.

Ticket sales for Carroll, Northwestern approach 20,000

More than 10,000 tickets remain for the 2007 Clash of Champions between Southlake Carroll and Miami Northwestern at SMU's Ford Stadium. Current ticket sales are at 18,480.

Ticket and Will Call windows will open at Gate 4 at Noon on the north end of Ford Stadium. Ticket Sales will expand to Gate 6 on the east side at 2 PM and then to Gate 8 at the southeast side at 3 PM. Gates open at 4:30 PM. Kickoff is 6:04 PM. Parking lots open across SMU's campus at 2 PM. There will also be free shuttle service from Mockingbird Station to Moody Coliseum prior to the game.

No media credentials remain for the game. All tickets are $15.

Carroll, Northwestern, Conference Call

Coach Hal Wasson, QB Riley Dodge and RB Tre' Newton, along with Miami Northwestern coaches and selected players are part of a media conference call scheduled from 12:30-1:30 central time today.

Although the players and coaches are downplaying the contest with the proverbial "It's just another game" statements, it'll no doubt take on special meaning. What with a national TV audience, a projected attendance of 20,000-23,000 and a pre-game confrence call, it is probably one the most hyped high school football games ever a national scale.

Most games I can walk right in, but for this game I had to sumbit a request to TITUS Marketing and wait in line. Got the media credentials along with an e-mail stating they have received over 100 requests for said item; unheard of for a high school football game.

Top Underclassmen in Texas

Who are the top underclassmen in the state? Wouldn't even want to try and single out the best, but here's two to keep an eye on.

Lufkin's JR. defensive lineman Jamarkus McFarland (right) is already being touted as a 5-star recruit by Rivals.com for the class of 2009, while Soph. running back Ben Malena of Cedar Hill scored 25 touchdowns in only seven games as a freshman on the JV team and burst on the scene against Colleyville Heritage in his first varsity game with 117 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.

http://rivals100.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?sid=&script=content.asp&cid=711163&fid=&tid=&mid=&rid=

Mascot Mania

Capital One is looking for the top mascots in the following areas of Texas and they let the public choose the top mascot for each city! You can win various prizes, including $5,000.00 for your school athletic fund.

Austin Travis & Williamson counties
Dallas/Ft. Worth Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton & Kaufman counties
Houston Harris, Ft. Bend, Montgomery & Galveston counties

http://www.capitalonemascotchallenge.com/

Zero Week is a Wrap

Texas high school football has kicked off and "Zero Week" is a wrap, and before I hit the highlights/lowlights of the first week let me say this; isn't it time to give the moniker "Zero Week" the boot? In layman terms zero means nothing, zilch, nada, and in the state where everything is bigger who wants to be a part of zero anything. The term started when only a handful of teams played that week. Now a ton of teams play the first week. Just say no to zero.

Now to the first week............ not the usual plethora of upsets to start the season. Oh there were a few here and there but not that many.

In 5A Round Rock Westwood surprised Austin High 27-7 and Galena Park North Shore survived a scare from Aldine. Some would call Plano over Mesquite an upset, but that seems not so surprising. I was more surprised by Abilene's margin of victory over Austin Westlake (31-10).

In class 4A I was surprised at the ease with which Wichita Falls Rider cruised past Wolfforth Frenship (31-7) and Nederland over Brenham was a surprise, but the young Cubs will get better.

In class 3A Giddings served notice to the rest of the 3A teams by pounding Wimberley 55-21. I wouldn't count the Texans down and out yet. The Buffaloes are just that good.

In 2A Pittsburgh ran roughshod over top ten Jefferson by a 41-13 margin while Farmersville lost to Caddo Mills in a knee-knocker 28-27. Also we want to mention an outstanding defensive performance by Txprepsfootball.com preseason all-state DL Kyle Kriegal of Elysian Fields. Didn't catch his stats before posting the 3A Game Balls section, but he was certainly deserving as he had 19 tackles and four sacks in a 45-0 shut out of Queen City.

In 1A three of the top four AP teams lost. #2 Windthorst (31-21 to Holliday), #3 Shiner (32-12 to Schulenburg) and #4 Bremond (20-19 to Lexington). None of those were shocking scores to me however and I expect all three of those teams to be there in the end. The surprise was Olney over Quanah by a 40-0 knockout.

Zero Week Games "I Wish I Had Seen"
Allen 21 Garland 15
Lufkin 16 Longview 13
Killeen 41 Killeen Ellison 41 in OT
Edcouch-Elsa 41 Port Isabel 33
Paris North Lamar 21 Texarkana Liberty-Eylau 20
Farmersville 28 Caddo Mills 27
Lexington 20 Bremond 19