bullets13

I'm about to do a deep dive for you. But I bet it's a lot of the former and a little of the latter.

@TheMissingBand in answer of the question you just asked, here's a post I made just this morning.

I think he'd pull some, but Kountze isn't known for much football talent, and Woodville has been successful enough on it's own to keep a lot of the players. Fred and Spurger aren't spitting out football players. Carthage is within 30 minutes of Tatum, Beckville, Joaquin, Marshall, Tenaha, Timpson, Center, and Mt. Enterprise. Oh, and 40 minutes from Longview and Kilgore. And without a doubt they're pulling talent from most if not all of those towns. We're talking about a talent-rich environment. Lots of state championship wins and appearances between those towns in the last 20 years.

it's nothing to do with Surratt and everything to do with Warren. In the 30 years before Surratt took over Carthage had 23 winning seasons, three .500 seasons and four losing seasons. They made it to at least the second round of the playoffs 13 times in those 30 years and even played for a state championship. It feels like you're under the illusion that Surratt took over a bad football program and turned them almost instantly into a winner. That couldn't be further from the truth. He took over a pretty good program with some really good talent and turned them into a great program that attracted even better talent. Now they're an elite program that attracts elite talent (which he certainly deserves credit for). On the flipside of that, Warren opened 75 years ago and has 4 playoff appearances in those 75 years. They had 1 playoff "win" in 1958 where they tied and advanced on penetrations. In the last 50 years they have 8 winning seasons, but only made the playoffs twice because they get most of their wins by finding even worse teams to schedule before district. Would Warren improve dramatically if Surratt came to town? Obviously. But they aren't winning district in 7 years, much less a state championship.

BC has generally been a bad football team for the better part of 3 decades, but have had groups of kids who've given them a couple of years of good teams here and there. Without a doubt they've had a special group of kids the last couple of years and it's shown. There was a local coach in another sport who had a special player and took a traditionally bad program to unprecedented success for a couple of years, and he was anointed as one of the area's elites (often by himself, but by others as well) after two good seasons. In the five years since that player graduated the program has slid back first into mediocrity and then into the cellar. That coach isn't mentioned with the elites anymore. What's yet to be seen is whether Smalley is going to maintain success once these players all graduate, or if BC will fall from the peak back into another valley when this group of kids is all gone. I think he's a good coach. If he can sustain success at BC (or leaves for another school and finds more success), i'll have no issue calling him an elite coach. If they're 5-5 or 3-7 in two years then i'll assume the recent success had a lot more to do with the players than the coaching. In reality I'm sure it had a lot to do with both. Regardless, he's not winning a state title with BC, and that doesn't exclude him from becoming elite there if he can sustain success.

Surratt went to a school with good athletes already in place and got the most out of them. Won a couple of championships, got the backing of the community, got great facilities, and now many of the best players from all the surrounding communities find ways to play there. He's as elite as it gets, but now that the talent is funneling in and the community has the reputation as title town, another solid coach could step in there and keep winning. On the flipside, Surratt is not going to a place with no talent and no support and have them winning championships quickly without players moving in and better facilities. and he's not moving down to the valley and taking over a team and winning state championships in 7 or 70 years. He could dominate that area, but he's still going to lose with his teams when they face dallas and houston late in the playoffs.

This may have been discussed before, but Kyle Westerberg won 4 state championships in 12 years at Allen and led them to another final. 3 of those were with Kyler Murray. After winning four state championships at the highest level and amassing a 134-16 record over 12 years at Allen, Westerberg moved (to an easier division, and an easier district). Hard to argue those numbers. He's clearly in the elite category. So what changed when he went to Barber's Hill? He still had good facilities, still had a supportive community, had players from good families with lots of opportunities, and I doubt he forgot how to coach. At Barbers hill he went 40-17 in 5 seasons and made the 3rd round of the playoffs once. The program still improved under him, but they didn't sniff a state championship. Then he went to Salado and went 5-15 in two years. Did he turn from elite to only good when he went from Allen to Barbers Hill, and then from good to bad when he went to Salado? The thing is, he didn't have the players to win a championship at Barbers Hill, and didn't have the players to even have a winning record at Salado. But you know who could've won a championship (or two or three) at Barbers Hill? The 2012-2014 Allen Eagles, led by Kyler Murray. It wouldn't even take the whole team. Probably only 5 kids from each side of the ball combined with whoever BH had at the time would be enough. And they wouldn't need Westerberg coaching them to get it done. Any competent coach would do.

There are over 1500 High school football teams, and only 12 champions a year. If a rule was made tomorrow that no coach and school can win more than one title it would take 125 years before every current Texas high school head football coach would win a championship. Of course that's not the case, and programs like Carthage are going to suck up extras. The ideas that A) a coach MUST win a state championship to be elite and B ) an elite coach should be able to do it in 7 years are both silly.

I’m 7-5, but started off 1-4, so I guess I better be okay with where I’m at now.

Started off slow, but getting the VCU, Aggie, and Texas upsets back to back to back will help some

Illegal immigrants from Africa, India and China are voting in US elections — here’s how they’re doing it Maybe a birth certificate isn't the worst idea?

Between 1944 and 1983 Calallen had ONE 10-win season. Danaher won 10 games his second season there, then went on to win 10+ games in 30 out 36 seasons, with one of those six being an 8-2 covid season. He made the state semis 12 times and the finals twice. So the question is did he make it that far and then choke? Did he make it that far and then run into a superior coach every time? Or as common sense would dictate, perhaps he coached in a region without an abundance of talent, got far more out of that lesser talent year in and year out than any coach in that region ever has, and consistently took his teams as far (or even further) than the team should've been expected to go every year. Danaher could 1000% have won several championships with the talent that SS has had at Carthage. SS wouldn't have won more than 1 or 2 (and quite possibly zero) had he coached Calallen the last 20 years instead of at Carthage. Interesting side note: Danaher's Calallen teams lost to La Marque in the state semis 6 years in a row in the 90s. Between 1995 and 2006 La Marque won 5 state titles and played for 3 more, with 2 different coaches leading them there. Those two coaches made it to the regional finals ONCE in 22 combined seasons at the other schools they coached at. In between those two coaches was a third coach who led La Marque to the 4th round three times in four seasons, despite never having a season better than 3-7 anywhere else. So, were they elite coaches who forgot how to coach when they left La Marque, or did La Marque have elite talent that a couple of good coaches took advantage of while they were there? I'm pretty comfortable stating that Danaher would've won a few state titles if he'd coached La Marque's incredible talent instead of in the football graveyard of southTexas. I'm also pretty comfortable saying that Danaher could've gotten hired into any number of jobs where he'd be better equipped to win a state championship if he'd chosen to.

If this applies to me as well, let me be the first to say that I totally think Reagan should keep all of his money and definitely not send me a check for $10,000.

Ugly game, but it’s still within reach

I’m going on record before the game starts as saying I’m with you on the Crawford upset. Might be the kiss of death for them, though 😀. I’ve watched a couple of their games and have been super impressed. The speed that they play at has been unmatched by probably any team I’ve seen this year