Cougar14.2

Lol, I've never disappeared. No we don't play east of the Trinity and I separate the two because of the more progressive approach at building programs teams over here take. If you ask anybody outside of the GT to name you a city in southeast Texas, Houston is the first one they would name. You ask somebody from Dallas or Austin where Beaumont is and the majority will tell you east Texas. Fact of the matter is that for now Crosby is in the SETX sports coverage area and we have the best wr core, none of your pyp crew would have even touched the field for us last year. You probably should've worded the question different to just include the Golden Triangle, that way you could also exclude teams like Newton and Jasper who are even further away than Crosby.

I think Crosby will be in the mix for one of the best 5A receiving cores in all of Texas. IMO Netherly is no worse than the third best receiver in the state and could potentially be the top ranked receiver in the state after Spring evaluations. If I'm not mistaken he holds more reported offers than any other receiver in Texas to this point. Jordan Hill, who plays opposite Netherly, also has multiple FBS offers and should pick up even more during the Spring. No doubt Netherly and Hill will have the most offers between them as far as SETX receiving cores go. We also have two more receivers who should get serious looks and will be college players. If everything shakes out Crosby could have two FBS kids on the outside and two FCS players on the inside. Pretty solid for 5A.

1. PAM - Biggest school with the best players. With addition of one of Crosby's coaches to their staff I think they'll backstroke through most of the district schedule, may have an off night and lose once though. 2. Nederland - For whatever reason y'all can't beat them over there. 3. Central - Second best athletes behind PAM, an efficient offense might have them district runner-up. 4. Ozen/PNG - Winner of this one probably gets 4th place. May come down to who's the healthiest when these two play. I think Suggs may have a slight coaching advantage over Fairclothe with even teams.

1. Crosby - 22-2 the last three years in district play. Only two losses have come to schools that are now 6A. Those two losses also happen to be Crosby's only two regular season losses the last three seasons. 2. Kingwood Park - Nasty on the underclass levels last year. Will be the second year in coach Maple's system. Could be a dangerous squad beyond district if they can figure out a way to stop people. 3. Dayton - I'm not very high on the Nations hire but that's just IMO. For the third year in a row Dayton will have to replace almost all of their offensive production. They have some studs coming up but very little depth, if the freshman qb from last year is forced to start on varsity they could be in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in a long time. 4. Porter - Just hired KP's old coach, Jim Holley. Porter has the same level of athletes and similar enrollment to KP. Holley's conservative, power running and defensive scheme could have Porter as one of the district's toughest outs by the end of the season. 5. Barbers Hill - All new everything . . . except athletes. I think they'll be improved but I think they'll find themselves in a lot of shootouts which they probably won't be equipped to handle yet. I think switching to the spread is a double edged sword for BH, if they make any noise this year it'll be due to a weak district and some excellent coaching moves. 6. Humble - I think their athletes alone win them four games, but their coaches cancel it out by losing them four games. Very frustrating to watch a team with the plethora of athletes Humble has not be able to get it together. Looks like for the third straight year it'll be "Terio left, Terio right". 7. New Caney - Now that all but one of their free agents graduated, Marte Allison, I expect them to fall back to being the New Caney of old. I put New Caney down here because I think last year was due more to the influx of transfers rather than it being the genesis of a solid program. 8/9. Caney Creek/Splendora - I don't expect either team to win more than one district game and that will come against each other. Caney Creek will be the largest school in 21-5A while Splendora will be the smallest by nearly 500 kids. 21-5A may need a refresher in mercy rules with these two team coming off an 0-13 combined record in district play last year, Caney Creek went winless last year at 0-10.

I don't think you can go with the overall number of athletes on a team. You have to look at their athlete/talent level comparable to the classification. PAM was at best 5th talent-wise in 21-6A this past year and the results showed. I bet they look different in 5A next year when they're in the proper class. Same for Central, they're talented but if you would've moved them one district over to 21-5A they probably come in 4th athlete-wise. It would be pretty similar to Crosby with their athletes moving into the new district with Manvel, Texas City, Shadow Creek, Elkins and Marshall. I agree the good coaches can get more out of the good athletes they're given though.

Kennedale also has a 300+lb defensive tackle who would probably be one of the tops in the state at his position if he was a couple of inches taller, he's pretty much unblockable on the 4A level and I believe he was the defensive MVP of their district. They also have a 6-3/6-4 defensive end who I would compare to little lighter version of A&M signee, Alton Robinson out of Converse Judson. I remember when I looked at Argyle's path that Kennedale also had another sophomore that also went about 300lbs on the defensive line. They lost both of their backs who combined for over 4,200 rushing yards last year but I'm pretty sure they have a couple of other kids they can plug in to rush for 1,500-2,000 yards apiece in that offense they run. They just can't get past Argyle right now.

Lol, don't get butt-hurt man. You're just delving into an area you know nothing about. That's clear when your response has dip to that of a petulant child. All kids have a chance, some are just born with inherently better odds than others. This is a football website so once again I'll tell you I'm not talking about non-athletes. Poor life choices are minimized through athletics, poor life skills are rectified through discipline learned in sports, "quitting on life" as you put it becomes less of an option when you have teammates counting on you. That character you spoke of can be improved by deciding if you want to get up and go to Summer workouts or not put forth the effort and be lazy. It's clear you don't get what I'm saying and that's fine, that's what makes us different. One last thing, about the "gasbag" comment. I just pm'd you my personal cell phone number so that we can meet up and we can find out who's just blowing hot air or are really about it.

IMO if you have a good superintendent in place like Crosby does with Dr. Moore, he figures out a way to work around people like my dad who will vote "no" on every bond but will gladly buy a ticket and spend $20 more at the merchandise area every Friday night once he gets in the stadium. I think the facilities should reflect the direction the community is heading, and sadly they do sometime in SETX.

The staff definitely has a hand in getting him where he's trying to go, I think Crosby does it the right way. I even got a text from one of his coaches about that specific issue last week. To a man though, I would tell you he would be a better player at his age if we lived 10 miles down the road in North Shore no matter who the coach was or what the facilities looked like. However, when we went to the opening of the stadium and watched the fireworks and the parachute guy fly in he looked over and said "I can't wait to score touchdowns in this stadium". He even mentioned watching himself run on the replay screen like the pros do, so I think the bells and whistles do give him motivation. As far as keeping up with the Jones' and the overspending, I fully agree with that. I haven't directly heard anything around town but I'm willing to bet you a paycheck there's someone from Crosby looking into what it would cost to put up the same type of facility BH just built. If you have to leverage yourself to keep up then it's not worth it, but you dang well better see what it cost to keep from falling behind too.

Who said anything about spending 20 million for a dozen kids to get scholarships? All we did was pay a coach and signed 40. Crosby used to have the crappiest stadium in the district. Now that we have a coaching staff in place and renovated the stadium so that more people can attend, the football program alone probably brought in $50,000+ per Friday night. So spending money on athletics grossed Crosby ISD a quarter million dollars in the first semester alone, and I would imagine that's on the low end. So the district is getting a return on it's investment. That's just in addition to the dozens of kids we've signed across the board in all sport recently. I did happen to work with a couple of guys that went to school on the GI bill though. One happens to be from Silsbee too. Every so often he would take off to go get shrapnel removed from his head as it came to the surface, it was still there from when his Hummer was hit by an IED and split in half with the other three occupants dying on scene. My other buddy is somewhat permanently crippled from an accident where his parachute didn't fully open on a training exercise and he did what he called a "burn in(?)" from 800 feet. It's not about always about the free part of it, it's the exposure part that kids might miss an opportunity on. Nobody is calling an average to below average student and begging them to come visit their university because it unlikely they'll even be admitted. However, schools will line up to fly that average to below average "student-athlete" to their campus and get them admitted to school if they can help them win. The average to below average student probably never goes to college and even less likely to graduate if they do. The exposure can change the course for some kids, it can be generation-altering for others that normally wouldn't look at that as an option like my son.

I think the SETX area is falling behind, but I think it's due more to the contraction/stagnation of the entire area in general. It's behind in enrollment, compensation, imagination, facilities and infrastructure as a whole. You can go to south and west Texas and find the exact same issues though. Other than the HISD schools I think the Houston area gets it as far as what it takes to compete. New Caney just built Texan Drive, Katy is building another monster, BH just built a college level indoor facility, Cy-Fair dropped about 60 mil on the Berry Center and even a place like Crosby there was a bond just passed that allocated multi-millions for athletic facilities/improvements. I think that was even after Crosby already spent about a million replacing the old turf with a new rug. Our problem down here is that we're heavy on single high school ISD's. When you have 30k+ students like Mansfield ISD or 50k+ students like Plano ISD then you have a huge tax base to fund a single stadium and more money for individual facilities on campus. Even an inner-city school like Galena Park, which is in the district with North Shore, has a nice facility behind their school where the players can walk straight out of the field house to a field turf practice field. That's because they have over 22k students in the district and a relatively low income, but huge tax base and therefore have nice facilities for a two high school district. At times the mentality in SETX is that "we did it this way in '76, so we can do it again the same way". Until the thinking down here becomes more progressive like that of the Dallas, Austin and Houston area suburbs SETX will be bringing up the rear. With all that being said though, I think WOS and North Shore showed you there's no replacement for a community producing great athletes.

"SOME" kids "ONLY" way, which is totally correct. You stretched it to an all-inclusive statement to cover "non-athletic" kids which plays more towards the soapbox rhetoric you're trying to get across. If they're "non-athletic" then they're not in the conversation and what you said is a moot/duh point. What about the kid like my son who's already 6'/180lbs and is the fastest kid in Crosby's freshman class though? He's from a middle class family and I'm telling you from the horse's mouth that the "ONLY" way he's making it "out" of Crosby is on the gridiron. He knows he's going to make $100k+ rather he steps foot on a college campus or not as long as he doesn't get into any trouble. It's not like that for all kids but for "SOME" it is. About 40% of middle class kids who start college don't finish anyway, however, about 80% of athletes that receive division one scholarships do. So looking at it that way your kid has a better shot at making it "out" if he has a jump-shot or a fast 40. How many more stats/facts would you like me to gather before I challenge you? I can specifically get the "inner-city" type data OzensFinest spoke about and post it but you would look dumb for even questioning it.

He didn't say their success can only be predicted on athletics. He stated his opinion and you stretched it. I have a bachelor's degree in economics with a real estate minor, my wife has a bachelor's in business with an MBA. We have three sons who we push academics on, two get it and one doesn't. I told the one that doesn't get it that the only way he was going to college is if he gets a football scholarship because I'm not paying. I have to press him just to be average. That's how its always been with him. Last night my youngest son wanted me to quiz him on adding two digit numbers that he learned in school yesterday. When I asked him to explain how you get the sums his explanation kind of shocked me. For my own amusement I asked him to apply those same principles to bigger numbers, after learning 10's that day he was adding four digit numbers in his head rather quickly for a first grader. He can also spell his 10 year old brother's advanced spelling words. He can make it out solely on academics, my oldest one can't. So I ask you, as a parent do I stress "academic achievement" to him or try to develop his athletic skills which will be more immediately important in achieving his goals? It's an extremely difficult reality to understand if you haven't experienced it first hand . . . hundreds of times. I wonder how many of the 40+ kids that Crosby has signed the last four years would have gone to college had they not been offered a scholarship?

Come on man, what player did A&M beat out Texas for when Texas was rolling. None of the Aggie stars were offered by Texas, not Johnny, not Von, not McNeal. I think maybe Micheal and Joeckel were the only ones that were offered and didn't come. Read up on Chis Daniels flip from OU and why he chose Texas, very similar to comments made a while ago by Clarence McKinney on why Sumlin connected with kids due to being from the South. Even further, the kids A&M was able to get in those classes you're talking about were never able to a conference title in the lowly Big 12. You usually tuck tail and run because you can't win, A&M didn't and they subsequently left. No other way to really look at it, saying it was a better move for monetary reasons is really admitting to not wanting to be in Texas' shadow. If A&M was the brand they think they are then they should've been able to build a cash cow like Texas has, but they couldn't. Now they're stuck in perpetual mediocrity in the SEC. Fact of the matter is A&M isn't going to get better players than the state school in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. You can definitely get a better class here or there, but take a look over in Baton Rouge. Les Miles was/is in the same situation as Sumlin and may have just signed his best class ever at LSU going off player averages. All the top prospects A&M wanted went to Ole Miss, including Lodge last year. All that while they ALREADY have better players and coaching than A&M. It's a dim reality. As far as Texas fans being happy, I think it's a given. Watching 59-0 against 'Bama, not being able to move the ball on Auburn, getting steamrolled by LSU backs, playing directional schools all are reality now. The difference in Texas, if you listen to the recruits like Cuffee, is that they all grew up watching Texas dominate and know it can be done again. They've never seen that from A&M, the selling point in College Station is that you get to play in the SEC and we have some nice gadgets. That's over now, kids are back to going where they feel like they have the best shot at winning.

What's interesting is that A&M is placing their faith in two qbs who are no longer at their past Big 12 schools because they couldn't earn a job or were beat out by younger players. I guess Knight and Hubanek weren't Big 12 good but they'll do for the SEC? Yet, of the three highest rated qbs A&M have ever landed, two transfer to the Big 12 and one goes to the AAC after experiencing College Station first hand. That has to be odd considering everyone wants to play in the SEC according to Aggy? What's even more weird is that although everyone wants to play in the SEC, all the top qbs from the state are committed to Big 12 schools. Beuchele and Ehlinger to Texas, Shawn Robinson to TCU and Kellen Mond to Baylor. I've said it many times on here, Kevin Sumlin made A&M a viable option for players that normally wouldn't consider College Station. I don't care if you do get Tom Herman to come coach, him or any other guy won't be able to recruit at the level that Sumlin is. Coaching may be a different story, but if you think running Sumlin out of town is going to get you more wins and better recruits I think you're sadly mistaken. When your own players use words like "gadgets" and "glitz" to describe your program you can almost bet there's no real substance, which I think everybody beside A&M fans saw when they tucked tail and left the Big 12.

I'll put it like this. Your FCS players are usually FBS players that are missing something. Height, weight, speed, grades, etc. I'm not really sure Alec is missing anything, his film just hasn't made the rounds yet. I think he's every bit as good as Collin Wilder or Travis Whillock from Katy who had 22 reported D1 offers between them.

Interesting to see if offer #22 makes Mannie think about A&M more? Maybe the OU one too? Either way it's good times at Crosby, I expect in excess of 50 division one offers between all of our kids by the end of the Spring evaluation period. The two outside receivers should total more than 30 FBS offers themselves.

Dang, Temple must pay pretty well. Hard not to hire Kay coming fresh off a 6A title. I know Kay isn't the AD but I know Aymond was getting paid pretty well, figured with Kay's years of service he would have been pretty close to where Aymond was before he retired. Interesting that the coaches of the last two 6A-D1 champs could both be moving down to 5A to take AD jobs.

Well, I hope he stays around longer than another year or two for Crosby's sake. I don't think Mann's any older than 32 so he have plenty of opportunities going forward. I don't think GCM had enough athletes for him to be successful right away though, like he could be at a place like Humble if West were to leave. Not only is he hustling for the Crosby kids, he's also helping out kids at other schools.

When I watched his film a year and a half ago I said I thought he looked like a left guard but got beat up on here for not knowing what I'm talking about because he was the #2 ranked OT in the country. Kids that are rated that high usually play left tackle and Patrick looks like more of a road-grading run blocker to me. Completely different type of film from Little, Delance and Diesch. I'm sure he doesn't care either way but moving inside is probably a good thing for him, you make less money in the league but probably get 2-3 more prime earning years.

I actually think King has a good chance at being one of the D2 reps from the district. They might be young but the cupboard isn't bare from what I saw playing against them on the lower levels this year, they have another Tray Williams coming(even wears #3) and another Desmond Coleman clone. I saw the freshman qb throw is about 50 yards off his back foot for a TD when we played them. I think CV and Kingwood look like they would be the #3 and #4 teams but CV was heavily depended on hurts and Sewo O. basically carried Kingwood. Now that they're gone I don't think those schools have any advantage at all over King except for the enrollment, which could come into play down the stretch.

I didn't even mention him because I think it's pretty obvious he's going to make it. The only decision with Patrick is if he's going to play guard or tackle. On the film he looks like a right tackle or left guard, could be on the same path as Cam Robinson if he can stay healthy.

Yeah, he really works hard for the kids and gets some of the marginal players opportunities they normally probably wouldn't get. I believe we've signed over 40 players the last four years.

I think there's four of five kids that signed yesterday that have legit shots at playing in the NFL. I think if Whaley stays healthy he's almost a lock to get drafted out of Arky's system, he probably has more natural talent than Collins or Williams. I think Joseph Pickney is a faster version DJ Swearinger, but might have better ball skills at the collegiate level. I see Johnathan Marshall as a little less explosive version of Emmanual Ogbah, might not be as good a pass rusher but will probably be better against the run. Should be able to play DE in both a 4-3 and 3-4 scheme, might get moved inside if he continues to grow though. Two guys I'm not as sure about are Keenan Murphy due to height, but I think he's better than Rex Hadnot at this same stage in his career and Hadnot had a stellar career at UH. The other kid is Innis Gaines from Westbrook. Partly because of the type of player he is and partly because he gets to play for Gary Patterson who has a history of being a great defensive coach. I wouldn't be surprised to see Gaines get some serious run as a true freshman.

Might as well just let PhatMack make it. He's the only Aggy fan on here that isn't delusional and I know it's not the best of days for him. I respect his takes even if we don't agree, now Als-Timer on the other hand . . . . I wonder?