Cougar14.2

I would absolutely love to do something like that but my work performance struggles enough during football season. Writing previews would have me doing some much research that they wouldn't get much out of me in the Summer either. They pay me ok so I at least want to try to give the company something during the latter half of the year.

I'm high on PNG because of what they have coming back but it's just hard to predict anything with a first year coach? On one hand I feel like with what they're returning anything less than 10-3 would be somewhat disappointing. On the other hand I feel like 9-4 with a first year coach is dang near as solid as it gets. 1. FB Marshall - Most pedigree in recent years, most talent and the best proven head coach to date. I have a feeling they'll be out to prove a point this year and their non-district schedule of Klein, Crosby and Alief Taylor should have them more than ready for district play. I think they'll play Liberty Hill in the semis 2. Texas City - If they could score they might be in the conversation to battle for the region. Expect a lot more of the same of what you saw from them last year. The only real impactful loss they had is their QB and according to the TC fans his little brother is better anyway. 3. PNG - Like those old BH teams, PNG is still struggling to defend on the edges. We'll see what the new offense looks like but picking them 3rd really should matter since they went three deep from the three-hole anyway last year. 4. Dayton - It will only be the 5th game of the year but I think they go over to Mid-County and play the Dogs for a playoff spot. Biggest question I have is if Dayton can stem the tide of being beat down at the line of scrimmage the last several years? 5. Nederland - No doubt their biggest game is MCM but if Ned can't beat Dayton at home week 5 they might be on skates the rest of the season. The 27.5ppg they averaged last year won't get it done this year either. Ned needs several pieces but it wouldn't surprise me if they end up with the best statistical defense in the district. 6. Galena Park - Went to their playoff game with PNG last year and was pretty surprised with how decent they were at the line of scrimmage. That being said, their skill guys left a lot to be desired. They're going to give a couple teams some tough nights with that style of offense but that about all they'll probably do. 7. FB Willowridge - They have a new coach and those Mo City athletes are nothing to sneeze at but it's hard to see them putting it together enough to really cause any trouble in the district. I will say though, be careful going over there to play them as it will be a long ride to an unfamiliar place which usually causes some discomfort. 8. Bye Week - most teams should be able to go undefeated against them. 9. Santa Fe - Situation is borderline HISD level as far as competition. No explanation needed as I'm sure it's tough enough for them. I would not at all be surprised to see three of the top 5 teams in the region come from this district. I think other salty teams in the region will be Austin LBJ, Leander Rouse and possibly Bryan Rudder.

It looks like Dayton's participation rates have improved mixed with the fact that they have a very talented sophomore class that will contribute next year. Coach Ware also comes from New Caney where they're well versed in talent acquisition which I think may be a reason they have Sunshine out there at QB now. If they can keep the participation rates up Dayton is going to be in a pretty good spot until they feel the impact of that new sub-division on their enrollment and have to move up a class.

In the 5 years prior to last season FBM made it all 5 regional finals and played in two state title games. Their bad year last year they went 10-1. They got their reputation by doing stuff like beating Manvel by 30 in a regional final and beating our district champ 49-0 in a third round game. They usually have the most talent of any 5A school in the area outside of Manvel to go with one of the top 10 coaches in the area. Teams can have off nights but their reputation is very well deserved.

Porter, Waltrip, Montgomery, Santa Fe, Nederland, Galena Park and Willowridge. I think they also have a very good chance to beat PNG if the Indian defense is similar to last year. This all hinges on Dayton staying healthy of course.

My takeaways from the meaningless touch football weekend: Crosby got hammered all three games Friday in the Dickinson tournament. I think the secondary will be improved from what it was last year but still, too many coverage busts with 7 to cover 5. Crosby receivers need to make more plays on the football when given the opportunity. Conversely, Myles needs to get off his primary reads faster and take more chances to give those receivers chances to make plays on the football. That being said, it's hard to teach a kid to take a chance throwing an interception when he can pull it down and run for over 1,300 yards. In past years we've kind of assumed Dayton would improve due to not being able to get any worse but they've been proving us wrong. Crosby's '25 class is extremely talented but Dayton has been hammering them since little league though. I said that to highlight the fact Dayton is probably going to start a bunch of sophomores this year. I guess they played 8 freshman on the varsity last year according to one of their fans? These most recent years Dayton just hasn't had the personnel to compete at a high level, especially at the skill positions. Again, this is touch football but the offensive skill guys I saw look like they'll end up being McBride/Keener level type players. I think PNG will have the single most productive receiver in the district with Prosperie but I think Dayton will have the best overall receiving core if healthy. QB is a big kid with a big arm and good mobility. Now, Dayton may give up 40ppg on defense and still struggle making everything else a moot point? My bold prediction though is that Dayton shows up on The Reservation 6-0 or 5-1. I think the Broncos have a bit of their swagger back, kids were talking trash to Crosby and the coaches had to step in and separate the players after the game. Huntsville wasn't great last year and I don't think they'll be very good this year unless they were missing a lot of skill guys? That being said, the Hornets biggest sting is at the line of scrimmage and that can't be accounted for in a skelly session. I won't go into detail because of the sensitivity of their posters but I think BH will have a little more trouble scoring than they did last year, especially at the beginning of the season while Herndon is out. I was also informed that one of our '27 QBs is transferring to BH. I'm extremely high on this kid, my comparison for him would be Holdren with a much better arm. Wouldn't at all be surprised to see, and somewhat expect him to be BH's starting QB after the current starter graduates.

Johnson is solid but the top running back in the 2025 class will probably be this kid who already holds 25 P5 offers after his freshman year. Davison is most likely going to get the nod over some of the other backs because of the level of competition he plays at Mater Dei, not to mention their history of producing high level college players. [Hidden Content]

Chad Morris went 18-40 as a head coach, are you saying that should somehow diminish his accomplishments as an offensive coordinator at Tulsa and Clemson? I'm not sure how many college programs would want him as a head coach right now but I'm sure lots of them would love to have him as an assistant.

Was coach Graham calling plays, if so I understand the animus? BU's offense was very inept this year but if the OC was calling plays are y'all sure the offensive issues were Graham's fault? He was the head coach so he'll rightly get the blame for the overall performance of the team but why do y'all think he wouldn't be a good assistant either? Some guy just aren't cut out for the leading role but do well as a supporting cast member.

All factors being considered(money, location, talent), my like would probably go something like this: Austin Westlake Southlake Carroll Highland Park Allen Katy Aledo Lake Travis Atascocita Shadow Creek Carthage

Pretty reasonable list. The only thing I would correct is that Katy is down the list in terms of talent density as a Houston suburb. The most talent-rich suburbs as far as density in the Houston area would most likely go: 1. Alief 2. Missouri City 3. Spring 4. Humble 5. Klein 6. Katy

I think when you're ranking Top 10 jobs you have to take into consideration location. All those schools you listed are mainly because of talent. Same thing goes for North Shore and Westfield in your previous post. There will be lots of good coaches that don't even consider those jobs because of the kids they'll have to deal with and the proximity to the environments they'll have to coach near.

Looks like Allen just decided to make the safest hire possible. They probably still feel a little jilted after TW leaving and now Morris is going to have them on their third coach in three years. Seems like the theory from the Allen admin. was, "Let's hire a guy nobody else is going to try to come steal but that's still good enough to win here given some of our advantages."? A career .638 win percentage and going 19-29 in his previous stint in 6A doesn't really scream "Hire me!", but I do think this is a good litmus test to see how much the "advantages" at Allen really play into a coach's success. Terry Gambill won a title in his second year at Allen but he was a heck of a coach long before that.

No reasonable person expected TW to come to BH and be competing for state titles. He was expected to elevate the program and he did. Most people born post-1980 had never heard of BH until TW took the job. Gage won one playoff game and one district title in his six years there, and never had a 10-win season. TW won three playoff games and one undefeated district title in in five years there, plus posted an 11-win season which was BH's most wins since 2001 under Don Price. As for the hype and money part of it, BH brought that on themselves. I'm sure there were plenty of other coaches who would've taken the job for less money and probably done a better job had BH done their due diligence. BH wanted to make a splash with a big name hire and agreed to be extorted to do so, that's on y'all. On the flip side if y'all didn't agree to be extorted then it's unlikely you were going to get a coach of that caliber to leave those plush North Dallas suburbs to come to a place like BH. The only reason Abseck doesn't have similar hype is because the past two coaches with 6 combined state titles have already come there and flamed out trying to turn it around. TW was making about $115K when he left Allen. In other words the people that sat there and watched him win four state titles felt that's all he was worth and obviously didn't offer him anything comparable to try to keep him. It was the BH brass that came up with the bright idea to make him one of the highest paid coaches in the state because they thought they were going to get "more", that's all on y'all. BH went for the name just like they did with Gage and got the same results. Allen hired a new guy who had never won a title yet went 16-0 his second year there. Maybe BH should modify their hiring practices instead of seeking out guys who are winning at schools that are nothing like theirs? Don't be surprised if Abseck only stays for 5 years, collects his $800k and leaves for a better situation too.

I think TW gets somewhat slighted for having KM. He was a state title winning offensive coordinator at Garland and won his first title at Allen in '08 over a more talented FB Hightower team. KM may be the best high school QB ever to play in Texas but he wouldn't have gotten near that status had he stayed in Lewisville and played for those 2-8/1-9 Farmer teams at the time. TW benefited from KM playing for him but you also have to say KM benefited greatly from playing for TW too. Yes, the 7,000 kids at Allen gives you a much larger talent pool but it by no means dictates that you'll have the most talent. For instance, North Shore only has about 4,500 kids and is 70% Hispanic but has dwarfed Allen over the years in terms of high level prospects produced. Duncanville has about the same number of kids as North Shore but also has "limited" open enrollment meaning they can legally put together a South Dallas select team every year. Duncanville's neighbor Desoto has less than 2,800 kids and Allen can't hold a candle to the school they call Desoto U due to the amount of high level prospects they pump out on a regular basis. I'm not saying TW is the greatest coach ever, I'm just saying that some of those "advantages" that a lot of people attribute to his success aren't as much of an advantage as some people make them out to be.

Absolutely not if we're the ones doing it. You always want to try to better the financial outlook for you and your family whenever possible. On the flip side if I was an administrator or tax payer I would feel somewhat slighted that we had to compensate TW and his family the way we did, yet he never seemed overly invested in the outcomes. I do think the hire was a net plus overall for BH if for nothing more than saving the district from having to look at those uniforms every week.

Seems like the AD position at a growing district like Hays CISD would be a nice, cushy place to retire from? Makes me wonder if he just took the job at Hays CISD due to some type of contractual language regarding his exit from BH? Makes it really seem like a money-grab at BH while simultaneously using that position as a launch pad for his son which ended up getting the Whitehouse job last year. His son Kyle and I were on the same team for a while in college so I know TW has to be getting up there in age which makes the move even more odd unless he's just always wanted to coach his hometown team and this is the first opportunity he's had to do so?

Dude, you think that's hijacking a thread? There were 9 posts in 4 days when I made that comment and I mentioned Crosby once to add an example to what I was saying. Now you're saying dumb about JV players, come on dude. We're not in the same division anymore and there's probably a 99% chance Crosby will never play PNG again, why would I make comments about PNG having a chance against Crosby anymore? The first comment I made literally talks about PNG possibly being able to finishing 2nd in the district and make a regional final, wth are you talking about? As far as practice, I had a guy from Santa Fe who has a relative on the team come by and tell me "We're looking really good in Spring practice so far.", so there you go.

In the last six years they’ve been to five regional finals and two state championships while playing in the same division as the teams in this coverage area. Their bad season was 10-1. That’s one heck of a paper tiger. Remember how they absolutely dominated Ned in that 3rd round game a couple of years ago? Their new district is not going to be stronger than the one they were playing in with Texas City, Manvel and FB Elkins. It’ll just be stronger than it was the last two years. They’ll have the best coach and the best players in the district. They also got a potentially huge QB transfer this off-season that might allow Ja’koby Banks to move to his natural position in the slot where he will play in college. Kid will most likely be a high major prospect like Malik Hornsby was for them a few years ago. Yeah, I think they’re that good. They just had a bad matchup against BH, they won’t have those same issues in this district.

Interesting. BF and company couldn’t fix the defense after being there over a decade but Joseph’s staff fixes it in 7 practices🤔 Sounds like y’all made the right decision. Make sure you don’t get scheme and personnel confused though. For instance, off the top of my head I can only remember one TD Crosby scored on PNG last year from a scheme mistake the DB made against Womack. All the rest of the TDs(really only talking about first half when starters were in) were a result of Crosby being bigger and faster than PNG. The great coaches like Joseph’s dad figure out how to mitigate those disadvantages. PNG is going to have to wait until the fall to see if the same is true for Jr.

It's never a good time to lose your coach but it's really bad timing for PNG this year. The top two teams from this district are probably also going to play in the regional final, depending on how Austin LBJ rebounds? If PNG finishes second in the district they would get LBJ in the second round, which is basically FB Marshall with a lower enrollment.

If PAM is even semi-competent on offense this year they should be able to muster 40-50 points against KP's defense. They're very PNG-like where most of their good athletes play on the offensive side of the ball, they haven't had a decent defense since 2014. I think if KP finishes 3rd it's going to be because they're better than people are predicting, not necessarily because the district is worse. I don't think y'all will have much issue with Lee. I was looking through some of their stuff and didn't realize how much Trudell Berry impacted their outcomes last year. He was far and away their best player and signed with Vanderbilt after being recruited by Aston Walter. I love Lee's coach but they simply don't have enough at the line of scrimmage to consistently compete.

I was feeling like Baytown Lee would probably be the 4th place finisher this year but I think I’ll switch my prediction to Kingwood Park. I liked the sophomore QB they put in against Crosby and eventually finished the season with. I didn’t realize that #4 kid that played receiver for them had that great a year? He had 1,004 receiving yards on 62 catches with 11 tds on a not very good team. The thing I value most when making a prediction about a team’s season is if they have a returning QB. KP has that, IDK what their returning linemen look like but assuming they start Jaxson Sims(sophomore) they still have the 6’5” kid who started the season at QB and will probably be a factor somewhere else? KP may give somebody some unexpected trouble this year if they figure out how to make a stop or two during a football game.

Saw Jahmar Sanders go 10.5 in the 100M at the area meet in Barbers Hill last week. Glad we won’t be seeing him next year in district play. List of Houston area kids from our district to look out for in 8-5A-D1:

I’ve said it countless times over the years but two things I hate placing any value in are JV records and 7on7 scores. That being said, to somewhat break my own rule I’ll say based on what I saw yesterday at the 7on7 tournament in Dickinson that Crosby has more than sufficient talent to cover the losses at the skill positions from last year. The two places I was concerned were the defensive line and the secondary. Even with the loss of Kirkwood it looks like the secondary will be better overall. We’ll see about the d-line in Spring ball, which starts next week, but the LB core looks so solid with the Summer Creek transfer finally being eligible that we just need to find three guys to keep them clean vs a McCoy Casey type dominant replacement up front we were going to miss. Myles threw for 32 tds and 3 ints last year. When a kid knows he can take off and most likely pick up the first down it’s hard to get him to take more chances with the football. However, I would gladly take two additional interceptions added to that total if it meant the opportunity for another 8-10 touchdown receptions by our receivers. 40 tds and 5 ints doesn’t sound that bad. As long as we stay/stayed healthy Crosby was going to be in good shape this year just due to the talent in this range of classes we have playing varsity right now. Depending on how the line of scrimmage shakes out between Spring ball and Fall camp, we might be in very good shape.