Brennan Whitaker has seen the magazine clippings and high school football predictions.
The first-year De Leon coach is well aware his Bearcats are highly ranked and expected to be a regional title contender.
But Whitaker also wants his players to know they shouldn’t buy into the hype. That’s why he sent them a video from a 2017 Nick Saban press conference where he compares the media’s hype to rat poison.
As a sophomore in 2023, Brayden Torres saw an injury to senior standout Jadin Jackson open the door for his first varsity action behind center. He was so effective in relief duty that he would hold onto the quarterback job the rest of the season, pushing Jackson into a utility role in which he thrived.
This fall as a senior, after watching a similar set of circumstances play out late last season, it’s Torres’ turn to take on a do-it-all role on offense.
Like his former teammate, Torres will be asked to run, pass and catch the ball for the Bluecats this year. And like his former teammate, he’s embracing the opportunity to impact games and help his team in as many ways as possible.
By win-loss record, the 2024 season might seem like a forgettable campaign for the Coleman Bluecats. Coach John Elder’s squad won just four games last year, marking its lowest win total since 2019.
But lost in such a cursory examination of that season is the fact that the Bluecats rebounded from an 0-7 start to win four of their final five games, including a playoff upset of Wolfe City in the bi-district round.
With a solid group of returners from that team, including six offensive and five defensive starters, Coleman will be looking to build on that momentum this fall. And Elder is expecting the experience and confidence gained in 2024 to pay dividends a year later.
Changing from the spread to the wing-T takes time for every offensive player.
But it’s even more of a transition for the offensive linemen who must fire off the ball after being so used to pass protecting.
Second-year Bangs coach Colton Buzzard doesn’t hesitate in pointing out what needs to be better for the team to succeed this fall. And he has complete faith in his offensive line to take the next steps.
Colton Buzzard saw some good things during his debut season at Bangs.
But Buzzard also saw some missed opportunities as the Dragons finished with only two victories and went winless in District 5-2A Division I.
“We lost four close games last year, and to me, that’s a culture thing and a mindset thing,” Buzzard said. “We weren’t doing the right thing when we were tired. Our record could have been totally different.
If you were to ask first-year Ballinger head coach Bryan Gayoso to list the strengths of the 2025 Bearcats, the offensive and defensive lines would be two of the first units mentioned.
If you were to press him as to why, it wouldn’t take long for Drew Knickerbocker’s name to come up.
Knickerbocker, a 6-foot, 220-pound senior, was a two-way all-district lineman for the Bearcats a year ago — and one of the biggest catalysts for a Ballinger squad that improved from 0-10 in 2023 to 5-6 last year, snapping a two-year playoff drought in the process. And this year, he’ll be leaned on as heavily as anyone to help BHS take the next step as a program and build on last season’s success.
With Ty Lang leaving over the offseason after leading a rebuilding Ballinger program back to the playoffs in 2024, the Bearcats will, technically, have a new coach this fall.
But in promoting longtime assistant Bryan Gayoso, BHS has ensured that its football team will be led by a familiar face.
Gayoso, who has been part of the Ballinger program for more than a decade now, is hoping his presence and amplified voice will provide stability through the Bearcats’ fifth coaching change since 2010. He’s also hoping that last year’s improvement is just the start for a BHS program that rebounded from a 1-19 record in 2022 and 2023 to go 5-6 in 2025.
A year ago, Brayden Jimenez helped Stamford to the Class 2A Division I state championship game as a junior on a senior-led squad.
Now an elder statesman for a much younger Bulldogs team after watching 20 of his former teammates graduate over the summer, the speedy playmaker is hoping to keep SHS’ expectations — at potential — at the same elite level.
One of just 13 returning lettermen and two offensive starters back for Stamford, Jimenez knows he and his Bulldog comrades will have their hands full in replicating last year’s success. But he’s prepared to do everything he can, both on the field and in the locker room, to make that goal a reality.
Entering the 2024 season with a wealth of talent and experience on his roster, Stamford coach Wayne Hutchinson knew before the season even started that he had something special on his hands.
When his Bulldogs won 15 consecutive games before dropping a 30-28 heartbreaker to Ganado in overtime in the Class 2A Division I state championship game, his confidence in that group proved well-founded.
After graduating 20 lettermen from that roster, including nine offensive and five defensive starters, Hutchinson will take a much younger team into the 2025 campaign. But despite the relative lack of experience and heavy turnover, the veteran mentor is no less excited about this bunch of players or eager to see what they have in store as a follow-up this fall.
HAWLEY — Hawley junior Camden Ables has always been a bit ahead of the learning curve since he arrived on campus as a freshman two years ago. He was older than most people in his class, he was the son of a coach (Hawley’s Mitch Ables) and he had the physical tools of an upper classman before playing his first snap.
Not surprisingly, he started as a freshman and earned All-Big Country Preps honorable mention honors in the process. He was a first-team All-Big Country Preps tight end as a sophomore and was named to our Rising Stars team (area’s top underclassmen) as well.
With all that behind him, Camden still has two years of eligibility left as a 17-year-old junior and the proverbial sky, seems to be the limit. Numerous Division I schools have already got him on their radar screen and there is no telling where it will eventually lead.
He’s grown an inch, gained 15 pounds of muscle and now at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he’s running a 4.7 in the 40-yard dash.
HAWLEY — Hawley coach Mitch Ables is unaccustomed to taking a step back.
Having posted a 118-27 record in his 11 years at HHS, including seven straight seasons with 10 wins or more and a state title in 2022, Ables’ teams have had a knack for reloading.
This season, however, could produce a set of challenges that Hawley hasn’t seen in quite some time. Aside from losing half of their starters to graduation, the Bearcats must find a new quarterback and replace several players who earned All-Big Country Preps honors a year ago.
CISCO —Show me an area coach who has a career record of 45-22 in five years with five straight playoff berths, five straight area round appearances, four regional semifinal appearances and three trips to regional title games.
You’d think you should be able to name a guy like that, or at least, not be surprised when you hear his name (Cisco’s Kevin Stennett) associated with the aforementioned record.
Now show me the area coaches who have outperformed him in that time span. Trust me, it’s a short list, yet many area fans outside of Cisco cannot name Stennett as the Loboes’ coach.
CISCO — While an 8-5 record and a push three rounds deep into the playoffs is reason to celebrate at most schools, the bar has been set so high at Cisco over the last 20 years, that CHS fans weren’t exactly turning handsprings last season.
But there is reason for optimism in the Cisco camp, with a combination of six offensive and eight defensive starters back from last year’s club — plus the promotion of several players from last year’s 10-0 JV team to help bolster the varsity roster.
As this group matures over the next two years, envisioning a return to the days when the Loboes were perennially among the favorites to reach Arlington may not be unrealistic.
Buoyed by an 8-4 season that saw Anson advance two rounds into the playoffs last fall, the Tigers sport even loftier’ aspirations in 2025.
The goal certainly isn’t unrealistic. In addition to establishing a winning attitude, Anson won with an attitude last year. The Tigers scored 449 points and recorded three shutouts. And they return the lion’s share of the talent — on both sides of the ball — that helped elevate the program from “hunter” to “hunted” status in District 4-2A Division I.
During the first week of preseason camp, as first-year coach Kyle Wheeler began to assess how he and his staff can build on that kind of success, he made an important personnel decision.
He named his best defensive player one of the principals on the offense, as well.
Sometimes in football, regardless of the names on the roster, the best player is named “Mo,” as in “Momentum,” which should be in ample supply this fall at Anson.
The Tigers finished 8-4 in 2024 and advanced two rounds into the Class 2A Division I playoffs. And with 14 starters coming back this fall, Anson should again be a formidable Big Country force, with old “Mo” leading the way.
Steven Ward’s second year leading the Abilene TLCA program has some promise but looks like it will be another year of tough learning experiences and growth from young players.
The Eagles have 20 returning lettermen from a year ago, with nine starters back on both sides of the football.
One thing that TLCA will be looking at this year is how well does the roster react to having a new offensive and defensive coordinator.
It didn’t take Hayden Bowlin long to endear himself to first-year Forsan coach Casey Thompson.
Between his physical gifts, work ethic, team-first attitude and leadership skills, the speedy senior made quite a first impression on the new Buffaloes mentor.
In the time since that introduction, Thompson’s fondness for Bowlin has only grown. And with the start of the 2025 season on the horizon, the coach is still working to devise ways — and phases — in which he can utilize the multi-talented receiver/defensive back.
Few small-school programs in the state have enjoyed more coaching stability over the past several decades than Forsan. But after 16 years as the school’s head football coach, Jason Phillips announced in January that he’d be stepping down from that post.
That decision opened up the FHS job for just the sixth time since 1980 and opened the door for former Sweetwater special teams coordinator Casey Thompson to take over a Buffaloes program that had posted an 88-84 record and made nine playoff appearances under Phillips’ watch.
While Thompson inherits a team that saw a four-year playoff streak snapped last year during a tough 2-8 campaign, the energetic new head man is bullish on the program’s future. And he feels good about the foundation he’s building from in the present.
Generally, the “bottom line” measuring the significance of a team’s season is the final record.
It features a number on one side of a hyphen, followed by another digit. When the figure on the left is numerically larger than that on the right, coaches, players and fans are likely to consider that bottom line favorably. A run of “big number-little number” seasons represents sustained success.
A trophy that accompanies the final big number is the pinnacle.
Generally, Colorado City’s new head football coach Daniel Mejia would agree with all of that. In fact, he has spent nearly three decades of coaching in pursuit of said trophy — and has been part of two teams that were a single win from vying for it.
But …
It has been seven years since the Colorado City football team last finished a season with double-digit wins. The 2024 record, 2-8, only served to punctuate the dire predicament in which the Wolves have found themselves recently, especially given that last year’s victory total represented a third of the school’s wins over the past 59 games.
New head coach Daniel Mejia readily acknowledges the No. 1 challenge facing him and his staff this fall: Teaching players who have never won how to win. How he goes about that might be the secret weapon Colorado City has lacked the past few seasons.
For starters, Mejia might be new to the head coaching job in C-City, but he’s anything but a novice when it comes to leading prep football teams. He has 28 years of experience, including stints at Memphis, Hedley, Bovina, Ozona, Sonora, San Angelo Lake View and Miles. He has twice been a part of teams that reached the state quarterfinals. A cherry on top of all that experience is his familiarity with his current squad. Mejia was the Wolves’ offensive coordinator last fall, so, despite the fact that he is technically “new” to his current position, he is quite familiar with the group he will lead.
The switch had already been made.
After spending his sophomore season as Goldthwaite’s starting quarterback, Aidyn Lee was looking forward to thriving in a new role as the Eagles’ slot receiver.
The move wasn’t a demotion — Lee had earned first-team all-district honors in leading Goldthwaite to a 7-5 season.
Andy Howard has seen Goldthwaite’s growth for some time.
But it wasn’t until the Eagles put together the program’s best season in a decade that Howard’s players could also realize the hard work had paid off.
Goldthwaite won seven games a year ago, including throttling then-No. 1 Mart 46-0 to end the regular season. The Eagles knocked off Maud in bi-district before falling to Grapeland in the area round.
With just four players in it, the Santo senior class is small by any standard. But coach Devon Mann said you’d be hard pressed to find a better group of leaders.
The last left standing from a class that was too small to field standalone teams in seventh or eighth grade, the quartet of Luke Sides, Justin Hollingsworth, Michael Lockwood and Diego Marin hold a special place in their coach’s heart and the Wildcats’ locker room.
Sides, Hollingsworth and Lockwood, in particular, have taken on pivotal roles, both on the field and as leaders for a team that is slated to be quite young around them. And Mann is confident that the work they’ve put in and sacrifices they’ve made to make it to their senior year will pay off in a significant way this fall.
After fighting through back-to-back losing seasons — the first two in Devon Mann’s eight-year tenure as head coach — the Santo Wildcats are expecting a return to winning football in 2025.
While still on the younger side after graduating 10 lettermen and returning just three senior starters from last year’s 4-6 squad, the ‘Cats feel like they have the talent in their program to start a run of success like the one that saw them win 21 games across the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
With successful campaigns at the freshman and junior varsity levels a year ago, Santo’s younger players are accustomed to winning football games. And Mann said the upperclassmen in his program who aren’t could soon become so with the team he’ll be putting on the field this fall.
As Ryan Pannell began preseason workouts at Winters earlier this month, it became readily apparent to team members and fans that the first-year head coach is serious about trying to help the Blizzards turn a page that in recent times has become a chapter.
That task, without question, is a formidable challenge.
The 2024 Blizzards went 2-8. They won the season opener by a point, then proceeded to be outscored 381-90 the rest of the way. They were shut out five times. In the three years prior, they mustered only four wins — in 29 games.
With a new head coach in town, the Winters Blizzards are eager to put the past few seasons behind them and start to create a buzz in the crowd that doesn’t begin with the words, “here we go again …”
In 2024, Winters went 2-8, and over the past four seasons, the Blizzards have managed just six wins.
But that’s no hill for a climber, if the upcoming football season is the hill and that climber is coach Ryan Pannell.
Tabbed to replace a successful coach who was let go in the offseason despite broad support by the Roscoe community, first-year Plowboys coach Daniel Loyd knew when he was hired that his first task would be earning buy-in from his players.
And in inheriting a large senior class that had just helped RHS to its fifth consecutive playoff appearance, Loyd knew winning over that group would be a big step toward accomplishing that goal.
Now in his fifth month as the Plowboys head man, Loyd has a unified Roscoe squad rowing in one common direction as the season nears its start. And the former Seymour coach credits those seniors for the leadership they provided through what turned out to be a surprisingly seamless transition.
When it comes to the philosophy he’s taking into his first year as the Roscoe football coach, former Seymour head man Daniel Loyd is keeping things simple.
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
Inheriting a program that reached the playoffs nine times in 12 years under former coach Jake Freeman, including each of the past five seasons, Loyd has made it his job to the keep the ship on an already proven course. And with a the bulk of last year’s roster back for the Plowboys, including a large and talented senior class, he feels like his first Roscoe squad could be headed for a pretty desirable location.
As a sophomore on a senior-dominated roster, Miles quarterback Liam Yancy had a tough assignment last fall.
But the talented signal caller proved more than up to the task, leading the Bulldogs to their third consecutive eight-win season with what could only be described as a breakout campaign.
Coming off that effort, which cemented his place as the leader of the MHS offense, Yancy will now try to lead a young Bulldogs to squad to similar success this fall. And while that will, no doubt, be a challenge with just five returning lettermen around him, the junior has the full confidence of both sixth-year Miles coach Jayson Wilhem and his teammates.
Coming off the winningest three-year stretch in program history, the Miles Bulldogs will have the strength of their budding football tradition tested in 2025.
MHS graduated 12 of its 18 lettermen from last year’s 8-3 quad, returns just two starters on both sides of the football and didn’t have the numbers program-wide to field a junior varsity team for most of the 2024 season — all factors that, on paper, might point to a significant rebuild this fall.
But if you expect coach Jayson Wilhelm to accept that fate as an inevitability, you don’t know the sixth-year Miles mentor well enough. Instead, the enthusiastic Bulldogs coach is ready to prove some folks wrong this season, and — despite the heavy graduation losses — feels he has the talent to do just that.
In neighborhoods across the state, it has been a long-standing tradition for youngsters to gather, footballs in hand, to determine who might become the next great quarterback, running back or receiver.
The highlights are a-plenty, as these dreamers hone the awe-inspiring throws, moves and receptions we eventually watch on television on fall weekends. In local backyards and on streets bounded by unfortunately parked cars, names known primarily in a household ultimately evolve into household names nationwide — all because they can pass, run and catch “better than the other kids.”
It’s a Texas rite of passage, this yearning to become a football star at one of the celebrated offensive positions.
Yet, somehow, that dream wasn’t even remotely part of the formative routine of Kyson McGee, the young man who might become Hamlin’s most explosive offensive weapon this fall.
As Hamlin looks to build on the momentum created last season, when it went 6-4 and earned a playoff berth for the first time in four years, coach Jason Botos is cautiously optimistic that the Pied Pipers will be even more formidable this fall.
For one thing, Botos has eight starters returning on offense and another nine on the defensive side of the ball. That means that a majority of the players who finally pushed the team into the playoffs are back — and, as Botos noted, eager to build on 2024’s success.
Also helping the cause is the Pied Pipers’ stable of offensive and defensive backs, which are among the best the team has fielded in recent memory.
Playing key roles on offense, defense and special teams, Tyler Mackey won’t leave the field much this season.
But that’s just the way the Cross Plains senior wants it.
A true utility player in every sense of the word, Mackey is among the most versatile weapons in all of the Big Country. And with the senior set to be leaned on more heavily than ever this fall, the playoff-minded Buffaloes could go as he does in 2025.
Over the past 14 years, no conversation could be had about Cross Plains football without including coach Daniel Purvis and the job he did to turn a stagnant program into into a perennial playoff contender.
This fall, for the first time since Purvis took the reins at Cross Plains in 2011, the Buffaloes will have a new voice at the top.
Jared Sanderson, Purvis’ defensive coordinator since 2022, was tabbed to take over the program when the longtime former coach left to take the Plains job in April. And while he’ll be doing some things a little differently, he looks forward to building on the strong foundation laid by his predecessor and former boss.
ALBANY — While Denney Faith could be called an Albany icon, we’re actually well beyond that point now. As the dean of Big Country football coaches and one the most successful mentors the area has ever seen, he’s really more of a Big Country icon than anything else.
Because of that, area football fans are now witnessing a truly unique time — one where the accomplishments of an area legend are becoming more and more appreciated late in his career.
The question it spawns comes at Faith on a nearly daily basis: “So coach, how much longer are you going to keep working?” And to that his answer is generally the same: “As long as I’m feeling well and still enjoying it.”
In other words, nobody, including Faith, really knows the answer.
ALBANY — In terms of overall talent and depth, the Albany Lions could be on the high end, even by their perennially tough standards.
Entering this season with seven offensive and nine defensive starters among 20 lettermen from last year’s 9-3 team, the Lions will get an added boost from players promoted from an 8-2 JV squad.
Their keys to success: settling on a quarterback, a running back and simply staying healthy through a tough non-district slate.
It’s often said that Year 3 of a coaching tenure is when a program sees its biggest growth.
The Munday Moguls are hoping that’s the case as they enter their third season under Brandon Langston in search of their first playoff berth since 2017. Langston is fired up about the season ahead as the Moguls will have more depth than they have had at any point in his tenure.
HASKELL — With a background of wing-T during his days as an assistant in Wellington, first-year Haskell coach Creighton Henderson is well-versed in smashmouth football and has a full appreciation of it.
He is, however, adaptable. And heading into the 2025 campaign at HHS, he is almost forced to be, given the personnel he has to build his first roster.
Aside from potential All-Big-Country Preps quarterback Haegan Pinkerton, Haskell has several solid wide receivers, very few running backs and Henderson is planning accordingly. The Indians will throw the ball in 2025, backed by a uber-aggressive defense unlike the area has seen in a good while.
HASKELL — On paper, the 2025 season looks like an opportunity for a step forward for the Haskell football team.
The Indians return eight offensive and seven defensive starters among 19 lettermen from last year’s 4-6 team and should get additional help from last year’s 7-2 JV squad.
That’s on paper.
On the field, Haskell will have one crucial task in front of it to be successful: Executing a new system under first-year coach Creighton Henderson. If the Indians succeed, they should put together a better product than what was seen in 2024.
“That’s the plan,” said Henderson, a former assistant at Wellington who is now a head coach for the first time. “That’s our belief. We just have to figure a way to get it done.”
In 2024, coach Mike Reed’s Gordon Longhorns squad played just 320 minutes and 15 seconds of football in 15 games — with just the state semifinal matchup against Abbott and the title game against Whiteface extending past halftime.
The Longhorns are guaranteed to play more football this year as Reed added 11-man schools Thorndale (Sept. 19) and Brackettville (Oct. 24) to his schedule so that his squad, which already features a pair of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision commits, could be exposed to playing the second half of games.
Gordon enters the year as the top-ranked team in Division I and a favorite to join a short list of teams that have earned a three-peat in state history.
Here’s a preview of each of the Class 1A Division I districts in the Big Country Preps coverage area with our predictions for 2025.
Like Gordon in Division I, Jayton opens the 2025 season as the state’s top-ranked team and favorite to repeat for the title in December.
Coach Josh Stanaland and his staff, which led the Jaybirds to their first football state championship in 39 years last fall, have built an athletic program that expects to win, regardless of the sport, and has made state trips a habit in recent years.
In TAPPS, Abilene Christian’s biggest competition for a state championship could come within its own district, and that has Kirk Wade fired up about the Panthers’ potential.
Here’s a preview of each of the Class 1A Division II districts in the Big Country Preps coverage area, as well as TAPPS Division II District 1, with our predictions for 2025.
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Football is just around the corner, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Wednesday, Aug. 20. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 4, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2025 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
Today, we take a look at the Abilene High School Eagles.
Football is just around the corner, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Wednesday, Aug. 20. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 4, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2025 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
Today, we take a look at the Wylie Bulldogs.
Football is just around the corner, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Wednesday, Aug. 20. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 4, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2025 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
Today, we take a look at the Cooper Cougars.
Football is just around the corner, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Wednesday, Aug. 20. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 4, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2025 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
Today, we take a look at the Stephenville Yellow Jackets.