FORGET THE SCHEDULE, HAMLIN IS DOING WHAT IT SHOULD BE DOING

With Hamlin extending its winning streak to five, I can hear its detractors (and with some validity) saying that the Pipers have yet to be tested by an upper tier 2A DII team. 

Hamlin fell to Division I Anson in an injury-plagued opener, but hasn’t faced a team currently over .500 since. 
OK, that’s fine. 

But there’s one thing to keep an eye on: Hamlin is doing what a good team would do as a heavy favorite — it’s winning comfortably. 

In fact, with the exception of a 19-14 win over Crosbyton, the Pipers have outperformed computer projections on a weekly basis. In other words, this club is better than most believed it would be and without question, it’s better than last year. 

“Since (Anson) we’ve been trying to figure out what our identity is, especially with our offensive line,” Botos said. “We knew we had some skill kids and we’re just now starting to fire on all cylinders.

“We should be able to do some cool things with them.” 

Perhaps most importantly, Hamlin is playing well defensively — not allowing more than two scores in a game since Week 2.

BROWNWOOD EMERGING AS A SOLID TEAM

Following a 1-3 start in a near-soap opera atmosphere, the Brownwood football team has managed to keep its nose to the proverbial grindstone and focus on one thing: weekly improvement.

How first-year coach Jeryl Brixey has managed to navigate his team to three straight wins and a 4-3 record might be one of the more impressive coaching accomplishments in the Big Country this season. 

Toss in the fact that the Lions knocked off previously unbeaten Lampasas 42-39 last Friday, and no one with any sense is writing this team off now. 

“I don’t really think it’s me,” Brixey said. “The kids have had a remarkable attitude since I came in. 

“My experiences here have been pretty good. There were a lot of distractions (in the beginning) … I just asked them to trust me and work hard. 

“And our backs and receivers — the kids you’d think would be the most resistant to change, have been the most open to doing everything that has been asked of them.” 

HAWLEY NOT STUNNED BY ITS UPSET OF ANSON

I fell right in line with virtually everyone else last week, picking a 5-0 Anson team to defeat a 3-2 Hawley club on the road.

The Tigers were coming off an impressive 20-6 win over Albany, they hadn’t allowed more than a touchdown to anyone and they had two shutouts to their credit.

So was I surprised by Hawley’s 39-28 win over the Tigers last week?

Floored is more like it.  The Bearcats scored more points in one game than Anson has allowed all season.

But to their credit, the Hawley camp went into the game fully believing it could win and wasn’t at all stunned by the result.  This, combined with Cisco’s 30-20 win over Stamford last week has created a wide-open race in District 4-2A DI.

“We knew it would be a knock-down drag-out every week,” said Ables of the league race. “Us, Stamford, Anson and Cisco are all pretty good and can beat anyone on a given day. 

“Now Anson has to go to Stamford on Friday and one of those really good teams is going to be 0-2 in district, so it’s kind of crazy right now.” 

GLEN ROSE HAS BEEN GOOD FOR A STRAIGHT MONTH

It’s generally difficult to get an accurate gauge on how good or how bad a team is until you have sufficient data. So it’s entirely possible for a good team to lay hidden under the radar for nearly half of a season before it dawns on everyone that how dangerous it really is. 

Case in point: The Glen Rose Tigers, who stumbled out of the gate at 0-5 with a young team facing a difficult schedule. 

How difficult? Well, to date, the five teams that beat the Tigers in non-district play — Grandview (4-2), Gatesville (5-1), Brownwood (4-3), Waco Robinson (5-1) and Alvarado (5-0) — are a combined 23-7.  And the Tigers last three losses came by a combined total of nine points.

So it came as no real surprise when the Tigers opened with a 56-21 win over Godley in the District 4-4A DII opener for both clubs last week.

Nobody wants to be the best 0-5 team in the state, but for a week, Glen Rose may have held that title. The Tigers are now the odds-on favorite to run the district table and capture a No. 1 seed. 

“It’s a challenge for kids or coaches, losing five in a row and trying to still believe,” coach Cliff Watkins said. “But we could see the progress on the field even though we weren’t finding ways to win.

“We could see positives on film and those are the things we tried to concentrate on and build off of.” 

It’s working.