Waco Robinson 20, Brownwood 14 — Brice McCurdy threw for 270 yards and two scores and rushed for 43 yards and another score to lead Robinson to a tough win over Brownwood.
Trailing 14-7 heading into the fourth quarter, Robinson (6-1, 2-0) rallied with a pair of late TDs.
Brownwood (2-5, 0-2) was led by Trent Buffington with 176 yards rushing and two scores.
Note: If you know of a former Big Country Prep athlete now performing in college or professional sports, contact Mike Lee at michaellee7@att.net.
Munday’s L.J. Collier is continuing his journey from a small town in Texas through a multiyear career in the NFL.
Collier has made his way from growing up in a Big Country town of 1,200 residents to playing Division I college football at TCU to the Arizona Cardinals, where he’s in his eighth NFL season as a backup defensive tackle.
Collier has played in all five Arizona games this season and made a season-high three tackles last week in a 45-21 loss to the Detroit Lions. He has seven tackles for the season and is listed as the No. 2 right defensive tackle on the Cardinals’ depth chart.
The 31-year-old Collier was a first-round draft choice of Seattle in 2019 and played four seasons with the Seahawks. Collier played in 44 games with the Seahawks, including 16 starts in 2020, when he logged 22 tackles, three sacks and two pass breakups.
Gatesville 62, Waco Connally 20 — Gatesville (4-2, 1-0) had an easy time with winless Connally (0-6, 0-1) in the district opener for both clubs.
The level of difficulty, however, is about to rise dramatically with unbeaten Waco La Vega coming to town next week.
BROWNWOOD — Jeryl Brixey ultimately wants the Brownwood defense to maintain focus and play at a high level, regardless of what the Lions’ offense is doing.
But the Lions showed Friday night that they’re not close to where Brixey, their second-year head football coach, hopes they’ll be someday.
Waco La Vega quarterback Kourtney Parr carved up the Brownwood defense, completing 17 of 20 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns, as the Class 4A Division II No. 2-ranked Pirates beat the Lions 49-14 at Gordon Wood Stadium.
Unbeaten La Vega improved to 6-0 overall after winning the District 13-4A Division II opener while Brownwood fell to 2-4.
Note: If you know of a former Big Country Prep athlete now performing in college or professional sports, contact Mike Lee at michaellee7@att.net.
The Hardin-Simmons Cowboys swept the American Southwest Conference Player of the Week honors in football this week — and all three selections were former Big Country Preps athletes.
During HSU’s 58-0 win over the University of Fort Lauderdale last Saturday, Cowboys quarterback Ty Thompson, a sophomore from Graham, passed for 183 yards and three touchdowns. He was named the ASC Offensive Player of the Week after completing scoring passes of 40 yards and 5 yards to Jairdyn Anderson and 15 yards to Harison Brockway, who is also from Graham.
Thompson’s three touchdown passes came in the first quarter and staked HSU to a 21-0 first-quarter lead.
Thompson also rushed for 101 yards on eight carries, including a 51-yard touchdown run.
Through three official games this season, Thompson leads the Cowboys in rushing with 221 yards and three TDs. He also leads the team in passing with 694 yards and six TDs against one interception.
Brownwood 42, China Spring, 21 — The up-and-down odyssey of the Brownwood Lions continued on Friday with BHS handing China Spring a convincing loss.
The Lions, who nearly upset top-ranked Stephenville in Week 2, only to fall to Springtown (54-6) and Graham (64-9), seemed to recover its early season form against China Spring.
Graham 64, Brownwood 9 — Brownwood’s inexplicable slide continues with its second straight lopsided loss after nearly upsetting top-ranked Stephenville two weeks ago.
Graham rolled up 643 yards in total offense, including 330 through the air to improve to 4-0.
Note: If you know of a former Big Country Prep athlete now performing in college or professional sports, contact Mike Lee at michaellee7@att.net.
Coy Eakin led Texas Tech in receiving and scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter last Saturday as the nationally ranked Red Raiders rallied past the Oregon State Beavers 35-24 in Corvallis, Oregon.
Eakin, a fifth-year receiver from Stephenville, caught a 32-yard touchdown pass from Will Hammond that rallied Texas Tech to a 28-24 lead with 6:31 left in the game. The Red Raiders eventually won 35-24.
Nine Tech players caught passes last week, and the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Eakin led the Red Raiders in receiving with six catches for 79 yards.
Tech, 2-0 and ranked No. 13 in this week’s Associated Press poll, hosts No. 22 Houston (2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday — yes, Friday — on FOX.
Springtown 54, Brownwood 6 — Brownwood was outgained 519-149 in a rough night for the Lions.
Kaine Hill rushed for 122 yards and two scores and threw for 217 and another TD as Springtown (1-2) earned its first win of the year.
Brownwood dropped to 1-2.
Salado 34, Blanco 14 — Max Gist threw for 168 yards and two TDs and Zack Adcox rushed for 107 yards and two more TDs to lift Salado over Blanco.
SHS (1-1) built a 20-0 first quarter lead and was never threatened after that.
Blanco fell to 1-1.
BROWNWOOD – When Brownwood’s Trent Buffington broke a 27-yard touchdown run that gave the Lions a 24-21 lead over Stephenville with 1:29 left in Friday night’s football game, Yellow Jackets quarterback Trot Jordan, along with receivers Adan Jergins and Caden Monk, said the Lions left too much time on the clock.
Several Brownwood fans were wondering the same thing.
Turns out they were right.
Jordan, who had thrown two interceptions and had passed for a modest 88 yards to that point, was facing a third-and-15 from the Jackets’ 25-yard line with one minute to play.
The all-state quarterback regrouped and threw a strike across the middle to Monk, his sophomore receiver. Monk eluded one defender and outran another on the way to a 75-yard touchdown pass with 50 seconds left that gave the Jackets a 28-24 win.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Brownwood-Wylie football (56 images)”
Before Haskell senior quarterback Haegen Pinkerton arrived at HHS as a freshman, the name of Pinkerton was something I associated with the famous detective agency.
I now associate it with statistical insanity, and you should associate it with the Big Country Preps Player of the Week.
Pinkerton, who was behind center in Haskell’s 80-62 loss to Stamford, had one of the biggest nights I can recollect in a losing effort, accounting for seven touchdowns on Friday.
Hitting 15 of 22 throws for 193 yards, three of Pinkerton’s deliveries went for scores. But it was on the ground where he did most of his damage, rushing 29 times for 290 yards and four touchdowns to help keep the Indians competitive.
Waco La Vega 42, Franklin 16 — Ben Thompson rushed for 131 yards and two scores and Kourtney Parr threw for 116 yards and rushed for one TD to lift La Vega to a surprisingly easy win over perennial power Franklin.
Leading 14-9 at the break, La Vega pulled away with a 28-7 second half.
The Brownwood football team scored on three of its four trips to the red zone and turned Wylie away without points four times inside its own 20-yard line Friday at Hugh Sandifer Stadium.
At the end of a physical, hard-fought season opener between the teams, that discrepancy was the difference and deciding factor in what would prove in the final minutes to be a thrilling 13-7 Lions victory.
Wylie outgained Brownwood 301-250 and limited the Lions to a single touchdown, but three fruitless trips inside the BHS 10 left the Bulldogs down 13-0 with 2:13 to play in the game. The home team finally got on the board after that with a quick-strike score and recovered an onside kick with just under 1:40 to play, but the Lions came up with one final red-zone stop in the final minute to seal the win.
After a week of highlighting area playmakers, we wrap up our eight-part preseason position rankings series with the Big Country’s best signal callers.
To complete our look at the area’s top players, we’ve ranked our top 15 quarterbacks with a list of others to watch in 2026.
We hope you enjoy this list and that you’ve enjoyed our position rankings as we get set to kick off a new season.
As we wind down our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we arrive finally at the Big Country’s top ball-carriers.
After breaking down this year’s crop of receivers and tight ends earlier today, we move now to the area’s top backs, ranking our top 15 with a list of others to watch in 2026. Don’t forget to check in tomorrow when we conclude our series with the top 10 area quarterbacks.
We hope you enjoy this list and encourage you to check out the other position groups, which are linked below.
We’re approaching the final stretch of our eight-part preseason position rankings series, and it’s time to look at the Big Country’s top receivers.
After starting the offensive portion of our series with the linemen, we now shift our attention to the playmakers on the perimeter, ranking our top 15 wideouts/tight ends with a list of others to watch in 2026.
We hope you enjoy our list and encourage you to check out the other position groups, which are linked below.
After recognizing the top defensive players throughout the Big Country over the past three days, it’s time to honor the specialists.
We continue our eight-part preseason position rankings series by naming our top 10 kickers and top three punters to watch this fall.
We hope you enjoy this list and that you have enjoyed our position rankings as we get set to kickoff the 2026 season.
After starting with the linemen and linebackers, we turn to the defensive backfield to complete our look at the top defenders in the Big Country.
For the third installment in our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we shift our focus to the secondary, giving our list of the area’s top 15 defensive backs and others to look out for in 2026.
We hope you enjoy our list.
After taking a look at the Big Country’s top defensive linemen last night, it’s now time to examine those who will backing them in 2026.
Continuing with Big Country Preps’ eight-part preseason position rankings series, here’s our top 15 linebackers to watch this fall, as well as a list of the others we’re expecting big things from.
We hope you enjoy our list.
With the start of football season around the corner, it’s time to take a look at the players who will be making the biggest impact in 2026.
For the first installment in an eight-part series that will cover all position groups, we’ll be taking a look at the area’s top defensive linemen, ranking our top 15 with a list of others to watch this fall.
As with any such list, these rankings are subjective. We hope you enjoy reading through them.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Defensive Linemen”
The time has arrived for us to make our Big Country predictions, district-by-district.
Several weeks of research and two solid months of summertime labor have gone into this, so we’re more than ready to post it.
With that please dive in and study our take on the upcoming season, along with the more than 80 preseason stories we posted earlier today. Enjoy! We’ll see you on the road!
GAME PHOTOS COURTESY OF GR PRODUCTIONS
BROWNWOOD — He may not fit into the cookie cutter mold of every college football recruiter. But Brownwood coach Jeryl Brixey is firmly convinced that senior safety Wyatt Wolf is going to be a steal for whichever university signs him.
Wolf, a 5-11, 180-pound honor student with an extraordinary football IQ and a penchant for finding the football, is one of those players who can fit into several different roles.
As is, he’s penciled in at high safety, low safety, outside linebacker, backup receiver and emergency quarterback.
BROWNWOOD — Whatever success the Brownwood Lions achieve in 2026 may be less a case of execution than survival. To put it bluntly, Brownwood’s first six games of this season could very well be the toughest row of opponents faced by any Class 4A DII team in Texas.
If the young Lions can come out of their non-district portion reasonably healthy (regardless of record), they could be battle-hardened enough to snag a playoff spot by season’s end.
So how difficult is this slate? How about a road game at Class 5A Wylie (Aug. 28), followed by home dates with state 4A DI state champion Stephenville (Sept. 4) and perennial toughie Springtown (Sept. 11). A road date with 4A regional contender Graham will come on Sept. 18 and a road date at always tough China Spring will follow a week later.
If that isn’t tough enough, the Lions will begin play in District 13-4A DII on Oct. 9 against another perennial power, Waco La Vega, at Gordon Wood Stadium.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2026 All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2026 All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Brownwood (2-3) — The Lions were idle Friday night.