Sweetwater 32, Jim Ned 14 — The Mustangs overcame a 7-6 halftime deficit with a 26-7 run through the second half.
Sweetwater (5-2, 2-0) tallied an astonishing 420 yards rushing (out of 430 total yards) with Kaden McCann gaining 340 of those yards to go with 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.
Clyde 64, Odessa Compass Academy 7 — At 6-0 and 1-0, Clyde is one win away from having at least seven wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time in a decade.
The last time the Bulldogs achieved this was under Rocky Smart in 2015 and 2016.
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.
CLYDE — There’s not been anything normal when the Jim Ned and Clyde volleyball teams have met on the court this season.
In their first meeting on Sept. 12, the match was held in Tuscola after a water main break in Clyde left the campus without water, resulting in a dominant sweep for the Lady Indians.
Tuesday’s rematch came less than a week after Clyde coach Courtney Freeman had an emergency surgery, and the veteran coach was still dealing with a lot of pain as she saw her squad push the 20th-ranked Lady Indians to the brink before Jim Ned pulled off a 25-19, 16-25, 25-17, 20-25, 15-12 win at Bulldog Gym.
A week ago, Graham senior quarterback Cooper Corley narrowly missed taking our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award.
This time around, there was no stopping him.
Corley, who led the Steers to a 48-21 win over Peaster, hit 16 of 27 throws for 307 yards and two TDs.
He also rushed 12 times for 132 yards and four more scores and caught a 29-yard TD pass for seven touchdowns on the night.
“Very rarely do you see a kid total 7 TDs in a night and score in three different ways,” Graham coach Clay McChristian said. “He scored at least one touchdown passing, rushing, and receiving.
“That is right at 1000 total yards and 13 TDs in the last two weeks against two quality opponents.”
Clyde 56, Fort Stockton 21 — Devan Wright threw for 301 yards and four scores and rushed for 88 yards and another TD to lead Clyde to an easy win over Fort Stockton (0-5).
Jonathan White added 151 yards rushing and two more TDs for Clyde, which is off to a 5-0 start.
It’s still too early to say, but 2026 could be the year of the quarterback in the Big Country. At least it has been that way through three weeks, with Clyde senior Devan Wright taking our latest Big Country Player of the Week award after another eye-popping performance from an area signal caller.
In the wake of Haskell’s Haegan Pinkerton winning our first two awards with two huge performances in Week 1 and Week 2, Wright followed those up with one of his own in a 57-21 win over Comanche on Friday.
Helping Clyde improve to 3-0, Wright connected on 12 of 18 throws for 194 yards and four scores. He also rushed nine times for 116 yards and three more TDs, giving him a direct hand in seven touchdowns.
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.
Grayson Rigdon is listed as the No. 3 running back on the Arizona State football depth chart, but the former Strawn-Benjamin High School player scored two long-distance touchdowns in the Sun Devils’ 70-7 season-opening win over Morgan State last Saturday.
The 5-foot-11 sophomore scored on receptions of 54 and 56 yards. On both touchdowns, quarterback Cutter Boley threw to Rigdon coming out of the backfield, and he used his running skills to turn the short receptions into long touchdowns.
Rigdon’s first touchdown extended ASU’s lead to 35-7 early in the second quarter. His second score made it 56-7 early in the third quarter.
In addition to the two receptions for 110 yards, Rigdon finished Saturday’s game with four carries for 22 yards rushing and one kickoff return for 18 yards.
The Sun Devils play at No. 10-ranked Texas A&M at 11 a.m. Saturday on ABC-TV.
As an ASU freshman last season, Rigdon played on special teams in six games. He also had two carries and one reception in the Sun Devils’ Sun Bowl loss to Duke.
We prefer to not have the same athlete win our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award in successive weeks, given that it is our aim to share the love. But every now and then, the numbers simply make that impossible.
So here we have it: Haskell’s Haegen Pinkerton has won our accolade twice in as many weeks, and deservedly so after leading the Indians to a 62-44 win at Bangs on Friday.
Clyde 55, Tolar 26 — Devan Wright rushed for 127 yards and three scores and threw for 188 yards and two more TDs as Clyde scored an impressive road win at Tolar.
Clyde improved to 2-0 with the win; Tolar dropped to 0-2.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cisco-Clyde football (15 images)”
Idalou 31, Sweetwater 6 — Two fumbles and an interception hurt Sweetwater in its opener with Idalou.
The Mustangs were limited to 245 yards in total offense, with 187 of that coming on the ground.
Mason Blueford was the top gainer for Sweetwater with 61 yards rushing on eight carries.
Idalou (1-0) finished with 389 total yards.
CLYDE — It may have been mistake-filled and a bit sloppy (as many season-openers are). But Friday’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week didn’t fail to entertain those in attendance, with Clyde overcoming Cisco 27-24 in a seesaw battle at Bulldog Stadium.
Devan Wright threw for 196 yards and rushed for 128 while accounting for three touchdowns to lead Clyde (1-0), which overcame a 24-21 deficit when Wright hit Jacob Hernandez with a 5-yard pass over the middle for a go-ahead TD with 5:20 to play. It proved to be the game-winner as the Bulldogs stopped Cisco on its final possession to secure the victory in what has become an intriguing rivalry.
“We always play close games with these guys,” Clyde coach Johnathon Haddock said. “Cisco is a really good football team and I think we have a really good football team too and I think you saw that tonight.
“We were lucky to make some plays in the fourth quarter to put us on top. But there were two very good teams on the field.”
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.
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Summer is over (at least as far as the school calendars are concerned).
That means it’s time to lace up the cleats and begin the annual dance otherwise known as the high school football season that some Texans treat with an almost religious enthusiasm.
That also means it’s time for sportswriters across the state to take their weekly stabs at picking the winners of area games — a great source of entertainment for some readers and a great source of frustration for some of us who engage in it.
Nonetheless, it’s time to dive in.
So here we go. I’ll see you on the road.
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.
With the defensive and special teams rankings behind us, it’s time to look at the area’s top offensive players. And we’ll start with the foundation of any productive offense: the offensive line.
For the fifth installment of our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we turn our attention to the trenches, ranking the Big Country’s top 15 offensive linemen with a list of others to watch in 2026.
We hope you enjoy reading through our rankings.
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!
In high school football, particularly at the small school level, talent ebbs and flows. And with the exception of the few “reload” programs that can maintain a standard of excellence through heavy graduation losses, a team’s ceiling in a given year is most often determined by the amount of experienced talent it has on its roster.
This is great news for the 2026 Clyde Bulldogs.
After fielding a sophomore-heavy team in 2024, coach Johnathon Haddock rode that nucleus as juniors to a 7-4 record in his second year with the program last year. Entering Year 3 with that talented core “all grown up,” the coach and his staff have well-justified hopes and expectations for a special season in Clyde, America.
Sweetwater (3-2) — The Mustangs were idle on Friday night.
Clyde 42, Breckenridge 18 — Devan Right threw for 197 yards and four scores and Harley Griffen rushed for 193 yards and another TD to keep Clyde unbeaten at 4-0. 
Sweetwater 42, Big Spring 21 — The Mustangs (1-2) notched their first win of the season after racing out to a 28-7 lead.