Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week and close Thursday morning.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 4)”
LAST WEEK: 42-9, .824
SEASON TOTAL: 116-35, .740
Week 4 arrives and I’m finally hitting my stride on pick accuracy.
It’s been an odd year thus far, both in terms of results and overall feel. It’s been tough to gauge.
Nonetheless, we’re hitting the road once again this Friday, with the Big Country Preps Game of the Week landing at Chesley Field in Cisco, where the Loboes (2-1) will play host to a Jim Ned club that is two divisions larger than they are.
We have said all along that the Sweetwater Mustangs would be among the most explosive teams in the Big Country in 2020, and Friday gave us a glimpse of it.
Led by our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, Leo Holsey, SHS amassed nearly 700 yards in total offense in a 58-42 win over San Angelo Lake View.
A junior in his third varsity season, Holsey hit 14 of 26 throws for 254 yards and four scores and rushed for 111 and three more TDs to help the Mustangs improve to 1-1. He finished the day with 365 total yards and a direct hand in seven scores.
“He came out focused and prepared,” Sweetwater coach Ben McGehee said. “I thought he did a great job running the offense all night in the run and passing game.”
HAMLIN — Sportswriters have an annoying habit of placing teams in Arlington three months in advance and I’m certainly among the guilty parties.
This drives coaches, who are generally a superstitious lot, absolutely nuts. And frankly, I don’t blame them.
So … knowing full well that it’s too early for such assertions, I’m not going to put the Hamlin Pied Pipers in Jerry World in mid-September. I’m not going to say they’re a better team than the one that played for a Class 2A Division II state championship a year ago. I won’t even say they’re the regional favorite.
I really don’t need to. Hamlin’s 3-0 record and No. 2 ranking in Class 2A DII speaks volumes anyway.
But there is an aspect about this club that cannot be overstated and can no longer be ignored: The Pied Pipers are playing extraordinary defense. And they’re doing it without some of their top defenders from a year ago — most notably the unblockable Austin Lozano, who has since signed as a defensive lineman at Abilene Christian University.
Is this what you expected? I didn’t.
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ALBANY — Hyped as an early-season clash between state-ranked rivals, the Big Country Preps Game of the Week between Hamlin and Albany quickly turned into a showcase for the No. 2 Pied Pipers on Friday at Robert Nail Stadium.
Coach Russell Lucas’ squad built a 28-0 lead by halftime and cruised from there to a 42-6 win over the sixth-ranked Lions, improving to 3-0 on the year with its second straight rout of a ranked opponent.
Coming off an impressive 35-6 win over Hawley, which was ranked No. 6 in Class 2A Division I at the time, the Pipers outgained the Lions 262-9 over the first two quarters to establish control early and maintained it after the break in a thoroughly dominating effort.
Miles 29, Roscoe 7 — The Plowboys couldn’t get anything going offensively Friday, gaining just 111 total yards and turning the ball over three times in their third straight loss to open the season.
Antonio Aguayo passed for 107 yards and a touchdown for Roscoe, which fell behind 29-0 before the quarterback’s 16-yard scoring strike to Kolten Hope in the fourth quarter.
Miles (1-2) was led in the victory by Brayden Dunlap, who rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns to stake the Bulldogs to a 22-0 halftime lead.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week and close Thursday morning.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 3)”
Big Country Preps will publish area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m.
This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
Teams that do not submit their statistics in a given week will not be listed when our stats are posted, but will be added to the lists below as they are received in the coming days.
With starting quarterback Isaac Brann out with an injury in Week 2, Anson looked to unproven junior Dylyn Pyle to lead them in a road trip to Coleman on Friday.
He responded with one of the area’s more memorable first starts for a varsity quarterback in recent memory, hitting 14 of 21 passes for 193 yards and two scores in a 38-14 win.
But he wasn’t finished there.
Pyle also rushed for 71 yards and a score on 11 carries and took a punt return 58 yards for another score to lift the Tigers (2-0). He even played a little defense, collecting three solo tackles.
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HAWLEY — It was billed as a rematch of last year’s overtime thriller.
But from start to finish, the Big Country Preps Game of the week belonged to the Hamlin Pied Pipers, who handed their hosts from Hawley a 35-6 loss to avenge the Bearcats’ 46-44 win over the Pipers last year.
Jackson Sepeda rushed for 120 yards, caught two passes for 29 yards and scored four touchdowns to lead Hamlin (2-0), which limited Hawley to 257 yards in total offense.
Xavier Rodela threw for 130 yards, rushed for 85 and scored the Bearcats’ lone touchdown on a 42-yard third-quarter run to lead Hawley (1-1).
Stamford 27, Roscoe 0 — The Plowboys managed just 138 yards of total offense while allowing 425 in a shutout loss to the Bulldogs.
Stamford, which got a big game from quarterback Zhawn Holden, led 7-0 after a quarter and 13-0 at halftime before putting the game away with 13 points in the third period.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week and close Thursday morning.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 2)”
LAST WEEK: 34-15, .694If this were a horse race, Gramps Ren just stumbled out of the gate.
A .694 pick percentage is one of the worst weeks I’ve had in recent memory — brought on by a disastrous 15-9 tally (.625) in the six-man ranks.
That stinks.
Alas, we have yet to reach the first turn, so it’s way early. If I’m not hitting over .800 down the backstretch, I may resort to consulting with a palm reader.
Here’s a look at this week’s Big Country football games.
I’ll see you on the road.
It has been at least years since we’ve seen the type of offensive execution exhibited by the Big Spring Steers in Friday’s 36-14 win over Vernon. And Big Country Preps has never had a Big Spring player as its player of the week.
Until now.
Junior quarterback Gabriel Baeza helped bring both of those streaks to a close, hitting 20 of 32 passes for 282 yards and four scores. In his spare time he also rushed nine times for 56 yards and two more touchdowns, giving him 338 total yards and a direct hand in six scores.
In doing so, he takes our first Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the 2020-21 school year. It was the first season-opening win for the Steers since a 58-56 win over Kerrville Tivy on Aug. 30, 2014.
Hamlin 34, Stamford 0 — The defending state runner-up Pied Pipers were dominant after a slow start Friday, outscoring the Bulldogs 27-0 in the second half of a shutout win.
A long touchdown pass by Braydin Warner early in the first quarter accounted for all of the first-half scoring, but Hamlin got untracked with a pair of touchdowns in each of the final two quarters.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week and close Thursday morning.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 1)”
LAST WEEK: 0-0, .000
SEASON TOTAL: 0-0, .000
After picking a career-high 83 percent a year ago, I was feeling quite self-assured and self-important at the close of last football season.
Little did I realize that a year later, I’d be happy to just to have games to pick and not care about what the percentage is.
In short, the world has dealt me a serious dose of perspective.
We have football, ladies and gents. Let’s hope a sense of normality returns with it.
At any rate, let’s take quick look at this week’s area contests.
I’ll see you on the road.
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 10 quarterbacks with a list of others to watch in 2020.
We hope you enjoy this list and that you’ve enjoyed our position rankings as we get set to kickoff a new season.
Continue reading “BCP Football Preseason Position Rankings: Quarterbacks”
As we wind down our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we arrive finally at the Big Country’s top rushers.
After breaking down this year’s crop of receivers and tight ends Monday, we move now to the area’s top backs, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch in 2020. Don’t forget to check in Wednesday night when we conclude our series with the top 10 area quarterbacks.
We hope you enjoy tonight’s 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 pass-catchers.
After starting the offensive portion of our series Sunday with the big guys up front, we now shift our attention to the playmakers on the perimeter, ranking our top 10 wide receivers/tight ends with a list of others to watch in 2019.
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 in the rear view, it’s time to look at the area’s offensive standouts. 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 big boys, ranking the Big Country’s top 10 offensive linemen with a list of others to watch in 2020.
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 2020 season.
After starting with the linemen and linebackers, we turn to the secondary 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 key on the defensive backs, giving our list of the area’s top-10 players and others to look out for in 2020.
We hope you enjoy our list.
After taking a look at the Big Country’s top defensive linemen on Wednesday, it’s now time to examine those who will backing them in 2020.
Continuing with Big Country Preps’ eight-part preseason position rankings series, here’s our top 10 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 less than two weeks away, it’s time to take a look at the players who will be making the biggest impact in 2020.
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 10 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.
Without further ado it is time for us to make our Big Country predictions, district-by-district.
This is the culmination of several weeks of research and two solid months of summertime labor, so we’re more than ready to post it.
Every year, for the past several years, I have looked ahead at the season schedule to create a menu of sorts — a menu for Big Country football connoisseurs to choose some Friday night pigskin in the area.
History has proven that this isn’t an exact science, and the further out we go from Week 1, the more difficult this endeavor becomes. Nonetheless, I cannot resist a peek at my crystal ball — smudged as it may be.
I must emphasize, that the entire list you’re about to read is subject to change. This is not a concrete list of Big Country Preps Games of the Week. It’s closer to an educated guess, contingent upon about 10,000 different variables.
HAMLIN — There is an undercurrent of older football fans who think the modern game has lost some of its edge.
Today’s game, they say, with its high-tech spread offenses has taken some of the physicality away from football, both on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. And today’s players simply aren’t required to be as tough as those who played 30 or 40 years ago.
Hamlin senior defensive lineman Ethan Byerly is a walking contradiction to that argument — a player so tough, so eager to play the game and create contact, that he often doesn’t even realize he’s injured.
The 2019 campaign was nothing short of a dream season for the Pied Pipers, who closed with a 12-3 record and trip to AT&T Stadium in Arlington where they fell in the Class 2A Division II state title game to Mart.
It was, by all accounts, the best season in Hamlin history.
The question heading into 2020 is, can the Pied Pipers duplicate that success? According to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine, they can — earning a No. 2 preseason ranking by that publication.
In our view, however, there are two key question marks that must be answered before the Pied Pipers can pack their bags for Jerry World.
With the first games of the 2020 football season now less than a month away, we here at Big Country Preps are working diligently to get ourselves and our readers prepared for the upcoming campaign.
As we charge toward the Aug. 14 release of our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview and the season’s first game on Aug. 27, we’ll be releasing the composite football schedules for each UIL district housing one or more of our 40 11-man teams.
We begin today with Class 2A Division II, followed by 2A DI on Wednesday, 3A DII on Thursday, 3A DI on Friday, 4A DII on Saturday, 4A DI on Sunday and Classes 5A and 6A on Monday.
Football is fast approaching, 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 Friday, Aug. 14. 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. 3, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2019 as part of our “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
We start in Class 2A Division II with the Hamlin Pied Pipers. Friday we will take a quick look at the Roscoe Plowboys, followed by the Albany Lions on Saturday.
Like most followers of Texas high school football, Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood are big fans of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine.
After receiving their copies on Monday, the duo used this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast to discuss the publication’s projections on the area’s Class 1A-3A teams. In Part 2 next week, Evan and Daniel will discuss Texas Football’s forecast for the Big Country’s Big Schools.
“A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.” — John Lubbock
My business partner, Daniel Youngblood, is the king of not worrying.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
If NASA were to announce that an asteroid impact was imminent in 15 minutes and that Abilene would be at ground zero, anything beyond a shrug of the shoulders from Youngblood would surprise me. Of course, I wouldn’t be there to see it. I’d be 25 miles down the road with the accelerator smashed to the floor, one hand on the steering wheel and a rabbit’s foot in the other.
The recent turmoil in the world has put both of our natures on display — him letting it all roll off his back and me, well … being me.
If fate allows it, a return to normalcy is the objective here and the sooner the better. As the designated worrier at Big Country Preps, I’ve been on pins and needles throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the massive social unrest created by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And let’s just call it what it was — a murder.
That said, I’m currently doing my best to steal a page from the Youngblood stress-free handbook and turning my attention from our tumultuous, viral-plagued world to something I can understand: football. That means that heading into the summer months, we’ll be diving headlong into our previews for the upcoming season.
Continue reading “EVAN REN: We’re pushing ahead at Big Country Preps — getting the the ball rolling”
In a world that has seemingly gone mad, I’ll take any dose of good news that I can find — even if it’s mundane.
The stock market inched up a half point? I’ll take it. We can go back to worrying about COVID-19? I’m all-in. The buildings in Abilene are still standing? That’s a check mark in the plus column.
So how do we get there?
How do we reestablish normality?
Aside from the obvious fact that we need to stop the ongoing mayhem that is plaguing our society, getting back to common things we all hold dear will set the foundation for healing. And I’m talking about the simplest of pleasures, from peaceful walks in the park, shopping in a mall, going to the movies or attending a sporting event.
In Texas, the latter cannot be overstated, especially when it comes to football.
Continue reading “EVAN REN: We can all use some good news and football can provide some of it”
I’ve always held to a personal axiom that perspective is everything. True or not, how we view a situation becomes the truth in our minds.
There’s no escaping it and every one of us has our own perspective.
Well, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown have changed my perspective in several ways on several different things. And for a middle-aged guy who is pretty well set in my ways, this is like the planets aligning.
I’ve managed to list my top 10 takeaways from lockdown, as they pertain to this website and what we’re trying to accomplish here.
Let’s dive in:
Continue reading “EVAN REN: 10 things I’ll take away from the COVID-19 pandemic”