The Texas 20, No. 15: Cameron Yoe's chase for a fourth straight title

[caption id="attachment_17831" align="alignright" width="300"]Photo by Matt Garnett Photo by Matt Garnett[/caption] This is the Texas 20, DCTF’s countdown of the 20 biggest storylines heading into the 2015 football season.No. 20: Is there a college sleeper in Texas?No. 19: Which Texas high school football records will be broken? No. 18: State title games headed to Houston No. 17: Will anyone play defense this season? No. 16: Can Allen keep dominating without Kyler Murray?Today, we’ve reached No. 15: Cameron Yoe's chase for a fourth straight title. We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to exciting and explosive offenses in the state of Texas, but what the Yoemen do is something so seemingly persistent that it often breaks opponents if it can’t completely outpace them. Relentless is another word that fits because for a team that’s won three straight titles, they certainly haven’t done it by laying waste to all who dare to cross their paths. Last year, the Yoemen went 12-4. The year before, they went 15-1. And the year before that, they went undefeated. In an odd way, they’re sort of moving backwards in the way dynasties typically operate. It tends to start with a scrappy team that never gives up despite taking some shots along the way before it grows into a steamroller of fearsome possibility. Regardless of the path, dynasties inevitably run out of steam, and you’d be forgiven if you assumed that a 12-4 title run signified a team running out of star power but still pushed by an inalienable sense of purpose. However, we have more bad news for everyone else in 3A: Cameron Yoe returns eight starters on both sides of the ball, including 3A’s top rusher in 2014, Traion Smith (2,250 yards), and the leaders of the offensive line that cleared the way for him, Tomas Salomon and Cody Eickenhorst. Head coach Rick Rhoades told DCTF that the Yoemen would be better this year because of that experience returning on both sides of the ball, and that’s pretty intimidating for the rest of 3A considering Cameron Yoe won 70-40 in the title game over Mineola. That was the team we considered plucky. That steamroller of fearsome possibility? That’s what we’re expecting this year, and it would put the Yoemen in elite company, joining Sealy, Lake Travis and Celina as the only programs to win four state championships in a row.