And the greatest Texas high school football player of all-time is...

_MG_1169In a resounding final result (even after factoring in some voter fraud), Aledo running back Johnathan Gray has been chosen by our readers as the greatest Texas high school football player of all-time via our March Madness bracket. You can see the full bracket and winners right here. Our championship matchup:Johnathan Gray (Aledo, 2008-2011) Votes earned: 88% The future Texas Longhorn racked up 10,889 career rushing yards, 3 state titles, 65 and 59 touchdowns in a single season, good for top two all-time. As pass-heavy attacks became the norm, Gray was a slashing throwback on the ground. Eliminated: (16) Priest Holmes, (8) Graham Harrell, (4) Tommie Harris, (2) Earl Campbell, (8) Vince Young. Kenneth Hall (Sugar Land, 1950-1953) Votes earned: 12% The legendary “Sugar Land Express” had a career from 1950-1953 that has stood the test of time — he still holds the state record for career rushing yards (11,232 yards) and single-season rushing yards (4,045 in 1953). Eliminated: (16) Hunter Lile, (9) Mike Singletary, (5) Jordan Shipley, (3) Garrett Gilbert, (14) Robert Strait.What to make of the championship vote: There may be some recency bias in the final vote, but that shouldn't take anyway away from Gray winning, which was a distinct possibility from the outset. It's easy for younger generations to forget, or heck, not even be aware of, what Hall accomplished in his day. That his career rushing mark still stands to this day, and was something that even Gray couldn't eclipse, is borderline staggering. We've seen more explosive offenses and players emerge in the 60 years since Hall played, and his streak of dominance still reigns supreme. That said, we're just a few years removed from what Gray and his teammates did at Aledo, and there are plenty of valid reasons why Gray was on a Dave Campbell's Texas Football cover, and why there was no player in the state during his career that got quite as much attention for what he was doing on the field. It's entirely possible that Aledo may have been able to win a title or two without Gray, but with him, the Bearcats were an unrelenting domination machine. Really, all we're doing here is acknowledging that a truly special player won this contest, and had to take out some great names in the process. Our takeaways from the tournament: Over 70,000 votes were cast over two weeks to get to our final result, and there were plenty of surprises along the way. Names like Dez Bryant and Eric Dickerson were eliminated in the first round, a No. 1 seed (Kyler Murray) was knocked out in just the second round, and ultimately, the votes reflected a deeper knowledge of the high school game that, for the most part, wasn't swayed by post-high school performances. Which wasn't that surprising at all. We expect nothing less from the TexasFootball.com faithful. Still, when this process started, we guessed which players might win the whole thing, and the names we kept coming back to (Cedric Benson and Kyler Murray), didn't even make the Final Four. So while bracket gimmicks can be a little tiresome in March, we're glad we did this one, because it taught us a few things about how these players' accomplishments are viewed by our readers. So thanks to everyone who participated. It was a lot of fun to see it unfold.