Roundtable: Which teams are on your radar after Week 1 results?

[caption id="attachment_24945" align="alignnone" width="800"]Waskom_vs_Franklin-664 Photo by Artie Guerrero[/caption] This week, let’s talk about teams who served notice in Week 1 that you now think should be part of the state title contender conversation. First, let’s talk disclaimers: Of course, it’s just one game, a very small sample size. What happened over the course of four quarters cannot foretell what will happen over the course of 10-12 games, but your hunches (good or bad) may have been nudged in one direction or another. We’ve already covered ground on some obvious ones this week. We’re all concerned about Navasota, and we all think Converse Judson made a leap forward from fringe title contender status. Let’s go a little deeper with this group. Pick one team at a time that’s clearly better than a lot of people thought, and state your case. Participants: Max ThompsonGreg TepperMatt SteppMike CravenThompson: I’ll kick things off with the team that beat Navasota: Franklin. So, the Lions were really good last year, and were a few random passes away from winning a 3A DII state championship. I was really worried that moving up to 3A DI would be a tall order, and that was before they wound up in a district with Cameron Yoe, Rockdale and McGregor. Franklin lost Rodrick Green and Will Phillips, maybe two of the top five players in 3A last year, and went out and thumped a 4A DI top shelf program 38-22 in their opening week. I don’t care if the Rattlers appear to have fallen off a bit, that’s a big-time win. And after seeing what Yoe did in the opening week, could the best two teams in 3A DI be in the same district? Anyway, I’m way more hyped about Franklin’s 2016 campaign than I was a week ago. [caption id="attachment_24948" align="alignleft" width="350"]4C5A8465 Photo by Russell Wilburn[/caption] Tepper: Hello, yes, is this where I can purchase stock? Because I would like to buy some Woodville right now.

If you didn’t notice — and a lot of games get overlooked on the first week of the year, because we’re all just freaking out about football — Woodville drubbed Corrigan-Camden, 51-0. What a debut for new coach Ty Robinson, whose Eagles took the fight to a Corrigan team that you will remember reached a regional semifinal last year. RB Ivan Lockhart and company were rocking on Friday night, and the defense led by DE Chris Castle was sensational. We picked Woodville to finish fourth in District 11-3A DI, but I’m starting to think that’s a little light. Consider me impressed. Stepp: I’d like to tout the Bruni Badgers, prior to Kyle Freeman’s arrival, the Badgers were good but hardly a regional contender. Freeman arrives and in two years goes 22-3, and if not for Roshauud Paul, the Badgers may be back-to-back Region IV champs. Freeman leaves for Ozona and a good group of seniors graduates, so Bruni goes back to where they were, right?? NOPE, all the Badgers did was beat consensus Region IV favorite Falls City 28-21 in OT. This is a team that has put themselves squarely back in the discussion in Region IV. Craven: Lufkin should build momentum after a convincing victory over rival Longview. East Texas had a great Week 1 and Lufkin led the charge with a 35-24 victory over another strong Class 6A program. John Tyler and Longview received the most publicity of the 6A East Texas schools, but Lufkin showed it's not to be forgotten in District 12-6A. I'd have rather seen this game mean something in a district race, but early bragging rights go to Lufkin and a run in 6A Division II isn't out of the question for the Panthers. The talent level is never in question for head coach Todd Quick. [caption id="attachment_24950" align="alignright" width="300"]DCIM107GOPRO Photo by Russell Wilburn[/caption] Thompson: My second nomination: The El Campo Ricebirds and their 59-10 win over Gregory-Portland (and new head coach Rick Rhoades). That, my friends is a 4A DI trouncing a 5A DII, and while I know we’ve got the Ricebirds to win 12-4A DI over the likes of Stafford and Sealy, I still think the scoreline here gives us a little more reason to be fired up about El Campo this year. We knew Wayne Condra’s bunch lost a few stars, but we figured they’d reload. If we’re going off one game, it would seem like they did a lot more than that if they dominated a team we picked fourth in 30-5A. Our preseason rankings put the Ricebirds at 16th in 4A DI, and while I’m not jumping out in front of the pack here to say they should be a top 5 team, I do think that’s a already looking like a conservative estimate. We’ll know even more when El Campo takes on Angleton, yet another 5A team, this week. Tepper: Can I take a different tack and mention a couple of teams I’m legitimately worried about after one week? Daingerfield’s shutout loss to Hughes Springs is concerning. Coppell’s narrow win over Hurst L.D. Bell has me worried. And Crosbyton losing 55-18 to Tahoka — including being down 21-0 after seven minutes and allowing 411 yards on the ground — is raising a major red flag. [caption id="attachment_24951" align="alignleft" width="350"]Photo by Mary Scott McNabb Photo by Mary Scott McNabb[/caption] Stepp: Taking the red flag route that our fearless leader Tepper has moved to, I have some major red flags about Dallas Skyline. This is a team that trended down last year in the first year of the post-Reggie Samples era and they got hammered by Arlington Martin 55-7. WOOF. Another red flag team is Graham, the Steers played a really good Sanger squad and they got drilled 45-7. Need to see major improvement this week or the alarm could get sounded for these two squads. Craven: Give me Vandegrift as a concern in the Austin area. The Vipers are moving up and face a tough road sharing a district with Westlake and Lake Travis. Vandegrift entered the season with high hopes and a shot to win Region IV in Class 6A if Judson, Westlake and Lake Travis go D1. Instead of entering a non-district game against Class 5A Cedar Park with momentum, Vandegrift is 0-1 following a loss to Odessa Permian. Killeen's victory over Stony Point showed the gap is growing between Cedar Ridge and the latter, a former power around the capital city.