This Week in Texas High School Football: April 25

Instant replay UIL state championships Thursday morning, the UIL dropped a big announcement on us that for the 2018 UIL State Football Championships, instant replay technology would be used. The UIL statement indicates that replay reviews will be only initiated from the booth and there will be no coaches challenges available. There are still a few details to be ironed out, primarily involving who the replay officials will be, but the UIL definitely has taken notice of trying to get the close calls right after some high profile close calls in recent state title contests. The coaches certainly have some concerns about playing the season under one set of rules and then in the biggest game of the year throwing a wrinkle into the mix, but ultimately the intent here is to get the calls right on what is the biggest state in the country for high school football. 7-on-7 State qualifying begins Saturday This Saturday April 28 we will have our first state qualifying tournament as 24 teams will descend on The Star in Frisco to compete for one of three spots in the 2018 7-on-7 State Tournament. Pool play will begin at 9 a.m. and the pools and game times will be released by DCTF on Monday around 1 p.m. Pools can be viewed at http://www.texasfootball.com/frisco-sqt-pools-2/ and our pool predictions will be posted on Thursday evening! Aaron De La Torre resigns at Irving On Tuesday evening via his twitter feed, Irving head coach Aaron De La Torre announced he was resigning his post at Irving High effective June 30 to join the staff at Denton Ryan as an assistant coach. De La Torre cited family reasons as the primary driver behind his resignation at IHS after six seasons. He will return to Denton Ryan where he began his coaching career and this opening now will be the first big hire for new Irving ISD Executive Athletic Director Hal Wasson who took over in late March. Klein Collins promotes Adrian Mitchell As expected, Klein Collins stayed inside with its hire as defensive coordinator Adrian Mitchell was named the new head football coach early Friday morning. Mitchell replaces Drew Svoboda who left in March to take a job on staff at Rice University. Angleton promotes Jason Brittain Monday night, Angleton promoted defensive coordinator Jason Brittain to head football coach replacing Ryan Roark who retired. Brittain was the heavy favorite to get the promotion after Roark’s retirement and Angleton ISD made it official and he’ll try and lead a young Wildcats squad in 2018 after a tremendous 13-1 season in 2017. Forney hires Aaron Woods Forney finished up its initial round of interviews last week and narrowed the field to four finalists for the vacancy left when Kevin Rush retired in early April. On Wednesday morning, Forney ISD announced the hiring of former Waxahachie offensive coordinator Aaron Woods as the school’s next football coach. Woods, who spent one year at Waxahachie was also an assistant at Cedar Hill for 14 seasons under Joey McGuire where he was a part of three state title teams and one team that fell in the state championship game. San Elizario opens After what was an active off-season in the El Paso area last year, things have been quiet in the Sun City this off-season with no coaching changes. That is until this week when we learned that San Elizario would have a new coach in 2018 after the resignation of Tony Nieves after four seasons at the helm. San Elizario is one of the more difficult jobs in the area as resources aren’t on par with other programs in the area and there is no tradition to speak of in football at SEHS. Nieves, who informed DCTF he resigned in early April believes interviews for the vacancy should be kicking off soon as the job closed on Friday. Dwayne DuBois returns to Hardin-Jefferson Hardin-Jefferson wasted little time in replacing Jared Sloan, who left to take over at Rice Consolidated, the Hawks went back to a previous head coach as Dwayne DuBois returns to town after a stint at his alma mater, Bridge City. DuBois, who was the head coach at Hardin-Jefferson in 2013 and 2014, posted an impressive 19-7 mark in two seasons before leaving for Bridge City. He led the Cardinals for three seasons where he posted a 17-14 mark. Whitney sets a hiring timeline Whitney closed applications for its head football coach/athletic director vacancy last Friday. We are told that well over 50 applied for the opening and six candidates will likely be called in sometime in the next week or so to interview, with the intent to present a name at the May 14 school board meeting. Kemp finalists Kemp also narrowed things down to six final candidates with interviews also taking place this week in front of the school board. The six finalists include a current DFW head coach, a former head coach in the area, a current Central Texas assistant coach, a current DFW assistant, a current West Texas assistant and a current Houston area assistant coach. Gary Grubbs resigns at Buffalo In a surprise move Monday night, Gary Grubbs resigned his post as the head football coach/athletic director after four seasons leading the Bison. Grubbs posted a 24-21 record in four years at the helm including a 10-2 mark last year. Buffalo is a very good job that is opening up relatively late in the off-season. The Bison look primed to be a contender in Region II with the majority of their team returning. It will be interesting to see who goes after this job in the coming weeks. Horn resigns at Tenaha; Jenkins pulling double duty In a move that had been rumored much of the off-season, DCTF confirmed that Tenaha head coach Craig Horn had resigned his post in a move to try and get closer to family. Horn posted an impressive 35-8 mark in in three seasons leading the Tigers including a 15-1 mark in 2017 as Tenaha advanced to the state title game before falling to Muenster. Tenaha didn’t waste much time as it promoted boys basketball coach Greg Jenkins to Athletic Director/Head Football Coach and in addition to those duties Jenkins will remain the head boys basketball coach at Tenaha. Spring football is approaching Spring football is right around the corner for 6A and 5A programs statewide, we will have a statewide listing of spring football games right here each week until the end of May.  If you’d like your spring game to be listed; send an e-mail to matt.stepp@texasfootball.com.  Here’s a listing of the spring games we currently have!   May 4 Edcouch-Elsa, 6:00pm at Edcouch-Elsa HS May 10 Flower Mound, 6:00pm at Wilson Stadium Mansfield Timberiew, 6:00pm at Timberview HS Round Rock Cedar Ridge, 7:30pm at Cedar Ridge HS May 14 Katy Cinco Ranch, 6:30pm at Legacy Stadium Lufkin, 6:00pm at Martin Stadium May 15 Denton Braswell, 7:00pm at Braswell HS Fort Bend Travis, 6:30pm at Travis HS Keller Central, 7:00pm at KISD Stadium Laredo United, 6:00pm at United HS Longview, 5:00pm at Lobo Stadium May 16 Amarillo Tascosa, 7:00pm at Bivins Stadium Pearland Dawson, 6:00pm at Dawson HS Victoria West, 6:00pm at Memorial Stadium May 17 Cedar Hill, 7:00pm at Longhorn Stadium Denton Guyer, 6:30pm at Guyer HS Dickinson, 5:00pm at Vitanza Stadium Flower Mound Marcus, 7:00pm at Marcus HS Keller, 7:00pm at KISD Stadium Keller Fossil Ridge, 6:00pm at Fossil Ridge HS Little Elm, 5:30pm at Little Elm ISD Athletic Complex Manor, 6:30pm at Manor ISD Stadium Richardson, 6:30pm at Eagle-Mustang Stadium San Angelo Central 6:30pm at San Angelo Stadium Waco Midway, 6:00pm at Panther Stadium Wichita Falls, 7:00pm at Memorial Stadium May 18 Alief Elsik, 6:00pm at Crump Stadium Amarillo Palo Duro, 6:00pm at Bivins Stadium Burleson Centennial, 6:00pm at Centennial HS Cleburne, 7:00pm at Cleburne HS Cypress Fairbanks, 4:00pm at Cy Fair HS Granbury, 6:30pm at Pirate Stadium Houston Westside, 5:00pm at Westside HS Hurst Bell, 6:00pm at Pennington Field Joshua, 7:00pm at Owl Stadium Lake Travis, 7:30pm at Cavalier Stadium Mansfield Legacy, 6:00pm at Legacy HS Port Lavaca Calhoun, 6:00pm at Sandcrab Stadium Red Oak. 6:00pm at Red Oak HS Richardson Pearce, 7:00pm at Eagle-Mustang Stadium Victoria East, 7:00pm at Memorial Stadium Weatherford, 6:30pm at Kangaroo Stadium May 22 Abilene, 6:00pm at Shotwell Stadium Allen, 6:00pm at Eagle Stadium Arlington Lamar, 6:00pm at Cravens Field Clear Springs, 6:00pm at Clear Springs HS Conroe Oak Ridge, 6:00pm at Oak Ridge HS Cypress Bridgeland, 6:00pm at Bridgeland HS DeSoto, 7:00pm at Eagle Stadium Grapevine, 6:00pm at Cross Timbers MS Mission Veterans Memorial, 6:00pm at Veterans Memorial HS Rockwall, 7:00pm at Wilkerson-Sanders Stadium South Garland, 6:00pm at HBJ Stadium May 23 Arlington Sam Houston, 5:00pm at Wilemon Field Arlington Seguin, 6:30pm at Seguin HS Belton, 5:00pm at Tiger Field Colleyville Heritage, 6:00pm at Heritage HS El Paso Pebble Hills, 7:00pm at Pebble Hills HS Saginaw Boswell, 6:00pm at Pioneer Stadium May 24 Alice, 7:00pm at Memorial Stadium Arlington, 6:00pm at Arlington HS Arlington Bowie, 6:30pm at Bowie HS Arlington Martin, 7:00pm at Martin HS Cedar Park, 7:15pm at Cedar Park HS Cibolo Steele, 6:00pm at Steele HS College Station, 6:00pm at CSHS Cougar Stadium El Paso Eastlake, 6:30pm at Eastlake HS El Paso Franklin, 7:00pm at Franklin HS Frisco Lone Star, 6:00pm at Lone Star HS Frisco Memorial, 6:00pm at Memorial HS Haslet Eaton, 6:00pm at Eaton HS Killeen, 7:00pm at Killeen HS Lancaster, 6:30pm at Tiger Stadium Mesquite Horn, 6:30pm at Horn HS Mesquite Poteet, 6:00pm at Memorial Stadium McKinney Boyd, 7:00pm at Boyd HS McKinney North, 6:30pm at McKinney North HS Midlothian, 6:30pm at MISD Stadium North Forney, 6:00pm at City Bank Stadium San Antonio East Central, 6:00pm at Hornet Stadium San Antonio O’Connor, 6:00pm at O’Connor HS Tyler John Tyler, 6:00pm at John Tyler HS Waco, 5:30pm at Waco ISD Stadium Waller, 5:30pm at Waller ISD Stadium May 25 Dallas South Oak Cliff, 7:00pm at Life Oak Cliff HS Dallas Skyline, 5:30pm at Forrester Field El Paso Americas, 7:00pm at Americas HS El Paso Del Valle, 5:30pm at Conquest Stadium El Paso Parkland, 6:00pm at Parkland HS Fort Worth South Hills, 5:30pm at South Hills HS Fort Worth Southwest, 6:00pm at Southwest HS Hallsville, 6:30pm at Bobcat Stadium McAllen Memorial, 6:00pm at Memorial HS Trophy Club Nelson, 6:00pm at Byron Nelson HS May 29 Sachse, 6:00pm at Sachse HS June 1 San Antonio McCollum, 6pm at Memorial Stadium Coaching Clinics With the off-season starting that means it’s also clinic season throughout the state of Texas,  here’s a listing of clinics from around the state, if we don’t have you clinic listed e-mail it to us at matt.stepp@texasfootball.com May 5-6: Best Little Clinic in Texas, Wingate Hotel and Conference Center, Round Rock http://www.hcfc-blc.com May 25-26: Gateway to Mexico Clinic, Laredo June 12-14: Angelo Coaches Clinic, San Angelo http://www.angelofootballclinic.com/index.html June 14-15: Dos Amigos Ranch Football Clinic, Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino-Hotel, Eagle Pass July 22-25: 2018 THSCA Convention & Coaching School, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio http://www.thsca.com/convention