This Signals the End of Football Season...

Outside of a few rare exceptions (Including one team coached by one of the few [only?] readers of this blog) the quality of basketball in the are is the exact opposite of the quality of football here. So, it's always fun to get to see a football team make a deep run in the playoffs of better yet make it to the state championship game. That minimizes the bad basketball to only a month.

With that said, the Brownwood Lions were the best chance in the area to make a deep run in the playoffs, which they were doing. Their biggest test of the year was going to be against Carthage, the 2-time defending Class 3A state champs. If there was a team that was tailor made to beat Brownwood it was Carthage. They were big and controlled the lines, plus had plenty of speed and could limit possessions.

Carthage kept Brownwood off balance all night and pushed them around in the trenches. Despite Carthage dominating the game, Brownwood was never out of it and had a chance to tie things up on the final drive. And the final drive was the Jaxon Shipley show.

I've said it more than a few time that Jaxon Shipley is the best high school wide receiver I've ever seen play, I think I may have to amend that to say he's the best high school football player I've ever seen. He pretty much took the game over on the last drive making an amazing catch between three defenders on 4th-and-24 to keep things alive. He was getting the ball and everyone in the stadium knew it yet there was nothing the defense could do about it. Brownwood ended up driving down to the 2 yard line and on the last play of the game Carthage tipped the final pass away intended for Shipley to end it. It was a damn good game and almost had a storybook ending. Oh well time for basketball, and if you have a chance to see Shipley playing for the University of Texas next year, go for it. He's going to be a damn good player!

Driving all over the state, part 2...

The other half of my trip around the northern half of the state was going to Dallas to cover Wylie playing in the state championship game against Gilmer. Two years ago Wylie gave Gilmer everything they had in game they had a shot to win. This year's Wylie team was a lot better on both offense and defense than that team. However, the Gilmer team was a lot better "team" this time around than the uber-talented group of individuals on the 2007 team.

I wasn't sure if Wylie was going to win, but every time I expect them to lose, when they are out-manned or what they always seem to make me look bad. I think a lot of that has to do with really good coaching and discipline. So, I figured this time they were going to keep it close and maybe in the perfect storm they could win it. Well, they ran into a brick wall. I think it was a combination of Gilmer having great talent and being able to play as a team, something I've noticed in the past not a lot of east Texas teams do. But it was another great season for Wylie and making it to the state championship game is not really something to be ashamed of. And my total mileage, just for the weekend... just a tad over 750.

Red River SHOOTOUT...

Rant starts in 3.. 2... 1... Now anyone who knows me know how exactly politically incorrect I am. So, when I keep seeing these ridiculous signs of political correctness it really just pisses me off even more. Since I went and shot the Texas/Oklahoma football game last week I figured I'd pull out my soapbox and rant against the pandering to political correctness that is too often done to some of the great rivalries in college football. The Red River "Rivalry" as it is now called just doesn't have the same ring as Red River Shootout, and most Texas And Oklahoma fans I know feel the same way. Just like my feeling on the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, which is the just "The Georgia Florida Game" because two university presidents, one of which being UGA president Michael Adams, who is the number 1 reason I refuse to give a donation to my alma mater, didn't want to "promote drinking." Uhhhh, hey stupid, have you even been to the damn game?!? IT IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST OUTDOOR COCKTAIL PARTY!!! And some idiot changing the name is going to change that!!

Now, the "shootout" luckily isn't a real shootout with guns and such, but rather a tribute to the old west, but as politically correct as society has become we can't promote violence, and I'm sure changing the name of this historic rivalry has lowered gang violence by at least 20% since the name was changed a few years ago... stupid! Rant over.

Well, despite it's former moniker, this game was far from a shootout, unlike how it has been in years' past. The 16-13 final scored would suggest a defensive battle but it seemed to be more an issue of sloppy play on both sides of the ball. My feeling on rivalry games has always been no matter the rankings coming into the game, there is a chance for a close game or even an upset if the score stays close at the start of the game. And that's just what Oklahoma did.

And even despite Heisman winner Sam Bradford going down in the first quarter, the Okies played a helluva game, well defensively at least. Texas on the other hand, played like they had been believing the hype about their team and everyone should just roll over for them. The offense looked stagnant and the play calling was in my opinion suspect. It was the third quarter before they threw the ball down the field at all.

Now, the main reason I was at the game, like I've said before, was for the local kid. Colt McCoy.(above) And, despite not having a great game statistically, he did what he has been doing since he got there, win. I've covered the kid since high school and he's always done it. Sometimes it hasn't been really pretty but he's always won games and made the throws he needed to when he had to. He did it again last weekend, only throwing one touchdown pass, but they needed it. And when they needed yards for a first down to run out the clock he tucked the ball under his shoulder and ran for a first down. Least year was probably his best chance for the Heisman trophy. This year, however, I think he's more interested in his chances at a ring.

Given how bad the game was I'm not totally disappointed with my photos. But, there were a few shots I missed and I'm not happy about that. But overall, it wasn't a total disaster. I've done worse and hopefully I'll do better next week.