Friday Night Lights quick hits

It's been three years since I wandered the sidelines, but the camera eye, skills and reflexes seem sharp, still.

And with that, a few hot takes from Zero Week.

Let's start with the first play of the game.

First, coaches of small high schools? Like 3A and 2A?

That "sprint my whole kickoff team up to the ball and have them stop on a dime before going into normal kickoff formation"?

Looked kind of cool 10 years ago.

It was already getting halfway passé 5 years ago.

Now? It's tired. And, if you're at a small school with a closely matched opponent and you're only fielding 25 players, you might just wear out enough of your team enough more to give up a late game-winning touchdown, or to run out of steam on a would-be winning drive of your own.

Also, to me, it makes you the head coach look like somebody who thinks "grit" and "willpower" will always win out, and if that doesn't work, then maybe you yelling at your players more.

You want to really show grit? Have somebody do pushups on the sideline for every yard of offense you gain on every play, or at least, every yard on defense you force the other offense back.

You want to show something better than willpower? Make sure your players are thinking of the game's flow better.

And, speaking of that?

At one of the two games I shot tonight, somebody called a timeout on defense in the first half when the team was already out. I didn't catch who, whether it was one of the players or a coach on the sidelines, as I was already locking in on my camera when the whistle blew. It was, IIRC, on a fourth-down play, and it gave the team on offense a first down.

When I heard the whistle and saw the flag, then saw the crossed arms, I knew why the delay of game call was made. If this was made by a coach, you certainly should have. If it was made by a player? Isn't this why coaches, especially on defense, at the high school level, keep control of time-out calling themselves?

Third, are coaches really getting that wussy with rain?

I mean, moving a HOME game off your grass field because of a medium, but not heavy, North Texas rain that stopped about 4 hours before game time, just as the weatherman predicted, to move to a neutral site with turf? If it rains like this in two weeks (or three, or four) are you going to look for a turf field again when you know the nearest one remains verboten to you?

A collegiate friend of mine, when softball or baseball opponents looked to walk, said "Swing the bat or wear a dress."

Well?

"Play the mud bowl or wear a dress."

Maybe Dave Campbell's Texas Football and/or Texas Bob, since they're now some sort of partners, could put an asterisk next to such a team's home schedule in future years, at least on non-district games.

And that's your quick Zero Week take from this corner of the world.

School district slashes staff ... to hire #ToddDodge???

Texas football fans know Todd Dodge as a legendary title-winning coach at Southlake Carroll High School in metropolitan Dallas.

He then tried to jump to the collegiate level, but struggled and ultimately flopped at the University of North Texas, before moving to positional coaching, now serving as quarterbacks coach at Pitt.

But with the Panthers getting a new head coach, the old staff is out the door.

Meanwhile, in the Marble Falls ISD, after deleting staff ranks by attrition, the new superintendent pushed the had-been-current head coach/athletic director out the door. That's only a link to a story stub, but an updated version will be posted eventually. The superintendent said the search will be "big" and could take some time, but, since Dodge recently looked at nearby Burnet but pulled back when it wouldn't give him more time to come there, landing him could be quite likely.

Meanwhile, this all leaves open the question of just how much Texas school districts will really do in the way of cutting educational needs to sacrifice to the true god of athletic mammon in Texas, football. That starts with slashing other staff, then continues to forcing your current coach/AD into a newly created make-work job for which he'll have to be paid, just to get him out of the way.

Cedar Hill-Wylie football playoff liveblogging

You can see complete coverage of this and other Cedar Hill sports at Cedar Hill Today.

1:00 4Q - Game really over. Wylie picks up a first down after the missed field goal. Wylie at their 34, first down, Longhorns with just one TO left.

2:55 - GAME EFFECTIVELY OVER. CH couldn't score a TD on three plays inside the 10. Coach McGuire opted to try a FG on fourth down and Camara was wide right from 26.

4:00 4Q - CH driving inside Wylie 25; converted two 4th down plays already. But, they have just one time out left.

7:55 4Q - Longhorns down two scores for the first time since Plano West, and as I said earlier, Wylie is NOT PW. Monk hits Knott on a flare pass; his second effort makes it 31-21.

11:10 4Q - CH cannot convert the turnover and fails on 4th/8 at Wylie 38.

0:04 3Q - Second big play. Elijah Olabode for CH forces a fumble when tackling Colby Harper. A momentum swing in a strongly defensive second half.

3:00 3Q - Wylie capitalizes on the turnover with a 28-yard Zac Ohannessian FG. Their first lead of the game at 24-21.
Also, we're getting several dead-ball personal-foul penalities, as the game is getting playoff-intense.

4:14 3Q - First big play. A Longhorn snap hits Le'Derian Cockrane in motion and Wylie recovers at the CH 31.

HALFTIME - We're at 21-all. For Cedar Hill, Jackson has turned in an even better passing game, overall, than he did last week.

Some halftime stats for you. Both QBs are over 100 yards passing. CH is at 295 total offense and Wylie has 235. First downs favor Cedar Hill by a 2-1 margin; the Longhorns have much better time of possession.

1:40 2Q - OK, Monk can throw the ball, and Cedar Hill is still vulnerable in the secondary to play action. Monk hits Colby Jackson on a 51-yarder catch-and-run fly pattern and we're tied again, at 21.

3:39 2Q - Cedar Hill back up with Jackson 6-yard run. 21-14.

5:32 2Q - Wylie goes 3/out. Not "seeing it" today, so far, with Monk as a passer for Wylie.

6:21 2Q - Longhorns go for it 4th/2 at Wylie 10 and fail. CH Coach McGuire jaws at refs, probably risking a flag.

9:47 2Q - Nick Knott knots the game at 14 with his second big-play run, this one 39 yards.

END OF 1Q - Cedar Hill 14-7 with Wylie at the CH 39, 3rd/12.

1:00 1Q - And, that was a short-lived tie. With two big runs by Jackson and Ben Malena, capped by Malena's 2-yard run, the Horns are back on top, 14-7.

2:14 1Q - A short-lived Cedar Hill lead, as Nick Knott puts Wylie on the board with an 80-yard run on the first play from scrimmage.

2:34 1Q - Horns on the board first. Driphus Jackson hits Darrius Smith with a 23-yard TD pass on a fade route to the front right corner of the end zone.

12:00 1Q - Wylie starts the game with a successful OS kick, then has a Jerod Monk 44 TD run wiped out on penalty. Wylie eventually turns ball over on downs. Bad call to roll Monk left to pass on the 4th-down play from where I sit.

We're here at Texas Stadium for the mouthful-phrased Class 5A Division II Region 1 championship, in what figures to be Cedar Hill's toughest playoff test.

To get to this point, the Longhorns first defeated an outmatched Plano West team that still could have won with some better coaching decisions, then bested the weakest Southlake Carroll team in a decade after SLC upset Colleyville Heritage, followed by holding off a tough Mansfield team last week.

None of these teams, though (including SLC) had the passing game of Wylie, which has an almost 50-5 balance in passing and rushing yardage. How well Cedar Hill can defend the pass will be a key to this game.

Wylie quarterback Jerod Monk is a legitimate double threat, and, big and hard to take down. On defense, Cedar Hill Longhorn coach Joey McGuire says Pirate nose guard Nikita Whitlock can really clog the middle on run defense.

You can see complete coverage of this and other Cedar Hill sports at Cedar Hill Today.

Cedar Hill-Mansfield football playoff liveblogging

1:18 4Q - Longhorns hold on to onside kick. As noted, Mansfield is out of timeouts. Time for a couple of kneel-downs.

1:20 4Q - Mansfield refuses to die. Taylor has a 31-yard receiving TD on a screen and its 41-35 with the onside kick coming.

4:46 4Q - Game effectively over. Mansfield stopped on downs at CH 39, and out of timeouts. Longhorns' next opponent is the winner of the Arl. Bowie-Wylie game, playing later today here at Texas Stadium. That regional title game should also be played here.

8:18 4Q - Horns intercept Daniel Green, score a play later, with Malena. 41-28 with two-pointer.

9:23 4Q - CH right back on top with a Malena 8-yard run. Two-point attempt fails, and CH is up 33-28.

11:17 4Q - Mansfield takes its first lead of the game on a Taylor 35-yard TD run. 28-18 Tigers.

0:40 3Q - Longhorns get two big offensive plays but Mansfield stiffens in the red zone and holds them to a 29 FG. 27-21.

4:29 3Q - Mansfield got one first down on its opening drive, then had to punt. But, they then got their first big play of the game, getting the ball back on a muffed punt. Eight plays later, Taylor scored and we're at 24-21, Cedar Hill.

HALFTIME - A 24-14 Cedar Hill lead, and a few thoughts and summary.

First, did you think Cedar Hill would have more than 150 yards passing in the first half? Driphus Jackson have two TD passes? Ben Malena have more yards receiving than running? Well, it all happened here.

Otherwise, it's been a game of big plays and special teams, with most the big plays, including the late bomb to Darrius Smith and the first-quarter Mansfield lost fumble, favoring Cedar Hill.

0:39 2Q - Well, we did have a game until Mansfield's pass coverage broke down. Darrius Smith gets behind Mansfield coverage, and Driphus Jackson hits him on the fly for a catch-and-run 60-yard TD.

1:25 2Q - After a GREAT catch on a 4th/8 play, Stepfan Taylor scores again for Mansfield. 17-14 CH and we've got a game.

11:18 2Q - Elijah Olabode had an 80-yard kickoff return for Cedar Hill, but the Longhorns wound up settling for a 29-yard field goal. (Apology for originally having 1:18 on time.)

1:10 1Q - Mansfield responds with a 14-play, 80-yard TD, including two successful fourth-down plays.

8:10 1Q - Mansfield fumbled the kickoff after Cedar Hill's initial TD. Five plays later, Malena scored on the ground. Unlike Plano West two weeks ago, the idea of the Longhorns surrendering a big lead seems unlikely.

10:53 1Q - The Longhorns waste no time with ... the vaunted passing attack. Ben Malena takes a screen 56 yards to score.

10:45 a.m. - About 15 minutes to game time. Expect a quick game, with two run-heavy attacks.

Cedar Hill-Southlake Carroll football playoff liveblogging

Read all about this game and other Cedar Hill sports at Cedar Hill Today.

Cedar Hill fans, looking ahead to next week - It's Mansfield as the next opponent, at Texas Stadium again. The Longhorns will have the early game Saturday; time to be announced.

And, high school football fans in general, drop back by.

0:50 4Q - Icing on the cake. Eduardo Camara hits a 29-yard FG.

2:52 4Q - SLC scores, on a pass in which quarterback Piland looked like he was past the line of scrimmage when he threw it. 28-18, and SLC has to convert an onside kick... and fails.

6:22 4Q - Game very over! CH's Chandler Williams intercepts Southlake's Piland.

6;41 4Q - Game over! Malena scores again for Cedar Hill, from 2 yards out. 28-10. Southlake has shown me nothing in the second half to indicate it can come back from three scores down.

10:58 4Q - Laquan Harper 25 TD pass from Driphus Jackson. CH 21-10, as the second half is looking almost all CH so far.

2:50 3Q - Malean from 2 yard out... CH 14-10.

4:42 3Q - FUMBLE! SLC QB Piland hit by Aaron Benson while trying to pass. CH at SLC 15.

6:02 3Q - CH marches 34 yards after a 63-yard kickoff return, with Ben Malena scoring from 9 yards out. Longhorns break the ice and we're at 10-7, Southlake.

9:36 3Q SLC marches 7 plays but stalls out in the red zone. Cade Foster hits a 21 yard FG.

Halftime analysis: The scoreboard may not favor Cedar Hill, but the rest of the halftime statistics do.

For example, Ben Malena has more yards rushing than Southlake has in total offense.

Can Southlake's defense continue to hold up, bending but not breaking?

HALFTIME - SLC 7, CH 0.

I didn't think we would have this low-scoring of a game, but we do. Both offenses have been feeling each other out. Add in the story line that Cedar Hill's defensive coordinator came to the Longhorns at the start of this season from ... Southlake Carroll, and we may continue to have a tight game in the second half.

1:15 2Q - Eduardo Camara hooks a 45-yard FG wide right, after SLC calls a time out to ice him.

7:02 2Q - Southlake scores First! Ryan Walker hauls in a 21 yard TD pass.

First quarter ends, no score. SLC gets a good punt and CH starts at its own 7.

0:55 1Q - LOnghorns go for it on 4th/4 at SLC 38, fails, in first big play of game.

3:30 1Q - CH has the ball back after a 3/out on its second series, followed by a SLC 6/out.

Longhorns 5/out first series. Camarea is punting as well as placekicking for Cedar Hill again. SLC then goes 6/out on its first series.

OK, we're just about to start here. Carroll won the toss and has deferred, so Cedar Hill gets the ball to start the game. People reading this blog and unfamiliar with Cedar Hill can check my liveblogging of the Horns' playoff game last week and a couple of regular season games.

Twenty minutes before gametime here in Texas Stadium.

Although there could be a lot of scoring, this is going to be a game that hinges on defenses. Can Southlake find the toughness to stop Cedar Hill's running game? Can Cedar Hill have its young secondary stay disciplined enough to stop Carroll's passing game?

Both teams look to get back to state title glory of 2006 in a rematch of last year's area round playoff game in Class 5A Division II.

As for the team support, it looks like Southlake's fans have "traveled" a little bit better than Cedar Hill's.

Cedar Hill-Plano West football playoff liveblogging

OVERTIME III - Game over, Longhorns! Eduardo Camara hits a 21-yd FG

Welcome, all you readers. To you Plano West fans, let me say that, if you had a smarter head coach, you would have won this game.

Two particular instances stand out.

First, in the first half, using your backup halfback on third and goal was dumb enough; trying a fake FG from the 4, rather than just running a fourth-down offensive set, if you're not going to kick it, was dumber yet.

But, that pales in response to the end of regulation.

Why, when you're on the 14 and on the left hash with a right-footed kicker, you run LEFT again instead of to the middle of the field to set up the potential game-winning field goal is beyond my comprehension.

That said, Longhorn coach Joey McGuire won't look that gift horse in the mouth.

And, with that said, here's how the game played out in regulation ...

Well, in the first half, here Plano West is. Halfback Darrius Cohen has more than 175 yards rushing in the first half, almost all of it in the box between the tackles.

That includes three touchdowns to stake the Wolves to a 21-0 halftime lead over the Cedar Hill Longhorns. Were it not for a failed fake field goal attempt either being sucessful or else replaced by a 21-yard chip shot field goal, the score could be even worse.

Emblematic of the first half was the Longhorns ending the first half at the PW 2-yard line, out of time outs and the Longhorn offense acting with less than full urgency.

In the second half, the Longhorns have their work cut out for them in trying to come back from their biggest deficit of the year.

10:34 3Q - Well, Cedar Hill's defense failed to answer the bell for the second half. Cohen had a 65-yard run on the second play from scrimmage and scored two plays later. He's over 250 yards rushing and we're at 28-0.

8:33 3Q - Aided by two personal-foul facemasks against PW (there is no five-yarder in high school), the Longhorn offense HAS answered the bell. Driphus Jackson hits Ben Malena for a 20-yard TD and it's 28-7.

6:08 3Q - After a bad PW punt snap put the ball at the PW 8, Malena runs in, and we've got a ballgame at 28-14.

4:17 3Q - Malena on a 62-yard run, CH fans getting noisy first time tonight. 28-21.

Time for me to gameplan for PW a bit. CH is playing 8 in the box. Time to pass on first down. And they don't.

1:38 3Q - Option pass by CH backup QB Le'derian Cockrane to John Coleman. 28-all.

10:37 4Q - After a short punt, the Horns go 38 yards in four plays. Malena scores from 3 yards out.
Wacky play. PW called for face-guarding on a fade to the end zone, then PW's cornerback and somebody else, apparently, BOTH get unsportsmanlike conduct flags on the dead ball on the same play.

1:13 4Q - Set up by Chance Hutcheson's blocking a punt, the Wolves moved 39 yards in 10 plays, with Travis Wilson scoring on a QB draw to tie the game.

Next came PW's missed field goal, Cedar Hill scoring on 4th/24 in the first OT, when Laquan Harper got behind PW double coverage, PW bouncing back in the second OT, but then finding itself out of either emotional or physical gas in the third OT.

And, I know PW's kicker has the leg for a 44-yarder to be at least worth an attempt, rather than going for it on 4th/12 in the third OT.

Friday night lights, Friday night high jinks

As you perhaps prepare to head to your local high school football game, here’s a few of my reflections from this year’s high school football, and specifically from games I’ve covered here in the state of Tejas.

At Irving Oct. 10, the homecoming queen candidate said she enjoys “texting”; an underclassman prince candidate said he enjoys “eating.” Ahh, the future of American education. May she can text him on her Chinese-made cell phone to meet her for dinner at a Chinese restaurant, for them to keep each other blithely unaware of America’s future being sold out to… China.

Has any high stadium scoreboard ever sold out its ads? Why don’t school boards refuse to buy scoreboards unless they sell out spaces? And, does that video scoreboard really necessary for media students to learn? I think not. I think the Cedar Hill School Board probably did blow $500K this summer because boardmembers didn’t ask themselves Questions No. 1 as a rhetorical question, didn’t even consider Question No. 2 (has any school board, or do boards now have “scoreboard envy”?), and didn’t ask themselves Questions No. 3 as a rhetorical question either.

Does a high school halftime ever get over on time at a homecoming game? Of course not.

How many band parents would stroke out if only the home team’s band played at halftime? (“Billions and billions,” to quote Carl Sagan.) But, in New Mexico, in my high school youth (band member as a freshman), we stayed home on Friday nights the Gallup High School Bengals football team was on the road. What was it like in Texas about 30 years ago?