LONG ROAD TRIPS, BUT 6 AT HOME | Rangers host TJC, Trinity Valley, Navarro for football in ’25

Kilgore College running back Luke McMullen, from Jefferson, scores during a practice. The countdown is on at KC, who will open its 2025 season at home against Community Christian College on Saturday, Aug. 30. The Rangers do make long road trips this year to New Mexico Military, to Cisco and to Brenham to face Blinn, but also get rivals Navarro, Trinity Valley, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO) and Tyler Junior College at home. (Photo by ALEX NABOR – ETBLITZ.COM)

Seventy days.

Well, 70 days and an odd number of hours, minutes and seconds – you know the drill, depending upon when you’re reading this.

Checking out Kilgore College’s 2025 football schedule on the college’s athletic website, Kilgore College 2025 Football Schedule – Kilgore College, there’s a countdown to the Rangers’ first game of the season: that would be Saturday, August 30, at 3 p.m., against out-of-conference opponent Community Christian College from Louisiana. They’ll be making the trip over state line to R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium in Kilgore to take on coach Willie Gooden’s Rangers, who by that time will be ready to hit someone.

And you probably don’t want to be that someone.

KC has had a great deal of success under Gooden, the former offensive lineman-turned-assistant-turned-coordinator-turned head coach. Gooden has done it all at KC, winning conference titles, winning bowl games, winning back-to-back conference titles, and reaching the NJCAA’s college football playoff back in the 2023 season.

Last year wasn’t disappointing to Rangers’ fans, likely, but it did fall short of championship expectations, to be sure: a 6-4 final record, 4-4 in conference, and a pair of losses to Tyler Junior College, which under Gooden just had not happened.

There were the big moments, to be sure: wins over international program Monterrey Tech, New Mexico Military and Navarro College to start the season, a 63-0 blanking of Community Christian for the Hall of Fame Game, a two-touchdown victory at Athens over rival Trinity Valley and a homecoming win over Blinn.

But a last-second field goal loss in the regular season at TJC, a road loss at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, and another loss to the Apaches in a return trip to Tyler in the playoffs left the Rangers with a bad taste in their mouths to end the season for the very first time under Gooden.

Now, it’s time to set things straight.

And setting things straight starts in – 70 days.

After that first game on Aug. 30 against CCC, the Rangers have a two-week open period – they don’t play again until their Southwest Junior College Football Conference opener on Saturday, Sept. 13, and it’s a big one. They’re at Roswell, New Mexico to take on New Mexico Military Institute. The Broncos have gone through some coaching changes since winning the NJCAA national championship about four years ago, but they are normally a strong contender in the conference. That game is set for a 3 p.m. Central time start.

The next week, KC returns home to meet Navarro College, a bit of a different kickoff time: 5 p.m. at R.E. St. John. Those two teams have a strong rivalry anyway, and often meet in the conference championship game.

Another long road trip for the Rangers will happen around Sept. 27, when they’ll make the trek to Cisco, a 3 p.m. start to face the Wranglers, who upset KC here at R.E. St. John last year, 35-30.

The surprise on the schedule – and it may not be a good thing for CCC – is that Community Christian makes a RETURN TRIP to R.E. St. John on Saturday, Oct. 4, for KC’s Hall of Fame Game.

It’ll be a 3 p.m. kickoff that day.

The 2025 inductees have already been announced. They are Bernard Barrow, former KC men’s basketball standout; Heather Bunn, former Rangers softball player; Chris Craddock, in the contributor category; Jade Thurmon, who starred for Lady Rangers basketball in 2016-18; former KC student and current ESPN college football writer Dave Wilson, who will receive the Spirit of Excellence Award; and the 1982 KC football team.

They’ll be honored officially at a brunch earlier that day, then either prior to the game or at halftime. The hall-of-fame game is almost always a non-conference opponent, and it is again this year, of course.

The Rangers have an open date on Saturday, Oct. 11, and then return to the field at home on Oct. 18 to host Trinity Valley, a 1 p.m. kickoff.

KC will finish October with a game that fans always mark on their calendar, and this time, it’s at home: Tyler Junior College visits on Saturday, Oct. 25, a 3 p.m. kick, and that will have a little extra juice this year after the two finishes in 2024.

November has two regular season games: a road trip to Brenham, another long road trip, to meet the Blinn Buccaneers, on Nov. 1 at 3 p.m., and then a home game against Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO) on Nov. 8 to finish the Rangers’ regular season. That Nov. 8 date against the Golden Norsemen is also KC’s homecoming in 2025.

The Southwest Junior College Football Conference playoffs will begin the following weekend (Saturday, Nov. 15) for the teams that have the four best records; the top two teams will get the home games. Then on Saturday, Nov. 22, they’ll play the conference championship game.

KC would love to be in the top four in the nation, of course, after all of that, and get back into the national championship picture, as it was in the 2023 season.

See Kilgore College football each week, with Manny Almanza and others on the call, on the college’s YouTube channel, Kilgore College – YouTube.

In fact, here’s a game to help get you ready. This is last year’s KC-Cisco game that game down to the final moments.