POLL RESULTS! | Results from our Whataburger Personality Profile high school football poll are in!

Kilgore will win more than 10 games this season, one of them will be in the season opener at home over Carthage; West Rusk’s decade-long streak of making the playoffs will continue; the Henderson Lions are gonna do pretty well in the first season under coach Ricky Meeks; and Gilmer will find a way to hold off Pleasant Grove and win that district’s championship.

All of that will happen – at least according to ETBlitz.com readers. Those are some of the results from our Whataburger Personality Profile high school football poll conducted a couple of weeks ago.

Now, here are the results from every question in the poll, but because some people didn’t answer all the questions, I’ll put the percentage as the result. We had a great response to the poll, but we were so excited to do it that we might have overdone the amount of questions.

For fans of Beckville, Carthage and Pine Tree, our newest schools that we just announced we would be covering in 2025, this poll was conducted before that announcement, so not that many questions involving your programs are listed here. But you’re welcome to read anyway!

Oh, and do visit Whataburger online here (Whataburger | Order Online with Curbside and Delivery) to check out their menu. I can’t possibly imagine this, but I guess it’s possible someone could be reading this that has never been to Whataburger. The thought of that is striking! 😊 If that’s you, then get there immediately, at any of the DKT Investments-owned Whataburger stores throughout East Texas, including in our coverage area: Kilgore, Henderson, Carthage, Gilmer, and White Oak.

So here we go: results.

QUESTION 1: Which team will win District 9-4A, Division I? The overwhelming majority of responders – 91.8 percent, in fact – said KILGORE would win the district. Henderson got just over 5 percent of the vote, with Lindale and Pine Tree each getting what amounted to a little under 2 percent each. Surprisingly, no votes at all for Chapel Hill, two seasons removed from a state championship game run and in spite of giving Kilgore fits the last few years. Still, no love for the Tyler Bulldogs.

QUESTION 2: Which team will win District 7-4A, Division II? Well, we kind of gave this one away already, but the voters said GILMER, but close, with 53.3 percent of the vote. Pleasant Grove was second (40 percent), Spring Hill got just over 4 percent, and believe it or not, North Lamar – not Van – also received a little love, at 2 percent.

QUESTION 3: Who’s gonna win the District 8-3A, Division I championship? According to our poll, even with state-ranked Liberty-Eylau, Atlanta and Jefferson all in the district, it’ll be TATUM that’ll come out on top, barely edging out L-E in 8-3A. Coach Whitney Keeling’s Eagles got 31.2 percent of the vote; L-E got 16.6; Jefferson got 16.6; Gladewater got 12.5; White Oak and Atlanta each got 4 percent of the vote, and Sabine got 2 percent.

QUESTION 4: Which team will win the title in District 11-3A, Division II? The poll voters like NEW DIANA to repeat as champion, with 43.7 percent of the vote. West Rusk got 22.9 percent; Troup, ranked in the preseason poll (which you can see here: PRESEASON POLLS! | ETBlitz-area teams all over the place! Kilgore, Gilmer both ranked, but where? All the preseason DCTF state polls inside) got 20.6; Arp got 12.5, and none of the other schools (Buffalo, Elkhart and Winona) received a single vote.

QUESTION 5: Who wins District 11-2A, Division II? Coach Scotty Laymance and the Overton Mustangs lost a lot of production when Bryce Still and Jayden Edwards picked up their diplomas in May. But voters said OVERTON still wins the district (64.2 percent), holding off highly-recruited running back Kaegan Ash and the Mount Enterprise Wildcats (23.8 percent) to do it. Grapeland got 4.7 percent of the vote, and Tenaha, Lovelady and Cushing each got just over 2 percent; Alto was the only team in the district to not receive a vote.

QUESTION 6: In 2024, Carthage ran the table as preseason No. 1 to the UIL Class 4A, Division II state championship. They had one loss. It was to Kilgore in the season opener. The two teams open the season again this year, on Aug. 29, in Kilgore. Who wins? A very overwhelming response here: KILGORE got 80 percent of the vote, Carthage 20, obviously. Wow, we get this game right out of the gate in the season opener. Football is just great sometimes, you know?

QUESTION 7: Henderson has a new head coach, Ricky Meeks, the son of another legendary high school coach, Dickey Meeks. The lions have a new coaching staff that includes longtime Kilgore assistant coach Chris Vallery. And they also bring back a ton of talent, including running back Jesstin “Meaty” Starling and wide receiver Lemarion Coleman. How many games does Henderson win in the 2025 season? The choices for all of the teams in these type of questions were “more than 9,” “7-9,” “5-7,” and “less than 5.” The answer that most voters gave was 5 TO 7, and we know the Lions want more wins than 7. We’re thinking the voters may have underestimated. We’ll all find out soon.

QUESTION 8: Dave Campbell’s Texas Football recently named Gilmer’s defensive line as the best in the state in Class 4A – not just in 4A, Division II, but in 4A, period. How many games will the Buckeyes win in 2025? Again, same answer choices as for Henderson, and this time, a split decision: MORE THAN 9 and 7 TO 9 each got 47.5 percent of the vote, with a few voters also saying 5 to 7.

QUESTION 9: Kilgore won its district, ran through the playoffs, and made it to the 4A, Division I state championship game, but lost there to Celina. How many games do coach Clint Fuller’s Ragin’ Red win this season? According to 86 percent of ‘ya, MORE THAN 10 is the answer here. That’s a good bet: this will be Fuller’s fifth season in Kilgore, and he hasn’t won less than 10 in the previous four. The Bulldogs are 46-11 since Fuller became head coach.

QUESTION 10: The Sabine Cardinals started the 2024 season on fire, with quarterback Cole Sparks in charge. But Sparks was injured in the third game of the season, and it drastically affected Sabine. Sparks graduated and is at Texas State, but how will the Cardinals bounce back? How many games does Sabine win in 2025? Well, Sabine fans, you might want to close your eyes on this one. Voters said LESS THAN 5 will be the answer: 47.3 percent of the voters responded in that fashion, with 5-7 being the second-most popular choice (42.1 percent), and there were some big believers that answered 7-9 (10 percent).

QUESTION 11: Twice last season, the Tatum Eagles were state-ranked in Class 3A. Tatum ran into Malakoff in the first round of the playoffs last year, a tough draw. How many games to the Eagles win in 2025? The choice with the most votes was 7 TO 9 with 61.1 percent. More than 9 got 25 percent, so most fans believe the Eagles will have a pretty successful season. The 5 to 7 choice got 8 percent of the vote, and the less than 5 option got just 5 percent.

QUESTION 12: Jermaine Lewis is now the head Bear in Gladewater and the Bears have quite a bit of talent returning from a team some say is a sleeper pick to win their district. How many games will Gladewater win in 2025? I would think coach Lewis would be pretty happy with this. Now, the 7 TO 9 choice was the winner in the poll (43.2 percent). The 5-to-7 choice was the second-most popular (35 percent), but they also got 16.2 percent for the more than 9 option. It’s good that expectations for Gladewater appear to be trending positive.

QUESTION 13: White Oak took a big step last season after not winning a game in 2023. The Roughnecks now look to take the next step: back to the 3A playoffs. Will they do it? How many games will White Oak win in 2025? Eh, don’t know about this one. The 7 TO 9 answer and the 5 TO 7 answer tied, each with 38.8 percent of the vote, and less than 5 got 22.2 percent of the vote.

QUESTION 14: Josh Smith ran hard for the Arp Tigers behind a very good offensive line in 2024. Arp won seven games and made the 3A-DII playoffs. How will they fare in 2025? The 7 TO 9 answer was the winner, with 44 percent of the vote. The 5 to 7 option got 33.3 percent, and more than 9 got 13.8 percent. The less than 5 option got votes, but far less (8.3 percent).

QUESTION 15: Coach Sam Wells and his Troup Tigers were on the prowl in 2024, finishing second in their district to red-hot New Diana. Can Troup get back to the level they were on, or even better? How many games do the Tigers win in 2025? Whooo. All over the board here. The 7 TO 9 and 5 TO 7 options tied with each getting 40 percent of the vote. More than 9 got 20 percent, and less than 5 got none.

QUESTION 16: It seems every time opposing fans write off the West Rusk Raiders and think their playoff run is over, the Raiders find a way. The last time the Raiders missed the playoffs? 2014. They’ve been 10 straight years. Do they get back in? How many games does West Rusk win in 2025? The 7 TO 9 option won (57 percent), which would mean yet another consecutive year that the Raiders are in the 3A-DII postseason. The 5 to 7 option got 22.8 percent of the vote; more than 9 got 17.1 percent; and 2 percent went to less than 5.

QUESTION 17: Without question, the 2024-25 athletic year was the year of the Mustang. Overton exceled at just about everything, and especially in football and in baseball. The Mustangs even knocked off state title contender Mart in round two of the playoffs. But graduation hit hard. How many games will Overton win in 2025? The people are believers in the Mustangs. The 7 TO 9 option wins here in our vote (51 percent), with 5 to 7 collecting 27 percent, more than 9 getting 18.9 percent, and less than five getting just 2.7 percent.

QUESTION 18: Their district isn’t on the questions above, but now that Leverett’s Chapel has a season under coach Keith Hughes with some success, the Lions will look to get back into the UIL six-man playoffs in 2025. How many games will they win? Another tie. The 7 TO 9 and 5 TO 7 options each got 39.3 percent of the vote. Less than 5 got 18.1 percent, and more than 9 got 3 percent.

QUESTION 19: ETBlitz.com is about to add three schools to its coverage area. Which schools would you most like to see us add? The winner in the poll was LONGVIEW-AREA SCHOOLS with 46.15 percent. Second-place in the poll was the choice of “some mix, but include Carthage,” which got 38.4 percent, and then the Tyler-area schools, which got 15.3 percent. We actually added Carthage, Pine Tree and Beckville, which brings our coverage area to 15 high schools, and we’re thrilled to be covering all three, in addition to the schools we were already covering!

QUESTION 20: Where is your favorite place to watch a high school football game? The choices were AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Homer Bryce Stadium on the Stephen F. Austin University campus, CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium in Tyler, Lobo Stadium in Longview, your own team’s home stadium, and another venue unlisted. The winner in the poll? Well, it was YOUR OWN TEAM’S HOME STADIUM, of course, with 66.6 percent of the vote. AT&T and Rose Stadium each got 10.2 percent of the vote; Lobo and Homer Bryce each got 5.1 percent, and 2.5 percent to another venue that wasn’t listed.