July 8, 2025

WAKE UP! ON ETBLITZ | This summer’s edition of ‘The Magazine;’ preseason polls; the Rangers are getting worse

EDITOR’S NOTE: Well, welcome to Wake Up!, and if this is your first time, you’ve came to a laid-back, summer edition. We’re in the calm before the storm that is football and volleyball for the 2025-26 school year. This is about as quiet as it gets around East Texas, as far as sports is concerned. The only thing close is the week, week and a half between Christmas and New Year’s. But Wake Up! is our daily morning feature, presented by Cozy Coffee Station, and if you’re anywhere in the vicinity of Kilgore or Gilmer, go by one of those locations. Their menu is amazing, and you’ll be a returning customer, I assure you. In Gilmer, Cozy Coffee Station is located at 755 Highway 271 North, and in Kilgore, they’re at 110 Midtown Plaza. If you’d like, check out their menu before you go, and all kinds of good stuff, on their website, Home | Cozy Coffee Station.

Got my copy of DCTF Magazine

As a Dave Campbell’s Texas Football website subscriber, I got my print copy (which is getting heavier and heavier every year, by the way) of their massive magazine in the mail on Monday. 

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is on the front of it, and as usual, there’s all kinds of good things in there.

I was disappointed that I didn’t see more about some of our programs here in East Texas. I never want to be a spoiler for this magazine, but I did expect to see a little more on Kilgore, in particular, given that they’re ranked third in the state in 4A-Division I, and have several players that DCTF has identified as marquee players this summer, guys like defensive lineman Cam Christian, quarterback Kayson Brooks, defensive back Ja’Kalen Sheffield and wide receiver LaKeyleon Graves.

At any rate, I don’t want to give a lot away, because I know you guys love to read it. I’ll just tell a few things, and maybe this won’t spoil it. Tell you what: if you’re worried about a spoiler, stop reading now, skip this section, and come back after it.

Ready? Here goes.

  • There’s a huge feature story on Celina (I know, right), the team that beat Kilgore in the 4A-DI state championship game, near the front of the magazine. 
  • To no real surprise except their haters, Texas is ranked No. 1 in the magazine’s college power poll, the poll of only Texas colleges.
  • Their writers poll this year includes Kilgore’s own Dave Wilson, who is one of ESPN’s very, very good college football writers on ESPN.com, and the son of the late Bill Wilson, former mayor and auto dealership owner there in Kilgore. Among the questions, of course, is who do the writers believe will win the Heisman Trophy, and the national championship. Maybe the most interesting answer given by Dave, though, was to the question about who’s the best college football coach in Texas. Sarkisian? Nope. Jeff Traylor, of Texas San-Antonio, the longtime Gilmer head coach. All right, Dave!
  • Cory Hogue handles the Southwest Junior College Football Conference preview, and DCTF’s pick to win the conference? Kilgore College, after making the playoffs last season, but not taking the conference title. KC has won two of the last three. Hopefully, the magazine’s pick will be right!
  • I won’t spoil the high school picks, but let’s just say there will be several programs from our ETBlitz.com coverage area that will be happy.
  • Now, you don’t have to be a subscriber to the DCTF website to get the magazine. I haven’t been in to a Walmart, a Brookshires or a book store in recent days, so I’m not sure it’s hit the stands yet. If it hasn’t, it will soon. The cover price is $14.99, but if you really love football and you especially love football in this state, I think it’s worth it.

The preseason polls

That brings me to the polls. The DCTF polls are the ones that ETBlitz recognizes as the honest-to-goodness true state polls, because we believe they’re the most respected. The preseason polls were released last weekend, and we listed them, every bloomin’ one of them, in a story a few days ago. Kilgore, Gilmer, Arp, Troup, and Overton, all in our coverage area, are all ranked, and several more East Texas programs are ranked, obviously. If you want to go back and check those polls, and see who’s ranked where, here you go: PRESEASON POLLS! | ETBlitz-area teams all over the place! Kilgore, Gilmer both ranked, but where? All the preseason DCTF state polls inside. That’ll be the last word, the last ranking, until after the season opening weekend on Thursday, Aug. 28, Friday, Aug. 29, and Saturday, Aug. 30.

Texas Rangers Report

The Rangers dropped one by a run, 6-5, Monday night, and here’s where they stand.

It ain’t good.

They’re 44-47 overall this season, they’ve lost two straight and they’re 4-6 in their last 10 games. They’ve fallen all the way down to fourth (out of five teams) in the American League West Division, and now, they’re 11 games back from first-place Houston, (55-36, and 7-3 in their last 10).

The Rangers need one of those post-All-Star-Game-break turnarounds. Maybe they’ll get it.

They play at the L.A. Angels, a division rival, tonight, an 8:30 p.m. (our time) start, and then do so again on Wednesday, and Thursday, the same time all three nights. On Friday, Texas can really make a dent in things: they visit Houston for game one of a weekend series. That Friday game is a 7:10 p.m. first-pitch.

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