WAKE UP! SPECIAL EDITION | Analyzing the good – and the bad – from a tumultuous weekend

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wake Up! is presented by Cozy Coffee Station. And if you’ve never been to Cozy Coffee Station, or haven’t been in a while, you need to present yourself to one of their two East Texas locations and check out their fall menu! In fact, you can do that without even putting your Nikes in the door – look at it right here: Cozy Coffee Station Fall Menu. But after you look at it, you’re gonna want to get in immediately, so here’s where to go. In Kilgore, they’re located at 110 Midtown Plaza, and in Gilmer, they’re at 755 Highway 271 North – in the Credit Union of Texas at both locations. And if you’re reading this and decide to get by, tell ‘em ETBlitz told you about CCS in Wake Up!

Well, how about THAT weekend?

1. Kilgore, Henderson, Lindale win their District 9-4A, Division I openers: Three strong teams in the good ‘ol “District of Doom” (honestly, I hate that) won their first district games, and three (Pine Tree, Palestine and Chapel Hill) lost. And Mabank – which is nowhere NEAR here, but the UIL has to find somewhere to put everybody and they drew the “lucky” straw of being in a district with all of us – got pasted, 47-0, by Canton. Mabank joins the party this Friday when they get to face a mad bunch of Pirates in Longview.
2. Gilmer-Brenham: Everyone is trying to figure Gilmer out, and I said this last week, but I guess it bears repeating. It COULD be that Gilmer is not a bad football team, but that the teams they’ve faced have just been really, really good. We’re all pretty sure (“all” including Dave Campbell’s Texas Football writer Matt Stepp and editor Greg Tepper) that Kilgore is freakin’ loaded yet again. Lindale looks more like the Lindale we saw in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – a very good football team – than the last few years, when my church’s youth group could’ve tested them. Chapel Hill might have been hit hard by graduation, but they can hit back, as evident by the fact that they tested No. 1 Carthage for three quarters. And as for the Buckeyes’ most recent loss, to Brenham in Longview Friday night: Brenham is killing it. The Cubs are 5-0, and have outscored their opponents 196-63. Gilmer is off this Friday – the open date couldn’t have arrived at a better time – and then District 7-4A, Division I begins. They get Pittsburg at home Oct. 10, make a trip to Van Oct. 17, host Pleasant Grove Oct. 24, go to Spring Hill Oct. 31, and finish the regular season with a home game against North Lamar on Nov. 7. We’re pretty sure Van will be a threat – the Vandals are 3-2 right now, and have looked good, but human, along the way. Pleasant Grove is one of the best teams in 4A, and will be a big-time test for the Buckeyes. But the other three teams – Pittsburg, Spring Hill and North Lamar – have a combined record of 5-9. And Pittsburg has four of those five wins. Buckeyes fans, I know you’re frustrated, and I don’t blame you. You guys have had more success since 2000 than most high school programs have had in their entire history. All I’m saying is, let things play out before we’re carrying torches through the streets.
3. Overton-Grapeland: I guess the same thing holds true for us Mustangs fans, too. Overton is not in a rebuilding year – I would not call it that. Not with guys like Jacob Osburn, Gabe Miller, Justin Weir, Rylan Holleman, and so many more that I could name. But they are in the process of figuring things out this year, and they just opened district play. The big dogs in their district – and there are several, because it’s a hard district – are the Mustangs themselves, Grapeland, Lovelady, and Mount Enterprise.
4. Gladewater: Thinking about this, in retrospect — I don’t think there was a bigger interception throughout all of Texas high school football than the one made by Gladewater’s Maddax Vasquez last weekend. Vasquez picked off Jefferson quarterback Chance Washington, and then the Bears’ Jeremiah Flanagan finished it, a 1-yard touchdown run that out then in front, 28-27, where they would stay for the final 3 1/2 minutes. Gladewater dealt the No. 3 team in 3A-DI a loss to open district, and immediately became the front-runner, at least for now. I won’t be a bit surprised if the Bears debut in the top 10 of 3A-DI when the poll comes out later today. One loss by one point AND a win AT Jefferson? Top 10 to me.
5. Henderson: If there’s anything on earth I’m NOT worried about, it’s whether Henderson has great talent at the skill positions. And Palestine is the most recent team to find that out. There is this: 56 points to Athens, 31 to Palestine and Kilgore coming to town this Friday. That’s going to be a good one — I’ll be there personally. Looking forward to it.
6. Troup-Arp: I normally have a good read on things. And even though I know Arp is a good football team, I did think Troup would win: home crowd, I thought, would be a major factor, and I just thought Troup had so many weapons. What I didn’t figure in was that Troup’s defense would play that well, and they did. They were lights-out. Now, I’m not handing anyone the District 11-3A, Division II championship yet. Arp and Troup each have to play West Rusk, and right now, that looks like — as Ray Stevens said in “The Blue Cyclone” — seems like it’d be about like fighting a grizzly bear with a switch in the woods at night.
7. West Rusk, Carthage: Both win big, Carthage on the road at Jasper and West Rusk at home. Both of these teams look to play starring roles down the stretch this season, with SO many big games left for both of them.
8. White Oak, Beckville: Both suffered a couple of tough losses on Friday, but both are also good enough, and coached well enough, to overcome them. It was only the first weekend of district for White Oak, and for the Bearcats, they’re 1-1, and hardly in trouble. They do have a tough district, though. They host Big Sandy this Friday, and it gets kind of rough from there: Waskom (4-1 right now), Hawkins (3-2), Union Grove (4-1) and then wind up the regular season with Ore City (3-2).
9. Cowboys, Packers tie: The three best NFL games I’ve seen this year: Cowboys-Giants, Bills-Ravens and now Cowboys-Packers. And that last one didn’t even really have a finish?! If you weren’t watching, Dallas and Green Bay played a back-and-forth contest Sunday night that saw seven lead-changes in the second half. But because of the NFL’s stupid, jackassian overtime rules, when Packers kicker Brandon McManus  hit a 34-yarder as time expired in overtime, that was it. A 40-40 tie. The former college format, where each team gets a possession from the 25-yard-line and we play regular football until the tie is broken, would be 20 times, 100 times, better. Instead, we get a convoluted mess. Come on, NFL competition committee; you’re better than that.
10. Major League Baseball playoffs: They begin this week, and neither the Texas Rangers nor the Houston Astros will be participants. Wow. I’ll still watch, but would’ve been a lot more fun if the Texas teams had gotten in. It’s especially stupid that Houston missed out — the Astros led the AL West for about 90 percent of the season. Seattle came up fast in their rear-view mirror, and now, like everyone, they’re sitting at home.