oldschool2

I've said several times that I'm very happy for the kids and community at Hardin that they have more Ws in the column than Ls. That's fun. But...that doesn't mean that they are a good team it just means that they've had a good year. There is a difference. Am I happy for them? Ecstatic. Will I agree that they are good/improved/better? No. It takes more than a 7-4 record for ONE SEASON to convince me of that. There are too many variables. There's a reason that Boise State never gets to play for a National Title even when they have an undefeated season.

Yes. If Kirbyville beats Buna then Hardin's 7-4 record will carry a little more substance. Not by much...but yes. It's hard for me to overlook all of these 0-9 and 1-8 wins (soon to be 0-10 and 1-9). I'm going on a limb, though, and am gonna say that Kirbyville has about as good a chance of beating Buna as Hardin did.

Who's being a critic? Look through Hardin's schedule and look for yourself how their opponents have done over the season. Several of the teams they've beat have won ZERO games this year. Several others have won 1, or 2, maybe 3... The only teams they've played with a winning record have beaten them 57-7 and 70-14. I'm sorry if facts are offensive to some people but they're still facts.

Oh, I'm sure. Playoff shirts seem to be the indicator of a good season these days..especially to the mob (fans). Don't get me wrong...Hardin surpassed my expectations as well as everyone else's I'm sure but that doesn't negate the fact that their only wins came against bad teams. I never dreamed Orangefield and Kirbyville would've been as bad as they were this year. Granted...OF lost their QB at a pretty bad time and from what I understand that completely changed the offense. I'm glad for the sake of the Hardin kids that they got to win some games and taste success but the last 3 games of the season aren't going to be fun for any of them. Other than getting to play at a neutral location late in the season. Make no mistake, Buna will be a worse team than the next two coming up by far. Hoping for an injury free experience for all.

And after that they’ll get Franklin. Buna was the least of the worries.

A lot like this one.

24-0

WOS > Silsbee > Liberty

Honestly.. I don't know. I think that a lot of issues SeTx teams face when they get out of the area is seeing teams with a wide variety of weapons. I have friends that coach down here that literally tell me they'll see a Slot-T on offense and a 50 on defense 80%+ of the regular season. I'm not saying that you can't have success running that style but it's kind of going by the wayside. At least have a plan B when it's not working. Do they have a ton of seniors? Or is this the type of dominance you think they'll keep?.. If they think they'll stay on top then possibly playing only teams from elsewhere in the state preseason just to get an idea and get used to different styles of play. They'll still fall into the same "cupcake district" pattern. Perhaps changing the schemes completely up during these blowout games just because you'll win anyway. Maybe instead of taking your starters out and letting the JV reciprocate the same thing over and over...leave the starters in and change up the game plan. Let them run different offenses and defenses when the game is most likely won. I'm not the expert and I don't have the answers but there needs to be some serious questions asked as to why SeTx teams have fallen behind CenTx/EastTx when it comes to smaller school (2A-4A) football. Newton and WOS are literally the exceptions but even they couldn't get out of the region until the divisions were split into Big/Small schools. Yoe and Carthage absolutely owned both of them prior to that.

1. PNG 2. Beaumont West Brook 3. Galena Park North Shore 4. Franklin 5. Shelbyville 6. New Caney 7. Port Arthur Memorial 8. Nederland 9. Vidor 10. Santa Fe 11. Bridge City 12. Little Cypress-Mauriceville 13. Splendora 14. Center 15. Jasper 16. Silsbee 17. West Orange-Stark 18. East Chambers 19. Buna 20. Orangefield 21. Woodville 22. Newton 23. San Augustine 24. West Sabine 25. Evadale

If you know your schedule is going to be soft then it won't hurt to play some tough teams in the preseason. The problem, though, is that if you have 3 tough games...and then 7 cupcake district games... then the tough preseason was really for nothing. Playing a tough game in September means diddly squat if you played 2 1/2 months of cupcakes after that.. The one thing Hardin has done right is building confidence in their kids. Yeah, they played cupcake preseason games but when they finally faced a team that was similar talent level (Kirbyville, Anahuac, Orangefield minus their qb).. then they won because the kids are used to winning. Kirbyville and Anahuac were not...and I believe that was THE difference in both of those games. Teenage kids don't give a crap about the toughness of the schedule...they care about success. When you have a coach that says "This is what it takes to win".. then you better win. The kids will lose confidence and lose faith otherwise. The thing about Woodville's district is that usually Kirbyville, EC, OF, and Buna would be really competitive games. Why schedule a bunch of juggernauts before district if there's a chance you might lose a couple district games. You have to realize that most of these schools are just 1 or 2 injury/failures away from being a completely different team. At the end of the day, coaches are concerned with their overall record as much as they are anything else. Plus..coaches think about the 2nd year of their schedule as well. Does Woodville have a bunch of seniors? If so..how would they do against the likes of Jasper and Silsbee after they graduate? I can assure you that there is a lot that goes into the making of a schedule and a lot that you aren't considering. You mentioned Hardin...Tod Stark created a schedule that would "prepare" his kids for a tough district and it ended up getting him ran off. The ONLY think Haynes did differently than Stark when he came in was butcher the schedule and pick up a bunch of games that he knew he could win. You can agree or disagree all you want but the coach that created the preparation schedule got fired and the coach that created the cupcake schedule is currently the town hero.

I said that I don't think 9 will be a pushover based on what I've seen historically. I don't know if their district is down either...or if they're really competitively good. But I know for certain that Woodville's district is down compared to even what the teams in this district usually do. Woodville only beat the second place team in it's own district (EC) by 11 and EC isn't close to what they've been. And WV beat Buna by 26... that's a solid win but not a blowout by any means. I have to believe that the 2nd place team in district 9 is probably better than the 2nd place team in district 12. All I'm saying... and we know for 100% certainty that SETX struggles tremendously whenever they meet a team out of the area. Usually happens in Rd 2 or for sure Rd 3. Being 10-0 is fantastic but I haven't seen anyone on WV's schedule that proves to me that they can make it past Rd 3. Madisonville was a good win but even they're a .500 team. Roughly. Plus..since that win, WV has played a lot of subpar teams.

That is a Setx trend. I've said for years now... a vast majority of Setx schools get bounced in football as soon as they play someone from out of Setx. The runner-up in District 9 won't be a pushover I don't think. Grandview/Teague/Whitney

The runner-up in District 9 won't be a pushover I don't think. Grandview/Teague/Whitney

Not football related.. but after Bobby Knight's first year at Texas Tech, he was asked in a postseason interview if he was excited because he had so many returners. His reply was "Why would I be excited about having these kids back? They haven't won since they've been here." Or something to that effect...

1. Galena Park North Shore 2. East Chambers 3. San Augustine 4. Beaumont United 5. Galena Park 6. Barbers Hill 7. Nederland 8. Port Neches-Groves 9. Splendora 10. Little Cypress-Mauriceville 11. Lumberton 12. Silsbee 13. West Orange-Stark 14. Anahuac 15. Kirbyville 16. Woodville 17. Corrigan-Camden 18. Hemphill 19. Newton 20. Groveton 21. Hull-Daisetta 22. Evadale 23. Lovelady 24. Bryan Brazos Christian 25. Houston The Village

I think Silsbee will be a bit better than HF...who gave Liberty all they wanted. I'll take Silsbee by 2/3 scores.

Unfortunately, I think West Hardin is done scoring points in football. The 3 remaining games will be Lovelady, Grapeland, and Mart. Sounds like basketball season to me.

Warren is a common game as well. Hardin won 54-14. Anahuac won 71-0. I know it's hard to gauge when the common opponent isn't very good..because either probably could've made the score worse if they wanted. But it's a common game nonetheless. I think the KV game will give a more accurate idea if anyone is going to compare opponents (which doesn't always matter by the way)

I don't see why they wouldn't have a tough time stopping him. Anahuac has put some points up at various times this year, too. I think it may be back and forth for a little bit.

My original thought was that this would be the 6/7 game with Anahuac pulling it out. I think Hardin has the momentum though. The OF game was a big win. Surprised many of us. I still think Ana will have some kids that may give Hardin issues but I think Hardin gets it in a relatively close one. 10-14 or so

I definitely think EC wins this one. It probably gets a few scores out of reach by early second half. Arlington ain't happening tho..unless they buy tickets. Sorry.

Well..yes and no. I personally don't consider a team to be good because they got into the playoffs. When UIL decided to let 4 teams in it watered down a lot of to me. I see your point tho. Hardin has the odds stacked against them because most of these teams are usually pretty good and do have experience getting a playoff spot. That's not necessarily the case this year. I didn't think I'd see a year when Kirbyville would potentially be 0-10 or 1-9 especially in the classification they're in. If Hardin was going to sneak in this would be the year to do it since the district is weaker than normal. The game tonight should all but decide it.

Finally. Welcome to 2018.

The strength of a district can be seen by how it does in the playoffs. Based on that.. this is not a tough district. It has never been a tough district being how I don't know if you can tell me the last time a team from this district won a round 3 game. Usually, the first time a school around here plays a team out of the area they're toast. Woodville may have a good shot at winning a round 3 game this year if the D11 champ makes it thru...but they'll likely get knocked off by R10 (Yoe or Rockdale). So that's who WV will get to play Rd3. I wouldn't bet on winning that. I don't think any other team in this district has a chance at getting there.