Cougar14.2

Well, the game went exactly like I told you it probably would. Poorly coached and just wasted talent. This is just what the Joe Willis era is at Crosby. Hopefully he “retires” again at the end of the season and we get a competent guy in here before he drives the program completely in the ground.

It doesn’t mean anything at your new school, especially when it’s 180° out from the school you won’t at. Not to mention you were sub-.500 at your last stop also

Well, I said I thought North Shore was a 30 point favorite. I didn’t think they would make it look this easy though.

The last play of the half is an example of the Willis play-calling philosophy I wonder about? It’s the last play of the half and the entire stadium knows you’re going to throw it. Why the heck do you need to run a slow developing play-action pass instead of just a traditional drop back and let your protection get set properly? So instead of a shot at the endzone it’s a loss of 5. Like I said earlier, our game plan is to give it to Yarbrough and hope he can break it. There’s not much more “offensive coordinating” going on after that. I talked about personnel decisions. We just dropped a TD that hit the receiver in the facemask. Even though he does the same thing in practice Willis refuses to give more reps to the receivers who can make those plays.

Crosby will be looking to win their first season opener since 2018 This season the Cougars will be looking to make the playoffs for the 18th time in the last 20 seasons Tonight, Joe Willis will start the quest for his first winning season at Crosby During the 2024 season Code Red will be attempting to win its first district championship since 2021

I think this is an interesting game for SOC to finally get out of their DFW comfort zone. I think this one will end up with a similar score to their games with Duncanville. I have North Shore as about a 30 point favorite at home but all I need is a 24 point lead at any point in time to collect my 750ml from my buddy tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing Khaleb Bailey versus Keelon Russell in the state championship game. Duncanville lost some absolute beast off that team from last year. If North Shore is healthy they should be in good position to win round 6.

Well, Dayton has Coach P who looked like he was already in mid-season form the way he was tuning up officials last night but there’s potentially rain in the forecast🙏🏾 In all seriousness I think this game is going to come down to quarterback play. How ironic is that the two stud QBs Crosby had in their ‘27 class both left for various reasons after their 8th grade year but will now face each other a year later as sophomores on varsity? If the North Shore transfers are cleared that’s going to be a huge help tonight. One plays DE and has a similar build to McCoy Casey and the other is a kid who I think another poster was alluding to who can help at one of the skill positions. Even though Crosby doesn’t pressure much I think Dayton is going to have a tough time running the football on Crosby’s front 7. That being said the fact that we don’t pressure much is probably why Coach P is going to have success calling plays against us. It’s gets unsettling to watch Crosby only rush three and drop LB’s on 3rd and short. I think this is part of the new “playing the right way” philosophy being instilled? I think the gameplan tonight on offense will be to give it to Yarbrough 25-ish times and hope he can break son long runs to keep the offense functional. I’m not sure we’re settled enough at the QB position to really do anything else? Crosby will be extremely run heavy on 1st snd 2nd downs as usual but if we end up in a lot of 3rd and longs we’re almost assured to lose because Poth will start sending them at an even higher clip and Crosby showed very little ability to anything outside of a normal rush against Baytown Lee. Either way it goes I definitely still think the worst part of tonight will be dealing with Dayton’s parking situation and restrooms. Remember, Coach P had an issue with OUR facilities 👀

I don’t think it’s really a controversy, I think it’s a philosophy. We may line up in some modern formations but at the heart of it Willis is an old school, power run game football coach which requires Crosby to dominate the offensive line of scrimmage . . . which we can’t. In a standard 60-play game he probably wants to run it about 40+ times if we’re being effective so there are carries to go around. Running backs want the ball from the running back position. Not lined up in the slot and having it thrown to them, having to motion pre-snap or sprint post-snap to get it. Crosby does run some two back sets but the vast majority of the time the RB that gets the ball from the traditional RB position is called the B-back in our offense. Last year and this year alike Crosby had a RB that could average more yards from the traditional position than the player who will get the overwhelming majority of the carries there. If the play-calling philosophy relies on us leaning heavily on the B-back position then why not give a more equal share of the carries at that traditional position to players who can help make that play-calling more efficient? Josh Jackson has Austin Walter-like ability but teams won’t have to deal with it much because he’ll be lined up in the slot at A-back. Just a different approach than what we saw from the last two coaches.

Well, so much for that. Kind of had this one penciled in as a relatively uncompetitive district win since Kempner went 0-10 and was basically blow out of every game last year.

Kirk Martin came back so now Manvel has the same coach they had those years when they were great but their enrollment area is only about 1/5 of what it used to be. Most of the great athletes were coming from the Shadow Creek Ranch subdivision while it was being built which now has its own high school. The explosive growth has always been down HWY 288 and now Manvel just lost the fastest growing part of its attendance zone to Iowa Colony High School. Manvel’s offense looked pretty bad last night but just three years ago Carson White who’s IC’s sophomore QB would’ve lived in Manvel’s attendance zone and along with a few of their other prospects made that a completely different game. One of the downsides of coaching in a growing district like that is potentially getting a smaller piece of the pie which Manvel is feeling now.

Man, I thought Dayton's offense looked better than I would’ve expected actually. I didn’t really want to say that though. They picked up 83 yards in their first 5 plays of the scrimmage which is why I said they looked pretty decent and had several other opportunities for chunk plays if the receivers make plays on the ball, particularly #8 on the go route when he’s 1v1 on a small DB and the big kid #12 who couldn’t come down with a contested catch over the middle that was a for sure TD if he does. I wouldn’t call them fast or overly athletic but they have some solid personnel on the starting offense. Question is how many QB runs will Coach P call with Jr in there? I think Dayton’s defense looked good mainly because of GCM’s inability to execute a varsity offense. I think there are several games on their schedule where Dayton is going to struggle in the trenches if they don’t get early leads. Crosby should’ve been one of them but without the ability to run the ball consistently we’ll probably be in a lot of third and long situations where Poth and his creative ways of bringing pressure has the advantage over whatever we’re calling from our sideline regardless of personnel. I don’t know how anybody who’s seen both of these teams can say Crosby is a favorite, much less a big one to those who are thinking that? I think the days of Crosby’s talent and athleticism factoring into game results are done for a while. Unfortunately, we’ve digressed to just trying to put together respectable performances no matter the opponent across from us.

May have stole the show punting but I didn’t see him get a single rep at QB. I agree the controversy should be over though, Robinson should be the starter. If you’re a senior and it’s your second year in a system but you’re getting pushed by a sophomore who’s only been in the system for weeks then you need to go to the bench and let the more talented player develop. That being said I’m sure we’ll keep swapping the QB’s in and out and stall the offense even further. Those type of personnel decisions are part of the reason why Crosby isn’t any good anymore. We have the same issue at RB and WR too. Josh Jackson is the best RB on the team and probably the best pure runner we’ve had since since Craig Williams but Willis has him in the slot instead of the B-back position which would allow him to be our primary ball carrier. He loves the back who has averaged 4ypc over his career because he has major offers and will continue to feed him to the detriment of running an efficient offense.

Nobody scored in the live portion of the scrimmage. Both teams scored once in the controlled portion and Lee scored twice to Crosby’s zero in the red zone portion.

Dayton’s offense looked mediocre to pretty decent at times which I think is to be expected with a completely new system. Also have to remember the new personnel positions along with the QB being relatively new at the varsity level, he only made three starts last year as a freshman but at least one was a playoff game. Dayton has a lot better personnel than Lee and Crosby struggled to shut them down. Coach Poth is a great DC but but unless Daygon plays several kids both ways(which Crosby did when Prieto was there) the Broncos might be challenged on that side of the ball all year? Crosby hasn’t consistently shown the ability exploit team’s defense deficiencies under the new staff so Dayton will still probably be ok there. I think Dayton is going to play fast and loose while Crosby plays slow and tight. Maybe special teams decided it like some of the old classics?

He has a power 5 RB, one of the best inside LB’s in the area committed to UTEP, a left tackle committed to Air Force, a QB who will potentially D1 football and several other kids who will play at the college level. Not to mention the best prospect on the entire team being a stud sophomore. Talent wasn’t the issue last year and it’s not the issue this year. This issue is the questionable personnel decisions which get compounded by the questionable play-calling philosophy, mainly offensively.

If tonight was any indication it looks like it’s going to be another long year for Crosby. Looks like we picked up right where we left off last year. Coach Hurts exploited our defense with kids who looked smaller and less athletic than our freshman squad and the offense is more of the same from last year. Can’t get any movement in the trenches but we’re still going to run it on first and second down, throw an incompletion on 3&8 then punt. Was really hoping we would look better in year two but now I just think we are what we are until something changes.

Crosby fans should be able to finally find out who the starting QB is going to be today? Think one of the three has fallen out of consideration since the other two are getting the bulk of the first team reps. If both of the kids play even I sincerely hope Willis goes with the sophomore the way they would do in college. On the defensive side of the ball, if Crosby gives up anything in the live portion I would be concerned. On paper this should be one of the better units Crosby has had but but we'll see if they've absorbed enough of the new system which would allow them to play a lot faster than they did last year? If Lee is able to go up and down the field on us it feels like this could be another sub-.500 season which would be even more disappointing than last year since a district like this would've been considered a cake-walk for Crosby in the not too distant past.

I don't really want to comment on any offseason additions outside of the one that I was involved in that I already mentioned above. I will say Willis has had my nephew working the X-receiver instead of A-back all week if that's an indication? Hard to be optimistic about anything until the plays get called though.

Imagine telling Jalen Hurts dad he should’ve advised his son to take the path of most resistance and stayed at Alabama versus transferring and playing his way into a $51 million a year deal? Lots of times that “resistance” is the staff telling you they don’t feel like they need you there.

We had a lot of talent last year and it looked like we didn't have any. Still running a scheme that relies heavily on great offensive line play vs the speed and angles schemes under Rio and Prieto. This year we have some of the best back 7 talent on defense since the Pickney and Perry days but the scheme is so complicated that I wouldn't be surprised to see the thought process paralyze some of their play-making ability for a second consecutive year. My fingers are crossed that coach Williams gets to exert more of his influence on that side of that ball this year. Really loving the impact that the DB coach from North Shore has had to this point also, looks like a totally different unit back there. Offensively is where I'm the most worried. Yarbrough isn't really the between the tackles runners we've used to keep defenses honest in past years and Willis likes to hammer it in there whether it's working or not. I think we can supplement that by giving the Walter-like sophomore carries at the B-back position but didn't see a lot of that in the Spring. One positive is that T'Zion Fontenot moved back from Las Vegas this Summer and looks to be in good position to lock down his cousin's old spot at the A-back once he learns the offense. That gives us three high-quality play-makers out of the backfield if we can keep everybody healthy. On paper we look good, but we looked good both physically and on paper last year too and won two games. I'm hoping another year in the system was all the kids needed to play up to their ability because if we struggle again this season I think the supt. will be under even more heat than she was last year.

I will never understand why someone cares what decisions a family makes regarding their own child? Maybe Joe Burrow learns great life lessons from burning up all his eligibility sitting behind Justin Fields at Ohio State but I’m sure him and his family feel like they made the right decision by transferring to LSU, becoming the #1 pick and now being the highest paid QB in NFL history. Same for Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield and Jalen Hurts at their first stops. I think it was more beneficial for Reggie Branch to transfer to Crosby and end up having an opportunity to play for a state title versus staying at GCM and learning life lessons while he loses and probably doesn’t go D1 because his team is a perennial loser. If Robinson throws for 2k yards this year it’s going to be a lot better for his recruitment purposes than sitting on the bench at BH, not to mention he’s going to get significant looks because of the kids he’s on the team with and the offers/commitments they’ve already made. He’s not being taught to run from competition, he’s being taught to gamble on himself just like all those other guys I mentioned did.

FBC transfer most likely will. He’s already been on several recruiting visits and has been looking decent on the camp circuit for only being a freshman. I don’t think his family will let him sit past this year though. JV kid is decent but he’s not really anybody I think you want to rely on competing against good teams with. He has some moxie but he’s smallish and doesn’t have a lot of arm talent. I think he would stay and be a backup no matter what or switch positions if the FBC kid stays.

I guess you heard wrong? All of the sophomore studs he grew up with are on varsity and several played great in the Spring game, 4/5 will start and the others are in the two deep. Only kid I heard about going to Dayton is the receiver that left to go to North Shore and he hasn’t even been playing football. Leaving was what he felt was best for his kid, sometimes you have to make those choices. My son would’ve left last year too if he could’ve gotten eligible, doesn’t mean I would’ve liked Crosby less.

There aren’t a lot of people that are more hard core Crosby than I am but his dad is one of them. I think he stays at Crosby no matter what, plus he gets to play with the kids he grew up with again. Willis is already giving him a bunch of run so if anybody left I think it would be the FB Crawford transfer. I’m thinking he would end up somewhere like Channelview

Willis has a ring and was a great play from Ennis’ receiver in the title game from having two. No doubt BH’s system fits him better but he has an opportunity to play earlier at Crosby which he’s always had outside of the time Coach P was here. When his dad talked to Coach P they came to the conclusion that it was best for him to go elsewhere so it wasn’t really a situation where they left because they wanted to in the first place.