FINAL — Nederland 39 at Huntsville 42 — Discussion

[Darth Texas]

Good season bulldogs ! Tough loss 

[A BUC 77]

Too bad dogs.  Score 39 points and loose. What that says to me is a sloppy defensive game.  Up and down season, but I think it’s one to build on.  

[Coach85]

I personally do not think Rich will be there next year.  Wether it be they let him go or he leaves on his own.

[Smashem1984]

8 hours ago, Bulldogpower said:

The Lane to Clay combo works well, why would you change it? Bro did all he could in the final seconds there. 

I agree Lane played good but if we are being honest anyone that can throw the ball down field close to Clay he will make the play. The Collins player has more ability to scramble and run the read options with more speed. Playing  good doesn’t win games and Championships ! Just my opinion. 

[Razor]

8 hours ago, Coach85 said:

I personally do not think Rich will be there next year.  Wether it be they let him go or he leaves on his own.

Care to elaborate Coach?

[prepballfan]

I believe its  mistake to not have Rich back. He is literally from the same tree as Joseph. Once you undergrad programs reach the varsity level they will be a dynamic team. He wants to run the same o as PN-G. In Fact he did run it at Katy. He is missing a coach and a few more kiddos from being similar to PNG. I think Nederland is on a steep trend upward. No one thought Nederland stood a chance. They played their tails off last night. Blaming the defense while they held the team in the game all night. Against a team that was supposed clobber Nederland. Be careful what you wish for. 

[Stattrax]

Just out of curiosity, what is Rich’s record and playoff record at Nederland. Every team deals with the same thing Nederland does. Injuries, coaching, and all the excuses one can think of. IMO Nederland is all over the spectrum in his tenure. Interested to know his record as the coach. And just because you’re under the same coaching tree, doesn’t mean you are the same caliber. 

[spidersal]

I think with Rich the offense improved The difference from him to Joseph is that Joseph understands that defense wins games and every year under him the defense improves each week. With Rich the defense does not improve weekly. He needs to find defensive coaches that can coach. IMO opinion watching them all season, the lb’er and secondary coaches didn’t get the job done The other glaring differences is penalties and special teams, especially the kickoff team

[Bulldogpower]

Rich ain't going anywhere, huge improvement from last year. The dogs were competing again like we're use to seeing, from getting into a barn burner with Lumberton to knocking off Almeta Crawford, dogs are night and day from the last few years. We've got a coach who actually likes to throw the ball and a WR who is a stud. It's nothing but up from here. The only thing that's irritating is that it was almost guaranteed trip to round three, Bastrop is weak. 

[Stattrax]

3 minutes ago, Bulldogpower said:

Rich ain't going anywhere, huge improvement from last year. The dogs were competing again like we're use to seeing, from getting into a barn burner with Lumberton to knocking off Almeta Crawford, dogs are night and day from the last few years. We've got a coach who actually likes to throw the ball and a WR who is a stud. It's nothing but up from here. The only thing that's irritating is that it was almost guaranteed trip to round three, Bastrop is weak. 

If the Ned folks are good with competing, so am I. I was just wondering what his record was. I know he has beat PNG once, has he had some playoff wins? Anyone have his record?

[Darth Texas]

21 minutes ago, Stattrax said:

If the Ned folks are good with competing, so am I. I was just wondering what his record was. I know he has beat PNG once, has he had some playoff wins? Anyone have his record?

No playoff wins. And the gut punch this season is how close the losses were. West Brook (5), WOS (12), PNG (3), Texas City (5), Huntsville (3). And WB, Texas City, and PNG  were all “give up the game winner in closing seconds/minute” games

[navydawg31]

With another football season officially in the books, I think it’s fair to have an honest discussion about the direction of Nederland football under the Scott Rich era.

First, I want to say I appreciate the players and coaches who put in the work all season. Nobody questions the effort these kids put into representing Nederland.

But looking at the last three seasons, Coach Rich is currently 16-16:

2024: 7-4

2025: 3-7

2026: 6-5

There are certainly positives. We bounced back from a disappointing 2025 season, made the playoffs, and showed we can compete with some good football programs.

However, I can’t help but feel like this season could have been something more.

We lost four games by a combined 16 points. West Brook by 5, PNG by 3, Texas City by 5, and Huntsville by 3.

That’s a lot of close football games that could have gone the other direction.

My biggest concern this season was defensive consistency. There were too many stretches where it felt like our defense couldn’t get the stop we desperately needed. We put ourselves in positions to win some of these games, but when it came down to making a play, we struggled to finish.

The Texas City game is a perfect example. Scoring 35 points should put you in a position to win a high school football game. Giving up 40 makes that extremely difficult.

Another thing I think deserves discussion is roster size and personnel. Nederland doesn’t always appear to have the same depth as some of the surrounding programs. Are we getting the most out of the athletes we have? Should more of our best athletes be playing on both sides of the football?

I understand the importance of keeping players fresh and preventing injuries, but sometimes you have to get your best athletes on the field, regardless of which side of the ball they’re playing.

I also think we need to look at developing more depth in the program so we’re not relying on such a limited group of players to carry the load.

I’m not calling for anybody’s job, and I’m not pretending to have all the answers. I want to see Nederland football succeed. We have a proud football tradition, a community that supports these Bulldogs, and kids who deserve to compete for something special.

[Stattrax]

54 minutes ago, navydawg31 said:

With another football season officially in the books, I think it’s fair to have an honest discussion about the direction of Nederland football under the Scott Rich era.

First, I want to say I appreciate the players and coaches who put in the work all season. Nobody questions the effort these kids put into representing Nederland.

But looking at the last three seasons, Coach Rich is currently 16-16:

2024: 7-4

2025: 3-7

2026: 6-5

There are certainly positives. We bounced back from a disappointing 2025 season, made the playoffs, and showed we can compete with some good football programs.

However, I can’t help but feel like this season could have been something more.

We lost four games by a combined 16 points. West Brook by 5, PNG by 3, Texas City by 5, and Huntsville by 3.

That’s a lot of close football games that could have gone the other direction.

My biggest concern this season was defensive consistency. There were too many stretches where it felt like our defense couldn’t get the stop we desperately needed. We put ourselves in positions to win some of these games, but when it came down to making a play, we struggled to finish.

The Texas City game is a perfect example. Scoring 35 points should put you in a position to win a high school football game. Giving up 40 makes that extremely difficult.

Another thing I think deserves discussion is roster size and personnel. Nederland doesn’t always appear to have the same depth as some of the surrounding programs. Are we getting the most out of the athletes we have? Should more of our best athletes be playing on both sides of the football?

I understand the importance of keeping players fresh and preventing injuries, but sometimes you have to get your best athletes on the field, regardless of which side of the ball they’re playing.

I also think we need to look at developing more depth in the program so we’re not relying on such a limited group of players to carry the load.

I’m not calling for anybody’s job, and I’m not pretending to have all the answers. I want to see Nederland football succeed. We have a proud football tradition, a community that supports these Bulldogs, and kids who deserve to compete for something special.

Thanks for the record. It wasn’t as bad as I thought.

[cal81]

People thought that just because Nederland made a similar hire like PN-G, there would be instant success and a possible trip to the state championship.  There are way more factors involved than a good head coach hire.  Even though the makeup of the kids at both of these schools are similar in background, the football culture and history is different.  You have to get a lot of ingredients combined in the right way to achieve what PN-G has under Coach Joseph.  It is not easy.  Just prior to Coach Joseph arriving at PN-G, I thought schools in the 5A-6A class would only get to state if they were around the big cities like Houston or DFW (Southlake Carroll, Allen, Galena Park North Shore, etc.). I'm now convinced I was wrong, and there is proof.

[Coach85]

3 hours ago, Razor said:

Care to elaborate Coach?

I am saying he doesn't have as much support from the community as some people say he does. It is hard to get bonds/propositions passed to improve the schools in Nederland because a lot of people there vote against it because it will raise their property taxes. This and poor money management has NISD in the red. So Rich will be very limited on his athletics budget and cut backs may affect the athletic department pretty heavily.

[Razor]

over 80% of school bonds in Texas failed this election cycle, so we are not alone...I will disagree with your assessment about "poor money management" in NISD...I think they do very well with what they have and Nederland's tax rate is comparable to others in the area and the academic results are way above average.

Like many communities, Nederland is a bit "fair weather"...frustrating, but again, not uncommon

[DoggStyle]

As I've said before, the defense is unpredictable and sorry. All season everyone is blabbing on about the offense, blah, blah, blah. Look back at their season scores. When an offense KNOWS they have to at least score 3 touchdowns every game just to even compete to try and win, you're gonna lose. I saw exactly (maybe) two adjustments on defense, scheme or personell, all season. If your "best" ain't getting it done in games, maybe try something else, maybe try mixing in others, who knows, maybe they're better in games than the starters. Point is, if you don't try and as just something, anything, nothing will change. 

The offense put points on the board every game, sloppy or not. But the defense was horrid as a whole. Corners got beat all season, holding when beat, linebackers not in the right spots on plays, leaving holes wide open, etc. Defensive line was pretty much what kept us in games. 

You could see the frustration by Rich with the defense the last few games. Maybe next year we'll learn. 

[NHSBulldogFan]

The defense at times looked lost to me and that’s on the coaching staff...end of last year i thought Coach Wright  should have been let go and I still feel that way despite the improvement from 2025. I think Coach Rich stays because im not sure any other coach could do more but we will never be more than a 6 or 7 win team with the current coaching staff on defense 

[Brubaker]

8 hours ago, cal81 said:

People thought that just because Nederland made a similar hire like PN-G, there would be instant success and a possible trip to the state championship.  There are way more factors involved than a good head coach hire.  Even though the makeup of the kids at both of these schools are similar in background, the football culture and history is different.  You have to get a lot of ingredients combined in the right way to achieve what PN-G has under Coach Joseph.  It is not easy.  Just prior to Coach Joseph arriving at PN-G, I thought schools in the 5A-6A class would only get to state if they were around the big cities like Houston or DFW (Southlake Carroll, Allen, Galena Park North Shore, etc.). I'm now convinced I was wrong, and there is proof.

Splitting the 5A d1 and d2 made a huge shift, to me that’s the biggest difference in non big city schools having a legit shot each year

[Footballfan2629]

The kids coming up as Juniors (2029) and Seniors next year have only been coached by Rich in HS. They are some talented kids. These upcoming Seniors (2028) have been undefeated when on JV. I see the next few years of Bulldog football going upward. Some might not like Rich, but he has brought the spirit back and these kids really enjoy having him unlike these community members that have no idea what he does for the kids. 

[NHSBulldogFan]

1 hour ago, Footballfan2629 said:

The kids coming up as Juniors (2029) and Seniors next year have only been coached by Rich in HS. They are some talented kids. These upcoming Seniors (2028) have been undefeated when on JV. I see the next few years of Bulldog football going upward. Some might not like Rich, but he has brought the spirit back and these kids really enjoy having him unlike these community members that have no idea what he does for the kids. 

This years JV team was 8-2...Freshman was probably one of the worst we've had in a long time ended up 2-7 on the year after several undefeated years

[spidersal]

Doesn’t matter what their record was on JV, if you don’t hire defensive coaches that can coach and put good defensive players on the field in the right positions, you will not be successful 

Again I question these posters that keep stating they have this very good talent. In all the games I have watched, I just haven’t seen much. If there is a lot of talent, the coaching has been horrible

The talent that I thought was good was at RB, much better receivers, and DL

The OL, LB’ers, and secondary, along with special teams may have had a couple of talented players IMO

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

12 hours ago, NHSBulldogFan said:

This years JV team was 8-2...Freshman was probably one of the worst we've had in a long time ended up 2-7 on the year after several undefeated years

I've always said if your JV record is better than your Varsity record something is wrong. 🤷🏾‍♂️