BIG COUNTRY "HEISMAN" CANDIDATES
By mark rogers
August 24, 2008
We are T-minus four days away from the start of high school and college football season!!! I'm beside myself with excitement and wish there was some way to fast-forward until Thursday. NC State and S Carolina play, Baylor plays Wake Forest and Oregon State and Stanford will kick off the Pac-10 season.
Games of note in the high school ranks are Sweetwater at Burkburnett, Duncanville at Permian (wouldn't mind if that game ended with both teams losing) and Olney at Coleman.
If you read my last post, you know what a big fan I am of the Heisman Trophy. It's hard enough to determine that award because comparing conferences and levels of competition is impossible.
Same goes for high school only in high school we have six different classifications which further adds to the confusion.
That being said, some athletes still stand out and should be on your "players to watch" list. Other players were not on the radar last year but are poised to have big years in 2008. Those players are a little more difficult to identify unless you are a coach, parent or someone directly associated with a program.
Players on the radar include Abilene High LB Chris Williams and QB Stephen Warren, Cooper DB Will Ford and DL Brandon Henderson, Brownwood QB Casey Pachall and DB Kenny Vacarro...and the list goes on.
Abilene High, Cooper and Brownwood are all poised for huge years, which will benefit their "star" players.
The Eagles play seven games at Shotwell Stadium and are in a much weaker district than the one they've dominated the last few years.
Cooper is down a classification and would almost certainly be a playoff team if they were still in 5A.
Brownwood is in the same situation - a 4A playoff team down a class (much to the chagrin of Wylie, Snyder, Sweetwater, Breckenridge and Graham). District 2-3A will be a knock-down drag out to the end. I can almost guarantee that one will come down to the last quarter of the last game. It reminds me of the 4-3A battles a few years ago between Wylie, Sweetwater and Snyder.
Now I obviously can't mention every good player on every team, but other standouts to look out for this year are Breckenridge RB Troy Roberson, Cisco QB Josh Bridges and RB Robert Medina, Clyde QB Jacob Gonzales (Clyde's another 3A playoff team dropping in classification meaning they are poised for a great year) and it wouldn't be a Big Country "Heisman" post without the mention of the Villanueva brothers from Roscoe.
It has to be frustrating as a Roscoe opponent to have these guys back for a fourth and final year. The last time these guys weren't in the lineup was 2004 - Lance Armstrong still had two Tour de Frances to win and we were about to kick-off the last presidential campaign.
The Villanueva twins are unbelievable talents, fun to watch, composed, competitive and eager to finally lead this team to a win at the end of the season.
Those are the names that come to mind at first thought, but the Big Country has a TON more athletes out there who deserve pre-season recognition. Check out the Reporter-News insert in today's paper "Football 2008" for the comprehensive list. I can't live without that piece of information...schedules, rankings, more info than you can digest in a single reading.
This is one of the most interesting football seasons we've headed into in a long time with the crazy realignment. Should be a great year...
I'd love to hear of some more players to watch out for that aren't on the radar yet...if you know of one that isn't listed here or hasn't received much coverage that should, let me know.
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