It would have been nice to play someone not as good as Argyle in the first round to kind of get rolling again, but you can't gripe about who you play to much. We certainly could of beat them if we played a little better. Wes Liles played an unbelievable game on defense - I haven't seen the stats but he must have had close to 20 tackles. He has the looks of an all state linebacker candidate to me.

It was a great season though, there were a a lot of things accomplished this year that haven't been done in a long time or ever. Congrats to the Bulldogs and coaches for a great and fun year!

Argyle is a very good football team. They tied for first in their district. If you look at the comparative scores, they look like the best team in their district. Bridgeport beat them and won the tiebreaker as the #1 team for their 3A division II representative and will play Sweetwater. Argyle beat Decatur who will play Wylie in Division I 3A. It appears when Arglye played Bridgeport they played their worst game of the season. The easily whipped most of the teams Bridgeport struggled with. Bridgeport also lost to Iowa Park who Wylie slaughtered.

Argyle has a very good quarterback who throws for huge numbers week in and week out. Argyle will probably be the best offensive team we have played this year. They can pass and run and average about 46 points a game. In their two losses this year they had trouble protecting their QB. Clyde absolutely has to rush the QB if were going to beat them. I hope Coby Smith is ready for the game of his life from his defensive end position. On offensive we have to hang on the ball and keep it away from their offense, something I think we can do. They lost 2 defensive starters in their last game to injuries. Other than the Breckinridge game we have played good defense all year long. If we play well on defense we can win this game.

Go Bulldogs!

THE PLAYOFFS:

We play the 8-3A district in the first round. Right now there is a 3 way tie for first place between Argyle, Bridgeport, and Decatur. Decatur is the largest school in the district so throw them out of our equation, they will be playing Wylie (if all my facts are correct). We will play either Argyle or Bridgeport. In any event were not going to get an easy team. They have 3 teams capable of winning district and we will get one of them. Sweetwater and Breckenridge will dual it out in Breckenridge for the 3rd spot in our district this Friday. I think Sweetwater's defense will probably make the difference in the game.

I'll post more as soon as I know more. I know Clyde is going to charter a bus for the playoff games at like $20 dollars a person. It disturbs me though on why we have always go to the metroplex to play? Why can't we play at shotwell? Why do we always have to play in their area?

One note on the complaint of our announcer. If you read in the paper a Sweetwater person complained about our announcer "crossing the line" with his style of announcing at our home games. Maybe the announcer shouldn't say things like "he was hammered", but there is nothing wrong with the phrase "That's a Clyde First Down". That's called enthusiasm. Our crowd does it on the road and at home. Let Clyde enjoy a little success, we haven't had a lot in recent years playing bigger schools like Sweetwater, Wylie, and Snyder. Gives us a mulligan. my gosh.

It was a back and forth game all night long. The main difference was the Breckenridge was scoring on long touchdowns while Clyde was having to work their way down the field. Breckenridge QB Blaine Vick is an incredible football player, he really leaves it all on the field. The Bulldogs do the same. They simply will not give up, no matter the circumstance. Curtis Kevil gets better and better as the game goes on. I would hate to try to stop him when he gets ahead of steam going. I hope I get to watch him about 6 more times in a Clyde uniform.

It's not just Curtis though, Wes Liles makes plays all over the field on both sides of the ball and rarely gets a breather. Colby Smith goes 110 percent every play. Jeremy Gordon makes a huge play in every game.Our underrated QB Jacob Gonzales does so many little things well that don't get noticed. The list goes on and on so I shouldn't have started naming players.

It looks like a second place finish for our Bulldogs. Even if we lost to Comanche which isn't very likely I think we would win tie breakers over Sweetwater and Breckinridge. We will finish 1st in the Division II standings, meaning Wylie will go to Division 1 playoffs and the rest of the district is playing for Division II seeding. Being the #1 seed is important because you will probably get to play a 3rd place team instead of a second place team in the first round of the playoffs. Since we don't have much of a playoff history its easy to remember a few of our first round playoff game disasters like our game against South Lake Carroll who was ranked #1 in the state in 3A at the time. That was not a pretty game! Seeding is important!

I hope were ready to play Friday night, Comanche just about knocked us out of the playoffs last year. I know they are struggling but they have gotten better as the year has gone on.

Sweetwater vs Breckenridge in the last week of the season when we have our bye, should be a fun one for what I think will be the last playoff spot.

It took Wylie about 2 1/2 qtrs to recover from the Clyde Bulldog attack. Unfortunately they did about the time Clyde was getting a little winded. Its really a matter of physics, how can a team that has so many players going both ways on offense and defense hold up in the 4th quarter against a team that gets to rest most of its starters 1/2 the game because they only play on one side of the ball? I hate excuses, but it was pretty obvious in the 4th qtr we were worn out and they were still fresh. Wylie all so played a flawless 4th quarter, their qb got his act together and led them back drive after drive and eventually to victory. As I walked out of the stadium and merged in with the Wylie crowd I heard one of them say "we had no business winning that game". It seemed that way to me to, but Wylie is a quality team with a quality coach, its not a shame to lose to them.

On the bright side the very same thing can be said about our Coach Slaughter and Bulldogs. This Clyde team keeps getting better and better. I hope this team keeps their head up, they probably don't realize exactly how much they are accomplishing. No matter how disappointing a loss it was, there is still time to make this a magical season. Go Bulldogs!

The Bad Call

Yes, this video is flying around from this link:http://www.ktxs.com/sports/
Scroll down to the Wylie vs Clyde highlights and watch the Wylie touchdown, the first one that's shown. Pause the video as the Wylie player crosses the endzone, the ball is long gone by then. It was a horrible call. It appears the Wylie player fumbled around the 3 yard line, it wasn't even close. You will also notice the wylie player burying his head in the endzone off what he thinks is a fumble too. A horrible horrible call. It's a shame for a team that played their heart out.

Clyde starts district play this Friday night against the Wylie Bulldogs (perhaps you have heard of them). I believe they will be the best team we have played this year. The game is at Wylie, where at least most of the people will get to sit down (when not jumping up and down). If anyone has been to Clyde game lately it appears we only have seating for about 70% of our attendance at most, but that's another subject. Getting back to the game, our one common opponent has been Graham which we both lost to. I think both teams would like to get a chance to replay that one. Wylie may get that chance in the Division I playoffs. Clyde will have to play their best game of the year to beat this Wylie team, but this isn't like the past where we have to hope for a miracle. This Clyde team can play toe to toe with Wylie, we just need to get off to a good start.

The rest of the district.

Sweetwater - as expected have come to life. They are improving dramatically each week with their starting qb back in action. They are our next opponent after Wylie, so there will be no rest. I feel much better about playing them at home, then on the road. That will be a big plus.

Breckenridge - another team coming to life. They had a hard time in the second half with Vernon last week, but Vernon is a very good offensive team. Breck will have the Clyde Bulldogs marked on their calendar this year after last years result that knocked them out of the playoffs.

Comanche - definitely not playing at the level of the other teams in this district.

It was another incredible effort from Curtis Kevil as noted in the Abilene Reporter News. The Reporter News has been giving Clyde a lot of publicity this year and its much appreciated. Curtis brings a lot of coverage to Clyde by being such a standout player. Curtis had an absolutely awesome game, not sure he has ever had a better one considering the competition he was up against. The offensive line really returned in a big way paving the way for his big night.

Vernon would be the first to tell you that it wasn't their best night, they fumbled and fumbled. I think the first 2 times they touched the ball in the 3rd quarter. Clyde did a great job of taking advantage of what Vernon gave them. Vernon has a running game that was really hard to stop and will carry them a long ways, but not giving up the big play has been a key to our season this year on defense. That has allowed time for mistakes from our opponents who have had to earn their yards this year. Our secondary has just been outstanding all year long, even when their out manned by bigger players you see them stick their heads in there and make the tackle, that's something that has really been missing from our defense for the last several years.

The one thing I have noticed over and over is the sportsmanship of this team. They are constantly helping their opponents to their feet. This is definitely a special group we have at Clyde this year.

The Bulldogs are just playing some real good football as of late. Clyde has some really key players, but we have a lot of players that are playing good sound football without many mistakes. I've seen a lot of talented Clyde teams in the past victimized by careless penalties, turnovers, and offense/defense schemes that kept us from beating the teams we should and having no chance against the better teams. In a nutshell our coaching staff is preparing our players better than we have had in a long time. It started last year and just keeps improving. The Breckenridge game last year was a good example of it. They were probably a little better than we were, but because we played sound football we snuck out with the win and made the playoffs.

Clyde vs. Vernon - this should be a good one. I believe Vernon was ranked #10 before their victory over Decatur last Friday. If your a high school football junky like me and do score comparisons on the teams we play, it would appear Clyde can go toe to toe with anyone on their schedule including Vernon. Next step is to beat them!

Speaking of Curtis, I wish announcer Dick Enberg would have been there because Curtis had one of the most awesome runs I have ever seen. It would be worth 2 or 3 "OH MYs". We just weren't able to open holes for him like we had in the first 2 games. He had only 20 yards at rushing at halftime. Then late in 3rd quarter he took a handoff and met all the Early defense as he had the whole game, but apparently he said enough is enough. He was hit numerous times as he worked his way sideways down the line of scrimmage. He twisted and turned his way out of about 5 tackles, it appeared his knees were only inches from the ground a couple of times. He shook one more defender away and took off for what i'm guessing was a about a 65 yard scamper before the safety caught up. His effort is just so fun to watch. He's even playing some noseguard on defense which drives me crazy, but he seems to be holding up well.

Once again though we had so many players contributing to the win. Early's passing game will be a nightmare for those 2A teams to stop in a few more weeks. They have several lanky and speedy receivers that can really get down field in a hurry. Their QB really gets good zip and accuracy on the ball, they will be real trouble for the 2A world if they keep improving.

Looking forward to the Bangs game, I will definitely stop by Underwoods Bar-Q on the way down. I hope coach Slaughter realizes how important it is to play near Brownwood once a year. We need to keep Early and Bangs on the schedule for eating purposes! Not quite sure were ready add the Brownwood Lions to the schedule yet!

Its really good to see us playing a tougher schedule. We use to play almost all 2A schools in non-district and that killed us when we got into district against better opponets. This year it really looks like we will be in the thick of things. Here's how it looks so far.

Wylie - Typical Wylie team that can replace 80 percent of its starters from the previous year and be one of the best teams in the state by week 2. They are the obvious favorite right now.

Sweetwater - Got demolished by Brownwood. But I know there missing there QB, I think their top two qbs. I believe he will be back though in a week or two. I have no doubt they will be tough by district.

Breckenridge - Also off to a slow start. I'm not sure whats wrong with them. What I do know is that we have to go beat them on their home turf, that will never be easy.

Commanche - Not looking to strong again, but they just about ruined our season last year. I hope we remember.

Clyde - After 2 weeks Clyde looks like a real contender, but we have to keep improving. Its one thing to play toe to toe with the better teams in 3A, its another thing to beat them.

It was awesome to see the effort and intensity level the Bulldogs played with Friday night. The coaching staff we have in place is doing a very good job getting them ready to play. It makes for a fun friday night.

The defense played well also, the secondary seems so much more deep than it did a year ago. The secondary and receivers rotate in out like mad men, but everyone did a good job.

Of course Graham ranked 9th in the state will be a much tougher test than Ballinger. Their defense shut out Midland Greenwood, that doesn't happen very often. I think our offense will be the key, if we can move the ball we can stay in the game. We obviously don't want to play defense against that offense all night. GOOD LUCK BULLDOGS!