New 12-5A: Small but powerful

[scoopandscore]

With only six teams 2/3 will reach the playoffs. But any of the six have a shot, should be a bloodbath every week. How do you guys see this one shaping up?

12-5A

John Tyler
Tyler Lee
Longview
Mesquite
North Mesquite
Mesquite Horn

[The Lone Ranger]

I don't know...all of the teams were strong last year.

John Horn has been vastly improving, but they lose Mon Williams, the heart and soul of their offense.

Longview has had some troubles in the off-season, with the whole situation with Coach King. They also lose almost their entire starting team. I don't know how they'll react.

I don't know too much about the rest of the district, but I do know that, even without a Rockwall team who would have been competitive, this is easily still one of the top districts in the state.

I have no idea who will get first and who will get 6th. You could easily see a typical power such as Tyler Lee miss the playoffs. They could also get first.

I can see this district going down to the last week, last play of the game.

[NMHS fan]

I think this district will be the most wide open it has been since the teams got together after the last realignment. I think Mesquite High will be pretty strong this year, much to my dismay. :) I have heard good things about their class coming up. Longview graduated a very good class but I expect them to reload again. I hope North Mesquite has a better season than the last one. All seven of our loses came in close games that could have gone our way just as easy. Maybe this will be the year that they do. Our outlook could get a major boost if 3A Canton QB GJ Kinne transfers to NM for his senior season. It should be very exciting.

[LoboFan07]

Well this one finally opens up.

The only thing you have to do to make it to the playoffs is win 2 district games..But there are only 5 district games making each game count even more.

Ill start out with the team I know the most, Longview.
I agree, we'll be young but with the way we blew people out (not harm intended) our JV guys and 2nd stringers got a lot of work in the past 2 seasons. Our 2 sophomore running backs played really well surprisingly even during 1st string action (as King switched Ivory and Johnson some). The thing with King is a thing in the past. A lot of the players were mad that he was leaving but when they found out he was staying they went nuts and are so happy he is staying. I think we could start off slow (loss to WM and Lufkin I think) before running the tables again in district and be a strong team during the end of the season.

On John Tyler and Tyler Lee. I expect Lee to obviously try and make up for what they didn't accomplish last season. Lee has grown used to making the playoffs and they're going to do everything they can to get back. On the other hand, John Tyler is finally getting back to that stage. I only know from experience with Longview, but no teams..on any levels at LHS lost to either Tyler team this year (I saw all 5 games between them and the JV level and we pretty much controlled it both ways). I don't know how that will happen on the Varsity level this upcoming season so we'll see. But I expect JT to be the ones trying to stay on top, now with the pressure of not being a 1 season wonder and Lee to make up for lost ground last season and try to reach the level they've grown used to.

On the Mesquite schools, Mesquite, Horn, North. I'm not quite sure to know much about them. I know the Horn JV team was the team that impressed me the most of the three. We beat North pretty easily on JV and Mesquite used a touchdown with 19 seconds to go to beat us but Horn pretty much ripped us a new one from what I remember? I can't really say much about them so I'm counting on the Mesquite/Horn/North fans to tell me what they can about those 3 schools.

But my predictions..
1. Longview
2. John Tyler
3. Mesquite
4. Mesquite Horn
5. Tyler Lee
6. North Mesquite

[c-lisle]

I agree Lobo BUT only if we improve every week. The defense should be good once again but how will the offense be? Particularly the Oline. I'm not worried about it b/c the coaches always find players to get the job done. That will be the deciding factor to our season.

[LoboFan07]

We've had new O Lines both the past two years, Im not worried about it that much.

I think IF we can improve each week, we'll be fine.

By NO means though do I think we'll go 10-0 again.

[SFAlobo]

It should be very interesting...I am not exactly ready to give Lv the district yet but, Horn and North Mes. are ones to keep an eye on. It woud be nice to see if Longview can win a game passing the ball for a change.