d0tc0m

Yep.

They did lose by far their best defender, though. Young man moved to McKinney High.

God bless them. Really sorry and sad to hear that.

Should be a tasty Week 1 matchup, either way. But I'll take Celina by a score in this one. Despite the miscues in the secondary during last night's scrimmage, the Bobcat defense looks like it's going to be really, really good this season. All that youth and inexperience from a year ago is now older, more mature and experienced with a deep playoff run. The Celina offense could be special. Now, if the Bobcats come out flat, defensively, they could get into trouble. Melissa has the dudes to go on offense, so Celina won't be able to afford any blown coverages, miscommunication up top, etc. Going to have to be solid in the secondary, no doubt. Right now, I say 35-28 in favor of the Bobcats.

Senior receiver Collin Urich is going to be special this season too. Just an absolute explosive, deceptively quick, skilled route-runner with good hands. He's also improved his downfield blocking. Just keep an eye out for this kid.

Celina vs Frisco Heritage Controlled: Celina 1's - 3 or 4 FH 1's - 0 Celina 2's - 2 FH 2's - O Live Quarter: Celina 21 FH 7 Bobcats have a lot of things they need to clean up on defense. Some blown coverages in the secondary gave up the score to Frisco Heritage. Celina is very fast and athletic there, but looked a touch rusty last night. Heritage does have a freakishly tall and athletic receiver. Celina's defensive front is going to be special. Poor Heritage QB was just having to catch the snap and throw the ball, not a lot of time to let plays develop. Get used to the name Trae Hollins. He's set up to have a crazy year on both sides of the ball. One of the top rugby players in the nation (a future US national team member), will put up huge numbers as a RB and will wreck the opposing backfields as a D end. Offensively, Bobcats are going to be able to do a lot. Playmakers all over the field. This team has the potential to be even more explosive than the 2015 state runner-up Bobcats group.

You might be onto something. They might be up at the right time, too. I think La Vega loses enough that maybe there will be enough questions about them that the door opens for Stephenville OR Midlothian Heritage.

Stephenville is in Region II, regal. But the Jackets could challenge to win district 5, though.

That week one matchup between Celina and the Cardinals ought to be a dandy.

Royse City at Celina Thursday night: Celina 1s - 1 RC - 0 Live Quarter: Celina 28 RC 0 Bobcats did whatever they wanted, offensively, and made it look easy. RC struggled against Celina’s defense. Bobcats look to be stout on both sides of the ball. Lots of things to improve, though, obviously, after just one scrimmage.

So, has anyone changed their mind or opinion on things based on something posted on this thread?

I thought Scoggins did a great job filling in for Byce last season. Scoggins looks like he beefed up big time over the offseason, but it doesn't appear to have effected his speed any. He'll be running behind what could honestly be the best offensive line in 4A yet again. So long as he stays healthy, I imagine he'll eclipse 1,100 yards or so, unless he splits a lot of time/carries with the other senior ... Shoemaker (?). Either way, Argyle's going to be deadly on offense again this year. They'll score truckloads on anybody and everybody.

It can still happen. Carthage hasn't been afraid of scheduling up. Argyle's talent level isn't going anywhere, and neither is the Dawgs, who could also easily compete in 5A Div. II. This would be a crowd-pleasing matchup, no doubt. Argyle should drop La Vega from the schedule and fill it with Carthage.

Impressive. Sounds like the Buckeyes are in good hands for the next four years, at least.

Is he a freshman this year, or 8th grade?

In general, no. But life-changing money, yes, absolutely.

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It is easy to call these players selfish, and it's not entirely wrong, but it's also not that simple. Most of us (and I'd say nearly ALL of us) have no idea what these kids' lives are like. We have no idea who they've got in their ears, and what they're being told. You also have no idea what they have going on their lives, the needs they have, the needs their families have, and the pressure these young men MIGHT be under to pull those families up out of that situation. Meanwhile, culturally, it's plain as day that we live in a world that is increasingly about the haves and the have nots, and if you're a have not, there's not much you can do about it. Ever. You can work hard, really hard, and eek out a "comfortable," life, but you aren't ever going to be a "Have." You can argue that all you want, but the state of American "capitalism" has the deck stacked so high against those without that you're not going to make it to the "haves" without a metaphorical (or literal) body count. You can list out contrary examples of this and I'll tell you those are all outliers, and they are, and they're the same ones the billionaires and mega-billionaires throw out too just to keep the little man greasing the cog of the complex machine that continues to support the 1%. Along with that, our culture places a massive emphasis on "making it." Some of you mentioned the fame and fortune aspect, which has always been around, but it's heightened nowadays by the pervasive, all-too-often toxic presence of social media and elsewhere. So you've got these kids who look like a golden ticket to a seat at the big-kids table, and you've also got a whole lotta sharks who see that and want a slice of the pie, and what do you think those people -- the ones who stand to benefit from these kids success -- are telling these kids? I guarantee you it's not, "just be a kid," or "just have fun," or "enjoy your senior year," or "live in the moment," or "think about the team," or "cross that bridge when you get there." Hell no. It's for sure along the lines of "You gotta do you," "You gotta look out for yourself," "It's an investment in YOUR future," "Now's the time," "This is your chance to succeed," "That's a lot of money," "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," "You've got a long career ahead of you, so protect it." And there is some truth to all those things, but when they're departing a deceitful, greedy, manipulating tongue, they lose that truth. The fact that any of you would judge these kids, criticize these kids, and WORSE that you would literally wish for their failure is atrocious. They're kids, man. They're FREAKING KIDS. And you all were kids once too. And this world is different than the one you grew up in, and the way you did things may not work for these kids these days. And if any of you ANY OF YOU had been presented with the chance to make millions of dollars when you were 17 or 18, you'd have jumped on that chance, and if you say otherwise, you're lying through your teeth. If you want to criticize someone, criticize the adults in these kids lives that are advising them to grow up sooner than they should, who are going to be the reason some of these kids end up in therapy when they realize they lost a pivotal point of their childhood and don't know how to process or cope with actual problems without resorting to childlike behavior. Criticize the system that's enabling this. Take a good look at yourself and at your closely-held belief systems and see if maybe that's contributing to this broken system. I know I've looked in the mirror and found a lot of selfishness and judgemental attitudes and beliefs in myself that I've had to deal with. The whole thing is sad. It's sad that these kids feel like they HAVE to choose this kind of thing. It's sad they're being forced into these choices. It's really, really sad they can't just be kids and just keep playing kids games with their friends and having a hell of a lot of fun, racking up memories and stories to tell years later. Because one day they're going to wake up and it's all going to be gone anyway, and then what? Apart from those who have had really traumatic childhood experiences and tough upbringings, nobody ever looked back and regretted being a kid. I wish we had a system that allowed guys like this to continue to be just that, a kid.

Unless I'm mistaken, the games can be "streamed" live, but they still cannot actually be broadcast "over the air," live on Friday nights. There will still be Thursday and Saturday games that can be shown live on local stations, I'm sure, but Friday games cannot be "broadcast" (in the traditional sense) live, though they can be shown on tape delay. DCTF no doubt has the resources to grow and improve Texan Live, and I'm sure they will do just that. I think now that it looks like streaming might be around for the long-haul, you'll see more schools pour resources into building/improving their "broadcast/media/journalism" programs and incorporate Friday Night game broadcasts into the curriculum. That may entail a partnership with Texan Live, or some other outlet, who knows. But if streaming is the way of the future, schools that have the resources would be silly and short-sighted not to utilize it as part of a curriculum, which just gets more and more kids involved. Stepp could get on here and talk more about DCTF/Texan Live and what that's going to look like this fall, though. I'd defer any questions about that to him, honestly.

UIL has given the greenlight. DCTF has acquired Texan Live, but I'm not sure what that will entail, as far as what schools will be coming on board with that platform. I would imagine DCTF would bring a heavy dose of DFW flavor to go with Texan Live's typical south Texas fare. Last year, and I'm going to assume this year as well, the home team had the option of broadcasting the game, and if they didn't want to/couldn't, they could defer to the visiting crew (Paris did this when Celina visited last year). It's probably going to be a similar thing, just a school-by-school deal, until everything eventually consolidates under Texan Live. This year, you'll have some on Texan Live, some on YouTube, some on Facebook, some on the NFHS Network. Could be a little scattered. Unifying it all would be nice, though, so you don't end up paying for streaming accounts with a number of different outlets.

Waskom v. Gunter beef is everything I didn't know I needed for this last stretch of summer before two-a-days start. You guys please keep going.

But I'll say, overall, I still think Gilmer poses the biggest "threat." With what the Buckeyes bring back, and with what they had move in, they'll have some horses to run with the Dawgs. The key there, as will be for most teams that line up against Carthage, is can the offensive line buy Tennison any time at all to make plays. If the answer is yes, Buckeyes can hang. If the answer is no, it will be similar to the state game. You can take out "Buckeyes" and "Tennison" replace them with any potential contender and their biggest playmaker, and the sentence will still be true.

If only Carthage's defense was merely above average, rather than (potentially) historic.

Will be just a bit more fun and special to see the stands packed like that again this year!

Good show, guys. I was a little surprised to hear you guys had Region I as the "second toughest" in Div. II. I don't disagree with it at all, I just didn't think it would rank quite as high. The only thing I'd say is Celina is probably the top dog in the region. The Bobcats were very (unexpectedly) young at so many spots last year, and it led to some growing pains during that tough non-district schedule, and they were a Graham completed hail mary away from winning Region I last year. Celina brings back a ton on both sides of the ball, including some top-tier offensive weapons. They also added a couple of weapons via move-ins (from out of state) that will play extremely well with the Bobcats' offense. Defensively, Celina will be very fast and athletic. That unit struggled early on in the season, but they were firing on all cylinders in the postseason, and looked like a completely different team. Some of that was personnel changes. Some of it was youth that eventually grew up. They're not going to be Carthage-level, obviously, but watch out for the Bobcats defense. Anyway, great show guys! Ready for the season to get going. This helps pass the time.