rm1999

I kept telling my dad when I heard he may be our coach that I thought it'd be great to have him at CHS, and judging by what he's done so far your thoughts on him and my belief in the hiring are for good reason. I like how he's got us doing 7 on 7, which is something we've never done before. We had 150 kids try out for football for the upcoming season. I think some of those numbers were for the frosh and JV squads, but still a record for Carthage. Having Surratt will be key to continued success at CHS.

Coach Surratt set up scrimmages against TH and WHS and then their first real game is at Kilgore August 29th. CHS scheduled these tough teams so they would be ready to defend their district title thinking mainly about Jasper and Diboll after playing against real teams. Surratt has also had CHS play in the 7 on 7 scrimmages his two years here. Both times CHS qualified for state and played in the tournament in College Station, so that's pretty good. "Carthage" doesn't think they can hang with these teams in real games.....no actually, they probably do and they're ignorant for it (sarcasm). Don't forget Carthage was 4A for a long time and had really good teams in the 90's before the student population started dropping. You know, another thing about your post that hits me wrong is that you say THS probably didn't play their starters the whole time and WHS won't either. My question is, do you think Carthage played their starters all game? I guess you probably do so they could win the scrimmage and go crow about it afterwards. Now, let's end this on a good point for the both of us. I also believe Carthage will fare very well this season, but I don't think the team will be crowing about the scrimmage, and if they do then they need to get their priorities straight to do well during the real season. I bet the coaching staff won't let them get too high or too low like after getting whipped by Liberty Hill in the playoffs last year.

We know Texas High isn't scared of Carthage or anyone else for that matter it just sounds like Carthage can take some positives away from playing such a tradition rich program tough in a scrimmage. I mean heck, our head coach came from your program and we're absolutely THRILLED to have him, believe me!

You're all over it Eagleborn. I think for Briles to lure Griffin to the Bears was amazing.

I don't, where do all the swimmers go? The first week and a half was devoted to swimming and UT is the place so, yes, if you want to win medals go to UT.

You don't and you know it. I'm sure you saw them play last year. You're hiding behind recent success at Tatum, all well deserved and earned for sure, but still you're hiding behind it telling me to get real. I think you're the one that needs to get real. I do know that you are a Bulldog fan now, and don't think you're being a homer. I just think you can't see past Tatum's recent successes to realize the Eagles really don't want any part of the Carthage Bulldogs, and Ted Leach would love to do an article on it.

Did you know there are 31 Longhorns competing or coaching in the Beijing Olympics as I type. That is absolutely astounding! This is really good for UT with all the national appeal it will once again sends UT's way. In fact, they just did a "Gold Medal Spotlight" featuring former national champion and Thorpe Award winner Aaron Ross and his now fiance Sanya Richards who's already won gold in the Athens Olympics for our great country. They talked about how both of them went to UT and there were a couple of shots of Ross in his UT uniform on the field and then showed him in his Giants uniform and talked about him already having won a Super Bowl. During all the Phelps phenomenon you couldn't help but have Texas shoved down your throat (I loved every second of it), because we own swimming, both men's and women's. Basically, if you want to be an Olympic medalist it doesn't hurt to attend Texas. There goes Troy Dumais diving for the USA from.......where else.

Ya, but I want none to go to OU or OSU.

Guaranteed, Tatum doesn't want any part of Carthage now that we've got a coach that knows how to use the talent he's got. Sounds to me like you might want to ask Texas High about that. I know this was just a scrimmage, but it was Texas High not Alvarado High. I wouldn't be surprised if Carthage once again goes undefeated through district, and this year makes a very deep run in the playoffs if not........shhhhh don't say it......

This could be a very accurate statement at season's end, but I do believe Briles will turn that program around and they'll start to win some tough games they would have easily folded in and lost in the past. Briles did a good job at Houston and I can remember them playing against Miami one year a few years back where they gave Miami all they wanted for 3 1/2 quarters. Baylor will be the same way before we know it.

Yep, all the top programs continue to be broadcast even if they are playing Hemphill High School. I don't know the number of games, but I'm sure my Longhorns' streak for televised games is about the same. I promise you school administrators don't complain about their school being on television, because a lot of recruiting is about exposure. Teams want to be on television as much as possible. If UT or OU didn't get on TV as much as they do now I would venture to say the quality of their teams would begin to suffer and they wouldn't perform as well on Saturdays, because they wouldn't be getting as many recruits......tv is a very powerful thing. You want to be on television so you stay in the minds of all those top flight recruits out there.

Have any idea why Gilmer athletes go to Oklahoma? I know OU is a good program and all, but I never have understood why Texas boys want to go to Oklahoma. Go to UT or A&M or Tech or TCU or SMU or even BU with Art Briles. I know that's kind of off track for the high school section, but it's also not, because we're talking about high school boys choosing to go north of the Red River. I also realize Gilmer has sent quite a few guys to UT, but I just want Texas recruits going to school somewhere in Texas. If it weren't for Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State wouldn't be worth a darn!

Gilmer has consistently embarrassed Tatum so I don't understand the rivalry. I know Tatum has a good team pretty much each year, but Gilmer owns them. That's just an objective observation coming from outside the "rivalry." I do wish Gilmer would keep sending players to UT and cut down on the amount of Gilmer boys who choose OU........

Can somebody post some recent pictures of Carthage's new stadium's progress only three weeks before opening in CHS' second game of the season? Carthage opens on the road at Kilgore on August 29th.

Well, with Pelini as head coach their defense should be improved as a whole and maybe they'll go back to more of a traditional balanced offensive attack, and run the football more. Joe Ganz is a better quarterback than the old ASU transfer and Marlon Lucky should be tough at running back. I really expect them to be a better team than the one they ran out there last year. I've not taken a look at their schedule, but they don't have to play UT this year so that's one less loss for them this season. Don't any Husker fans get riled up about that comment, because it's just pure fact that UT has owned Nebraska since the inception of the Big 12, sorry....