5A Division I State Semi-Finals: Longview vs Aledo

[Mr. P]

Just now, AledoAlumni said:

They honestly should have a guest spot for him each game. Drop some knowledge for the fans. 

They should just give him the keys to their Twitter, and merge/sponsor his website.

Dude's pretty much the lowest-paid employee of Longview ISD. 

[AledoAlumni]

24 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

They should just give him the keys to their Twitter, and merge/sponsor his website.

Dude's pretty much the lowest-paid employee of Longview ISD. 

Lmao. Facts. For years I've enjoyed his game previews. Thats why I was hoping Aledo/LV would be a non-district game haha. Just to read it. 

[JohnnyFootball]

1 hour ago, AledoAlumni said:

They honestly should have a guest spot for him each game. Drop some knowledge for the fans. 

We are EXTREMELY spoiled that we have LoboFan07. The sports information directors at A&M have NOTHING on him. 

[Mavchamp]

1 hour ago, Mr. P said:

Dude's pretty much the lowest-paid employee of Longview ISD. 

I feel that. 

[Mr. P]

Just now, Mavchamp said:

I feel that. 

You're no slouch yourself.   

[dfwfootballfan]

2 hours ago, Mojo1000 said:

I think 2000 was the last non playoff team , but that 12 5a district was truly a District of Doom.

Not only that but they have done it (made the playoffs) moving up and down in classification over the last several years right? I mean 5A D2, 5A D1, they were 6A last alignment right?  I have a ton of respect for programs that have that winning tradition in multiple classifications.  Liberty Hill, Aledo, and Southlake come to mind. There are some other shools headed in that direction...LJ, Argyle.  Texas HS Football is simply fascinating to me.  

[JohnnyFootball]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:26 PM, MavGrad99 said:

The crazy part is that Longview really started their current streak of dominance in ETX and most of 5A in 1996, unless @Lobo97 has something different.  They lost district to Marshall in 96, and miss the playoffs in 98, but I am pretty sure they were #1 in the state in 1998 at one point.  I believe after that is when they started their incredible run of district championships with only Texas High coming close to them at the 5A level, and a few runs by Marshall.  I remember covering a Longview basketball tournament for them when they lost in the state semis to Pflugerville.  I am not sure if they have had a losing or "down" season since that game which would have been 14 years ago or so?

Yeah, 99 and 00 were kinda a "dark" period for Longview. 

But in 00, in Midland, Pat Collins benched his Senior QB for Sophomore Joel Armstrong, which really set the tone and let everyone know that things weren't going to be like they used to be. It took a few rebuilding years, but Longview made the playoffs in 01 and hasn't missed them since then.

We've been extremely lucky that Coach King has hung around and kept our team and program strong. In the 19 years since King has taken over as Head Coach, Longview has made it to state 4x (won once), the semifinals 6x, the quarterfinals 8x.  Also, 15 district championships. Insane. I think he's also only lost 4 games at home too. We'd all love more state titles, sure. We're also lucky to have been this consistently good while other area large classification teams have struggled.  

Edited December 15, 2022 by JohnnyFootball

[JohnnyFootball]

17 minutes ago, dfwfootballfan said:

Not only that but they have done it (made the playoffs) moving up and down in classification over the last several years right? I mean 5A D2, 5A D1, they were 6A last alignment right?  I have a ton of respect for programs that have that winning tradition in multiple classifications.  Liberty Hill, Aledo, and Southlake come to mind. There are some other shools headed in that direction...LJ, Argyle.  Texas HS Football is simply fascinating to me.  

Longview has never been 5A D2 that I know of. The 2018 State Championship came at the 6A-D2 level. 

[LoboFan07]

6 hours ago, JohnnyFootball said:

Longview has never been 5A D2 that I know of. The 2018 State Championship came at the 6A-D2 level. 

We were 5A D2 before 6A came around.

2010 5A D2 vs Guyer...another wasted opportunity.

Longview's last run in 5A D2 was that 3 straight years of Regional Semi-Final defeats (11-12-13). I'd throw 2011 in there again as a wasted opportunity as well vs DeKaney.

Edited December 14, 2022 by LoboFan07

[LoboFan07]

Post game show with head coach John King following Longview's 17-14 loss to Aledo to wrap up the year:

https://lobohistory.com/audio/2022/aledopostgame.mp3

[dfwfootballfan]

1 hour ago, LoboFan07 said:

We were 5A D2 before 6A came around.

2010 5A D2 vs Guyer...another wasted opportunity.

Longview's last run in 5A D2 was that 3 straight years of Regional Semi-Final defeats (11-12-13). I'd throw 2011 in there again as a wasted opportunity as well 

Edited December 14, 2022 by dfwfootballfan

[Mr. P]

If we could get back to talking football...

Read the whole thread. It's a great breakdown using analytics. I wish we were using these guys to self-scout. 

[JohnnyFootball]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:38 AM, Mr. P said:

If we could get back to talking football...

Read the whole thread. It's a great breakdown using analytics. I wish we were using these guys to self-scout. 

I'd like to know how they calculate Win Probability, but this is pretty cool and shows just how close this game was. The Aledo coach himself said Longview was one of the toughest teams he ever played. 

That Tatum fumble was backbreaking. We were moving the ball on that drive, "bAd PlAyCaLl" be damned. 

I do love how this place uses Five Factors and such. That's some next-gen stuff making its way to the HS game. This was a game of two quarters- the 2nd for Longview and 3rd for Aledo. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by JohnnyFootball

[WolverBean]

50 minutes ago, JohnnyFootball said:

I'd like to know how they calculate Win Probability, but this is pretty cool and shows just how close this game was. The Aledo coach himself said Longview was one of the toughest teams he ever played. 

That Tatum fumble was backbreaking. We were moving the ball on that drive, "bAd PlAyCaLl" be damned. 

I do love how this place uses Five Factors and such. That's some next-gen stuff making its way to the HS game. This was a game of two quarters- the 2nd for Longview and 3rd for Aledo. 

Even with that fumble they could of scored again to put game away but  defense kept us in it and also aledo bad punt we had two hr delay and three downs couldn't get one yard 🫣

[JohnnyFootball]

1 hour ago, WolverBean said:

Even with that fumble they could of scored again to put game away but  defense kept us in it and also aledo bad punt we had two hr delay and three downs couldn't get one yard 🫣

We needed 16 yards, though. We probably could've easily gained a yard. But we needed 16. 

[WolverBean]

5 hours ago, JohnnyFootball said:

We needed 16 yards, though. We probably could've easily gained a yard. But we needed 16. 

My point was we didnt try for anything other then a bomb hoping for td on one play could of done short passes two firsts down atleast had chance for FG to tie 

[JohnnyFootball]

3 hours ago, WolverBean said:

My point was we didnt try for anything other then a bomb hoping for td on one play could of done short passes two firsts down atleast had chance for FG to tie 

I don’t hate running a “bomb” play. Our two TDs came on long passes to Hale…

[WolverBean]

5 hours ago, JohnnyFootball said:

I don’t hate running a “bomb” play. Our two TDs came on long passes to Hale…

True but quick slate up middle been good to they were blitzing bombs didn't have time that late in game heck who knows hale may have broke the slant off for td or longer gain.dang shame we didn't get to play for ring atleast once with #8 well bama gonna know how to use him and get him the ball gonna be fun watching.

[HearEmaGrowlin]

Longview had way plenty of time to do something other than throw deep into double or triple coverage on Hale.

Longview just doesn’t have the style offense or QB to really run a two minute drill, which is probably why they just chunked it deep.

[ANTI]

QB1 had almost nothing to do with Longview losing....

[HearEmaGrowlin]

5 minutes ago, ANTI said:

QB1 had almost nothing to do with Longview losing....

If Longview had a QB who can actually sling it around with success, theLobos become SCARY good real fast, especially with Hale, but those opportunities are in the past.

QB1 didn’t make a bunch of mistakes, but being stuck with ground and pound and not really being able to switch to a pass heavy offense as needed (like it was needed at the end of the game), hurts your chances. 

[LoboFan07]

1 hour ago, HearEmaGrowlin said:

If Longview had a QB who can actually sling it around with success, theLobos become SCARY good real fast, especially with Hale, but those opportunities are in the past.

QB1 didn’t make a bunch of mistakes, but being stuck with ground and pound and not really being able to switch to a pass heavy offense as needed (like it was needed at the end of the game), hurts your chances. 

Not with our play calling. Wishful thinking imo.

King and his staff had three years with Allen. You should know his strength and weaknesses. Instead of trying to play into them, they just tried bombs. Stupid play calling ultimately ended Longview’s season. 

Lobos continue to be an amazing program that can’t finish when it’s needed. Is what it is.

[HearEmaGrowlin]

30 minutes ago, LoboFan07 said:

Not with our play calling. Wishful thinking imo.

King and his staff had three years with Allen. You should know his strength and weaknesses. Instead of trying to play into them, they just tried bombs. Stupid play calling ultimately ended Longview’s season. 

Lobos continue to be an amazing program that can’t finish when it’s needed. Is what it is.

Agree, that’s what I was alluding to when I said only being able to ground and pound and not being able to pass effectively when needed. 

[JohnnyFootball]

38 minutes ago, LoboFan07 said:

Not with our play calling. Wishful thinking imo.

King and his staff had three years with Allen. You should know his strength and weaknesses. Instead of trying to play into them, they just tried bombs. Stupid play calling ultimately ended Longview’s season. 

Lobos continue to be an amazing program that can’t finish when it’s needed. Is what it is.

I mean, both our TDs came on "bombs".  When you have one of the best receivers in the nation, throwing deep to him and letting him go get it isn't the WORST idea. You can get a PI call or anything else. I can definitely see what Vallery was trying to do with that call.

It isn't like running a different play would've done much else. Apparently we had a guy open on the 4th down but it was batted at the line (on a 4 man rush, mind you). I blame execution and play call all game more than I blame play call in the last 50 seconds. The inability to run all game against Aledo was our downfall. Tatum couldn't get around the edge as he did all year. Maybe it's cause he was hurt, maybe not. 

We wouldn't have needed a big drive with less than a minute left in the rain and against the wind if we didn't fumble on the drive before, for instance. Pinning it all on "play call on 2nd and 16 with 50 seconds left" is whatever. Shouldn't have been in that situation to begin with. 

[ToddG]

Longview was lucky this game was in the rain, and Aledo kept it simple offensively, and relied on their defense to shut down the lobos in the 2nd half, which they did..had this game been at at&t for the championship..the lobos would have suffered the same fate as CS. As you all seen this week, teams like Aledo, and Carthage are cold blooded and relentless when the stakes are high..hence the multiple championships