June 11, 2024
A couple of things I want to bring up concerning the Brownwood Lions not qualifying for the 7 on 7 football state tournament. It has been in operation since 2000 and, until now, we had qualified every year. In other words, we have competed at the State Tournament, I think every year. Except for one year in Austin they’ve been in College Station. I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not a big 7 on 7 fan. I like watching the scrimmages or whatever you call them, but I’m not a huge fan, let’s put it like that, but not qualifying does concern me.
We won State Championships in ’60, ’65, ’67, ’69, ’70, ’78 and ’81. Guess what, in none of those years, in none of them, did we win a 7 on 7 State Title because they didn’t have any at that time. We did win one, though. In 2010, with Shipley, Graylon Brown and those people. That’s the only one we’ve ever won and of course, we didn’t win State that year. So, I’m not sure there’s any link whatsoever. I do agree with one thing that was said. It’s hard to go in and win a competitive 7 on 7 State Championship if you’re not settled at quarterback and it can bite you in the regular season as well ‘big time’.
Let me go back one year. We opened the season playing a good Abilene Wylie team in Abilene that played us with three quarterbacks. All of them probably were pretty good quarterbacks but they alternated those guys against us and never could get untracked. We had one QB and won and got off to a great start and had a good season last year. Wylie, after a struggling start, settled on one quarterback. By the way, he’s back this year. They got real, real good after a very “iffy” start. The reason? Hadn’t settled on a quarterback.
I think Brownwood needs to take some lessons because when we open the season this year at Gordon Wood Stadium, which we will do, Wylie’s going to have one quarterback and Brownwood may be struggling to find the right one. In other words, just the opposite of what it was last year. So, does that concern me?
Yes, it concerns me, because if it turns out to be a problem for us, we play a very good Wall team the second game in Wall and we could be struggling if we’re not careful.
I never have given Sammy Burnett or any coach at Brownwood advice – well, maybe jokingly. But, I am concerned and these coaches are going to have to get a plan ready and they’re going to have to decide on a quarterback. A coach, a few years back, told me when he had one quarterback, he was a genius. When he had two quarterbacks, they had questions about both. When he had three quarterbacks, he said he was terrible more often than not. Brownwood is always serious about football and this year, it is no different. Our coaches have some tough decisions to make. Pray for them.
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].
