Super Centex high school football podcast

• No. 10 Lorena vs. No. 1 Franklin, No. 2 China Spring vs. No. 1 Stephenville, West vs. No. 3 Grandview: No matter what happens on Friday, these Centex teams are all making deep playoff runs, right? • Back to West for a second: The Trojans' 89-0 win last week not only featured a 55-yard first quarter — that's 12 minutes — and 7 non-offensive touchdowns in the game. Have you ever heard of anything...

• One of the best feel-good stories of the seasons is the resurgence of the University Trojans. Head coach Kent Laster has the Trojans at 2-0 in district play. DJ and Chad have both seen them play this year — what's working for the U-Dawgs, and is it sustainable in the long term? • The game of the week is China Spring at La Vega, arguably the best rivalry in Central Texas over the last couple of d...

• The game of the week is obviously Marlin-Crawford, the de facto district championship game. But more than that, it's a rematch of last year's regional final, won by Marlin 26-6. Let's break it down: How do you see this one playing out for the undefeated Pirates vs. Marlin, which is 2-3 and 2-0 in district? • Another really sensational 2A showdown is No. 8 Bremond at No. 5 Chilton this week. Thes...

• It's a bye week for something like a third of teams around the state, with those in six-team districts taking a breather before starting the meaningful games. Out of teams who are actually playing this week in Central Texas, who needs a win most? Midway, Waco High? How about Connally or Robinson? • La Vega ended its tough skid with a blowout homecoming win over Dallas Roosevelt to move to 2-3 on...

• China Spring is a pretty incredible story, winning state last year for the first time since 1978. That team produced nine first-team Super Centex players, seven of which are gone, including Texas Football and Super Centex POY Major Bowden. How have the No. 2-ranked Cougars, sitting 4-0, been able to maintain this championship-caliber team? • Three "M" schools in Central Texas — Mexia, Marlin and...

• A tweet from Greg Tepper at Texas Football this week says there are 31 matchups between undefeated teams (just 11-man, probably) in Texas this week: No. 10 Connally vs. No. 2 China Spring, Bartlett at Itasca and Blooming Grove at Wortham. Out of the four Centex teams in that mix, how many will still be undefeated going into next week? • Let's talk about the University Trojans after a heartbreaki...

• Week 2 had some really great games — "absolute bangers," according to ultra-hip Brice Cherry — with close finishes, amazing comebacks and surprises. Which game do you wish you had seen — Connally's one-point win over La Vega, Waco High's streak-busting victory, China Spring's comeback or something else? • Let's turn our attention to the Mart Panthers: They pummeled Marlin, 41-6, but everyone exp...

• So, we’ve got a week of Central Texas football in the books. What was your biggest takeaway from Week 1? Who or what team impressed you the most? • We’ve got 13 local teams in the state poll after a week. But of the Centex teams that aren’t currently ranked, which team do you think has the potential for the deepest playoff run? • Two of those state-ranked teams we mentioned, No. 5 Lorena and No....

We're at the end of the regular season, so here's a Week 11 hypothetical — What's worse: Missing the playoffs because of a tie in the final week of the season, or making the playoffs as the last-place team, only to get escorted quickly into basketball season via a first-round blowout? What's the story of this season so far? Mart's unbelievable dominance, the looming Lorena-West showdown (who...

Chad Conine and Brice Cherry are back to talk Centex football headed in Week 10 of the 2021 season:  Home run, slam dunk or ... ? What's the best comparable moment on a football field? Let's draft a Centex 2021 playoff team, with three teams each — whoever has the best postseason record wins. A couple of decades ago, Texas high school football expanded its playoffs to allow the top thre...

Maybe these aren't the biggest games of the week (e.g. Bosqueville-Crawford or Cameron Yoe-Lorena), but let's talk about three matchups that look especially competitive: Who would you take in a three-game parlay of Midlothian Heritage at La Vega, Groesbeck at Malakoff and Holland at Rosebud-Lott? After eight weeks, we only have (officially) one 1,000-yard rusher in the area, according to the stats...

Chad Conine and Brice Cherry are back to talk Centex football headed in Week 8 of the 2021 season:  Does a game need to have meaningful context in order to be a great game? Can two winless teams play an instant classic? In a totally unrelated segue, Midway heads to Waco High this week, and either the Panthers or Lions will emerge with their first win of the season. But instead of focusing on...

Chad Conine and Brice Cherry are back to talk Centex football headed in Week 7 of the 2021 season:  • The big week is here: District play begins with a bang for two of our top local teams with big state-ranked matchups for No. 2 Stephenville at No. 6 La Vega and No. 10 Chilton at No. 1 Mart. Which will be the better game?  • We're fully into Phase 2 of the season as district pl...

• Battle of the Bell: Cameron Yoe-Rockdale is a classic rivalry, and this should be a great one, too as the Yoemen may be starting to fire on all cylinders after demolishing Caldwell, 70-0, for their first win last week. We talk about the 11-3A Div. I race and how this one could be pivotal with Lorena, Academy and McGregor all vying for playoff spots.  • As many Centex teams have an...

He's in the nice guy Hall of Fame, and now the Waco ISD Athletic Hall of Fame: This Friday night at Waco ISD Stadium, they'll be inducting LeRoy Coleman. We swap stories and observations about the iconic University Trojans football coach. LeRoy Coleman was one of three Central Texas coaching icons who were mainstays of the football scene for decades locally, along with Waco High's Johnny Tusa and...

• The Chilton Pirates are one of the season's most surprising and most impressive teams after flattening No. 10 Normangee last week, 37-0. But are the Pirates the most impressive, or most surprising, team in the area so far? Where do Mart, Live Oak and Riesel rank? • Midway and Waco High get underway with district play in one of the state's toughest loops — and both are winless so...

Is Ray Biles the new Johnny Tusa? Lorena may be 0-2, but that's a result of playing state No. 1 Franklin and Class 4A China Spring, plus the Leopards are following it up with another 4A game this week. Is this the kind of scheduling that will pay dividends? It's conference, er, district expansion and realignment time — why not, everybody else is doing it. If you're the commissioner of any Ce...

Chad Conine and Brice Cherry are back to talk Centex football headed in Week 2 of the 2021 season:  • The matchup we all wanted to see, Connally vs. La Vega, is off due to a particularly tough week for the Cadets, after two teachers passed away due to COVID-19. Was calling the game the right idea?  • Midway faces a storied program like no other in the "Friday Night Lights" matc...

There are a lot of issues flying around this week with COVID continuing to cause problems as several teams have forfeited playoff games statewide. Here's a controversial question: Do you think part of the decision making within these schools and programs has to do with “Is it worth it?” In other words, if a team thinks they have a chance to play for a while, they’re doing what th...

No politics, please (except the occasional hanging Chad) — as sportswriters, here's why we prefer high school football to politics. Troy RB Zach Hrbacek is just 154 yards from catching Traion Smith of Cameron Yoe for the Central Texas career rushing record of 7,625. The Trojans play Academy on Friday in a game they need to win. Does the Zach Attack get it this week? Super Centex team preview...

It's Texas, so of course we skipped fall and went directly to winter. But not many area football teams have indoor practice facilities — would you rather practice every day in the 90s-100s, or the 40s with a sharp wind? It's Podcast Jeopardy! time: Chad gives the answers — but who are these teams? playing only for pride playing for second place playing for a playoff spot The latest pou...

Chad Conine and Brice Cherry are back to talk Centex football: • Now that it's officially fall and district races are coming down to the wire in Week 9, does the COVID-19 season basically feel like normal — do you still get that same feeling like it’s flown by? • One big thing happening locally is a big-time record chase out there: The Central Texas career rushing record hold...

• It's Week 8 already (if you're in 4A-1A), and cancellations have been a factor — Chad had to change the game he was covering twice between the podcast and sundown on Thursday. But overall, is this season's glass half empty or half full? • The new pound-for-pound power rankings are out, and they've been pretty consistent all year. But we've got a new entry in the top 5 this week....

First things first: Let's talk Eddie Van Halen — and who qualifies as a "virtuoso" in the sports world. The new Centex rankings: Who are the top 5, pound for pound? Chad tries to cause trouble at China Spring by asking if the Cougars think they'd match up well with Mart. Agree or disagree? Along the same lines, what’s another cross-class matchup you’d like to see? How about La Ve...

The new Power 5 pound-for-pound rankings: We've got a new team entering the discussion. The biggest wins of the week were undoubtedly McGregor, over Rockdale, and Waco High, over West Mesquite. Midway hosts Austin Westlake on Friday to open its 2020 slate, at long last. They'll be the last local team to play a real game: How do we think things are going in COVID-19-era football? Chad's donned his...