Brownwood News – (by Mike Blagg) All fans of football in Texas look forward to the late-summer publication of Dave Campbell’s “Texas Football” magazine, as it is known as the bible of football in the Lone Star State. “Texas Football” previews both college and high school football, but the biggest part of the magazine is devoted to the over 1400 high school teams in Texas, with thumbnail sketches of each team, along with predicted finishes in each district, as well as playoff predictions. Now that the high school playoffs have concluded, we decided to take a look at TFM’s predictions, and see how they worked out.
In Brownwood’s district 5-4A, TFM predicted the same order of finish as the year before: 1. Waco LaVega 2. Stephenville 3. China Spring 4. Brownwood 5. Gatesville. The Brownwood Lions had something to say about that, of course, finishing in second place, which bumped Stephenville to third place and China Spring to fourth place.
In Early’s district 3-3A (Div. 1), the predicted playoff teams were: 1. Wall 2. Eastland 3. Jim Ned 4. Breckenridge. The actual finish was: 1. Wall 2. Eastland 3. Clyde 4. Jim Ned. Not bad, got the first two correct, and three out of four.
In Bangs’ district 4-3A (Div. 2), TFM predicted the top four teams this way: 1. Cisco 2. Ballinger 3. Anson 4. Merkel. The actual finish was: 1. Cisco 2. Anson 3. Ballinger 4. Bangs. Again not bad, got three of four correct, but Bangs outsmarted TFM and sneaked into the playoffs.
Now let’s take a look at TFM’s state championship predictions. In class 6A (Div. 1) they predicted Galena Park North Shore would defeat Duncanville in the state title game, and that is exactly what happened: Galena Park North Shore 31, Duncanville 17. So far, so good.
Class 6A (Div. 2), TFM predicted Longview over Austin Westlake. Well, Longview did win their District 11, but lost in the second round to Dallas Jesuit. (Jesuit went four weeks deep in the playoffs, after being picked by TFM to come in sixth place in their district!) But TFM did get one of the teams correct in the finals, as Austin Westlake defeated Denton Guyer for the state title.
Class 5A (Div. 1), TFM predicted Highland Park would win state over Richmond Foster. Highland Park did win their District 5, but was eliminated in the third round. Richmond Foster finished fourth in District 11, and was also eliminated in the third round. The state champion was the first place team from Foster’s District 11, Alvin Shadow Creek, who defeated Denton Ryan 28-22 (by deflecting a Hail Mary pass in the end zone on the last play of the game). You may remember, Brownwood defeated Alvin Shadow Creek in 2017.
Class 5A (Div. 2), TFM predicted Aledo over Fort Bend Marshall, and they got this one exactly right: Aledo 45, Fort Bend Marshall 42.
Class 4A (Div. 1), TFM predicted back-to-back state championships for Waco La Vega, by defeating Carthage in the finals. They got the two teams correct, but Carthage won state over La Vega: 42-28.
Class 4A (Div. 2), TFM predicted Texarkana Pleasant Grove over Jasper. Jasper did win District 9, but lost in round two. But they got the other team correct, as Texarkana Pleasant Grove defeated Wimberly 35-21 for the state crown.
Class 3A (Div. 1), TFM predicted the Grandview Zebras to repeat as state champions, over Malakoff. Malakoff won District 6, but was eliminated in round three by the eventual state finalist Pottsboro, who lost to Grandview 42-35.
Class 3A (Div. 2), TFM predicted Newton over Canadian. Newton won District 12, but lost in round three. Canadian was a powerhouse District 3 champion, as we found out when Bangs played them in the first round of the playoffs. But Canadian lost in the semi-finals to Gunter. Gunter defeated Omaha Paul Pewitt 43-22 for the state championship. (Pewitt was predicted by TFM to come in fourth place in District 11, they actually finished in second place. TFM did have them listed as a dark horse candidate to make a run in the playoffs)
Class 2A (Div. 1), TFM predicted Refugio would win state by defeating San Saba in the finals. The ‘Dillos had a great season at 13-1, but lost to Valley View in round four. Valley View lost to Post in the semi-finals, in a game played in Gordon Wood Stadium. Post then played Refugio in the finals, and Refugio won state as predicted by TFM, 28-7.
Class 2A (Div. 2), TFM predicted Mart over Hamlin in the state finals, and that was exactly right, 25-20.
Texas Football Magazine did not make state championship predictions in Class 1A, but had Div. 1 state champion Blum ranked #10 in the state, and Div. 2 state champion Richland Springs ranked #3 in the state.
To summarize, Texas Football Magazine correctly predicted six out of ten state champions, and three of those they correctly predicted the other state finalist. In addition, in Class 4A (Div. 1) they correctly predicted the two state finalists, but chose the wrong team. And in Class 6A (Div. 2) they correctly predicted Austin Westlake to make it to the finals but lose, when in fact they did win state. All in all, not a bad job of prognosticating by Texas Football Magazine.
