Texas Longhorn Recruits: Week 3 Recap, Week 4 Look-ahead

The teams of UT commits went 8-1 last week, and as the Texas high school football season moves into week four, many schools will either begin district play or have a bye week before beginning their district schedule. Two Longhorn commits had a bye in Week 3, and the teams of three more will be idle this week. Judging by some of the box scores last week, there were teams whose defensive units took a bye week early (more on that later)

The commits had a good week overall, though only three were in games that could really be called competitive. The games will get tougher for most of them as the heat of district competition arrives in the coming weeks, and less than two months from now the playoffs will begin.

2016 commits

QB Shane Buechele (Arlington Lamar)

Last week: Completed 19 of 24 passes for 217 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception, and rushed 5 times for 59 yards and a TD in a 43-6 win over Justin Northwest.

This week: Idle.

Notes: Buechele led Lamar to a win over Justin Northwest for the third time in his varsity career. Lamar scored points on each of its first five possessions of the game, and Buechele completed his first nine pass attempts. After Lamar scored on its first possession of the 2nd half to push its lead to 36-0, Buechele gave way to backup QB Chance Fuller for the remainder of the game. His one interception in the game wasn't a costly one, as it came shortly before halftime on a play that began on Northwest's 45-yard line, and Lamar was up 30-0 at the time.

He and his Lamar teammates now have two weeks to prepare for cross-town rival Arlington Martin, who ran the table on district 4-6A a year ago, crushing Lamar 67-20 along the way in what was easily the worst game I've seen Buechele play.

WR Tren'Davian Dickson (Navasota)

Last week: Caught 9 passes for 164 yards and a TD in a 56-14 win over Coldspring-Oakhurst.

This week: Friday, September 18 at 7:00, vs. New Orleans (LA) Lake Area New Tech

Notes: Navasota's next opponent is a New Orleans charter school. They have nothing if not a varied schedule this season, including a team from Mexico, a team from west Fort Worth (Castleberry), a Louisiana charter school, and their weak Houston-area district slate (in 2014, Navasota outscored its five district foes by a combined 370-18). Last year, this game on Navasota's schedule was filled by a Class 7A team from Arkansas.

WR Reggie Hemphill-Mapps (Manvel)

Last week: Idle

This week: Thursday, September 17 at 7:00, at Pasadena Dobie (Pasadena Veterans Stadium)

Notes: Manvel opened its season by splitting a pair of games against state powers Spring Westfield and Galena Park North Shore. This week they face a winless Pasadena Dobie team that has losses of 32, 2, and 35 points so far.

WR Collin Johnson (Valley Christian - San Jose, CA)

Last week:Caught 4 passes for 55 yards and 2 TDs in a 24-0 win over San Jose Oak Grove.

This week: Friday, September 18 at 8:00, at Milpitas

Notes: Valley Christian's offense was run-heavy as usual last week. The team attempted 45 runs and 14 passes. Their next opponent, Milpitas, won 31-17 when the two teams faced off last year.

TE Peyton Aucoin (Brother Martin - New Orleans, LA)

Last week:Team defeated Bay St. Louis (Mississippi) St. Stanislaus 68-21.

This week: Friday, September 18 at 7:00, vs. New Orleans Edna Karr

Notes: Aucoin's role in Brother Martin's offense is essentially that of a sixth offensive lineman. Below are a few clips of his blocking during last week's game.

Brother Martin is the 5th-ranked Class 5A team in this week's Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) poll.

OL Tope Imade (Arlington Bowie)

Last week: Idle

This week:Friday, September 18 at 7:30, vs. Colleyville Heritage

Notes: Two of Imade's Bowie teammates committed to FBS programs over the weekend: WR Jesse Ebozue committed to UTSA on Saturday after attending their home opener vs. Kansas State, and WR Anthony Hawkins committed to Colorado State on Sunday. Bowie is winless at 0-2 and this week faces 2-1 Colleyville Heritage, a team they defeated 45-34 last year.

DT Gerald Wilbon (Destrehan, LA)

Last week: Team defeated Woodlawn 44-7.

This week: Friday, September 18 at 7:00, vs. Ehret

Notes: Destrehan's win over Woodville resembled UT's win over Rice last week; they scored on a safety and reached the end zone via a kickoff return, punt return, fumble return, and a pass, and that was just in the 1st quarter! Destrehan next takes on 2-0 Ehret, a team that held its last opponent to 3 yards of total offense, and -31 rushing yards. Destrehan was ranked 8th among Class 5A teams in this week's LSWA poll, while Ehret finished just outside the top ten and was the second team listed in the "also receiving votes" group.

LB DeMarco Boyd (Gilmer)

Last week: Had 5 carries for 49 yards and 1 TD, and caught 4 passes for 17 yards and 1 TD in a 23-0 win over Tatum.

This week: Friday, September 18 at 7:30, vs. Daingerfield

Notes: Through three games, Boyd has scored 6 TDs on 41 offensive touches and recorded 9 tackles. His TD reception on Friday came with 10 seconds left in the 2nd quarter, and put Gilmer ahead 13-0. In the video below you can see that 2-yard reception, plus a nice tackle for loss on a play where he lines up at right defensive end, and a 28-yard TD reception that was nullified by a penalty.

DB Obi Eboh (Southlake Carroll)

Last week: Was credited with 3 total tackles and 1 tackle for loss in a 52-14 win over Midland Lee.

This week: Idle

Notes: Midland Lee gained 343 yards of offense, but Carroll's defense limited them to 63 yards through the air, and Lee's QBs completed only 5 of 15 pass attempts. Carroll gets a bye week before traveling to face Abilene in week 5.

2017 commits

QB Sam Ehlinger (Austin Westlake)

Last week: Completed 12 of 17 pass attempts for 334 yards, 4 TDs and no INTs, and rushed 2 times for 14 yards and 1 TD in a 73-10 win over Austin Anderson.

This week: Friday, September 18 at 7:30, vs. Austin High

Notes: Playing an over-matched Anderson team, Ehlinger put up video game numbers while only playing in the first half. After leading his team in rushing for a dozen straight games, he has not done so for Westlake's past two games. This week's game against rival Austin High should be a much more closely contested one.

WR Damion Miller (Tyler John Tyler)

Last week: Caught 4 passes for 58 yards in a 69-38 loss to Tyler Lee.

This week: Idle

Notes:  On Friday night they just couldn't keep up with a Tyler Lee team that rolled for 554 yards on the ground and 737 total yards. John Tyler's 401 total yards actually represented a season-best for Tyler Lee's defense, which had allowed 111 points in their first two games. Lee scored the game's first three TDs and led 21-0 a minute into the 2nd quarter. John Tyler got as close as 28-21 following a score with 3:21 left in the half, and they were due to receive the 2nd half kickoff. But Lee scored again with 1:10 left in the half, then intercepted a John Tyler pass on its ensuing possession and scored again with no time left on the clock to go into halftime with a 42-21 lead, and the game got no closer.

John Tyler went winless in its non-district schedule, which consisted of two 6A teams and east Texas 5A power Longview. They get a week off before starting district play against Whitehouse.

Defenses take a bye week

* In his long-running Tuesday Morning Quarterback column (formerly at ESPN, now published by The New York Times and in a much shorter form), Gregg Easterbrook often devoted space to shaming football teams at all levels that gained huge amounts of yardage in a game but lost. Most recently these would be mentioned in a section on "the 600 club" or "700 club", named for the amount of offense a team generated in its losing effort

Were he continuing that feature with the NYT iteration of his TMQ column, he surely would have inducted DuBois High School in Pennsylvania into the 800 club this week. Last Friday, in a 107-90 loss to Meadville, DuBois gained 823 yards.  Yes, the final score was 107-90. In a football game. An 11-man football game. The teams and players in the game broke several Pennsylvania state and national records and presented a superlative contrast in offensive styles. DuBois and its spread attack attempted 51 passes and 17 runs, and sophomore QB Matt Miller finished with 787 yards (believed to be a national record) and 10 TDs. Meadville ran 67 times while attempting only 2 passes (both incomplete) with its wing-T attack, and RB Journey Brown finished with a state-record 722 yards and 10 TDs on 30 carries.

The teams combined for 1,827 yards of offense and scored 28 touchdowns, a rate of one TD for every minute and 42 seconds of game time. DuBois, which is in western Pennsylvania about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, won its first game of the season 51-41 the week before. I would guess that not many teams have won a game by double digits in one week, then increased their scoring output by 39 points the following week  while losing by 17.

Meadville broke a national record by rushing for 1,004 yards as a team. 14 years ago I witnessed a high school game in which Crowley (Texas) rushed for 700 yards in a 77-40 win over Granbury. That 700 yards was a pretty astounding total, and a friend who was in Crowley's marching band that year remarked after the game that he'd never had to play their fight song so many times in one day before. Friday's game in DuBois was on another level entirely. I can scarcely imagine how helpless any member of the DuBois defense (let alone the defensive coordinator) must have felt Friday while Meadville topped not only the century mark but the millennium mark in rushing yardage by game's end.

Final score: Meadville 107 Dubois 90 Meadville Pride! !!! pic.twitter.com/nDm9njksNK

— MashAD (@Mdvlbulldogs) September 12, 2015

* My favorite recent example of a team joining the 800 club - one Easterbook didn't mention in his column at the time because he didn't become aware of it until a year or two after it happened - was an October 27, 2012 game between NCAA Division III teams Hardin-Simmons and Sul Ross State, a game in which Sul Ross scored 42 points, gained 800 yards of offense, converted 37 first downs, had a seven-minute advantage on time of possession, and lost by 44! You can see the box score here. For its part, Hardin-Simmons scored 86 points and gained 914 yards on offense, and the teams combined to score 62 points in the 3rd quarter alone. Ten different players scored TDs, and four reached the end zone multiple times. HSU quarterback Logan Turner, who had transferred from SMU by way of Southeastern Oklahoma State, passed for 685 yards and 8 TDs that day.

For sheer offensive output in a game lost by six touchdowns, I don't think Sul Ross State's 800 yards vs. Hardin-Simmons in 2012 can be topped.

* In other games over the weekend, Charles Omenihu's alma mater, Rowlett, really missed him in its game versus Keller. Rowlett gained 530 yards, scored 41 points, made 31 first downs, committed only one turnover, was assessed only three penalties, and lost by 15. Rowlett QB Logan Bonner, an Arkansas State commit, passed for 427 yards and accounted for 3 TDs in a losing effort, while Keller was led by RB Tyler Tutt, a Texas State commit, who rushed 25 times for 335 yards and 6 TDs.

Hosting The Colony, Frisco Heritage gained 530 yards, scored 43 points, and lost by 27.

Hosting McKinney North, Richardson Pearce gained 511 yards, committed only one turnover, was assessed only one penalty, and lost by 18.

Hosting Sunnyvale, Nevada Community gained 532 yards, and lost by 32. Committing 4 turnovers and 15 penalties were likely a big part of that.

Box score of the week

As you can probably tell, I spend no small amount of time reading high school football box scores on any given weekend during the season. The craziest one I saw from last week was from last Thursday's game between Sachse and Dallas Bishop Lynch. The game was tied at 7 before Bishop Lynch scored on a TD run with 6:05 left in the 2nd quarter, which kicked off a stretch where the teams combined for 5 TDs and a safety in the first half's final 6:05, and 29 points were scored in the last 3:15 of the half. Published reports on the game weren't specific about what led to the quick scores, and even the Dallas Morning News' play-by-play account leaves room for speculation.

Following Bishop Lynch's TD with 6:05 left in the half, the following possessions were described as thus:
Sachse - 4 plays, interception
Bishop Lynch - 4 plays, punt
Sachse - 2 plays, touchdown (3:14 left)
Sachse - 3 plays, touchdown (2:09 left)
Sachse - 1 play, touchdown (2:00 left)
Bishop Lynch - 4 plays, safety (1:06 left)
Sachse - 4 plays, punt (0:24 left)
Bishop Lynch - 4 plays, touchdown (0:00 left)

How Sachse got the ball three straight times and scored three TDs in the span of 1:14 wasn't explained in any story I read, but it's likely they either recovered an onside kick or two, or Bishop Lynch fumbled on the kickoff return. Sachse led 29-20 at the half, and would go on to win 50-34.