Texas Football

The first DCTF Weekend Recap of the offseason features HS coaching changes and big recruiting news.

By Greg Tepper  DCTF Associate Editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It's Monday, and if you spent your weekend away from the computer  --  you know, actually doing things --  don't worry: we're here to catch you up on everything you need to know about the weekend that was on the Texas football scene!

(And, as always, if you see something missing, let me know via e-mail or Twitter.)

Without further ado, your TexasFootball.com Offseason Weekend Recap for August 13, 2012.

Recruiting News

One of the recurring features you can expect in the DCTF Weekend Recap will be a roundup of the big commitments from high school football players around the state. That’s right: we’re mere days removed from National Signing Day 2013, and we’re already looking ahead to 2014. That’s the nature of the beast.

And as for this weekend’s recruiting action, there’s only one thing to say: Pony Up.

SMU nabbed the two biggest commitments of the weekend, and from the same school no less, as both Houston Lamar QB Darrell Colbert and Houston Lamar WR Shelby Walker offered verbal commitments to the Mustangs.

Let’s start with Colbert, who led the Redskins on a stunning march to the 5A Division I title game and, once there, dazzled everyone with both his passing and running. He’s a bit undersized at just 5-10 and 185 pounds, but anyone who saw Colbert in the title game knows he can play. As a junior, Colbert threw for 2,497 yards and 30 touchdowns against just 9 INTs – though his accuracy was lacking, with just under a 50 percent completion percentage – and ran for 712 yards and nine more scores. Colbert is a bit of a work in progress, but his athleticism and upside make him a worthy prospect.

Walker was the leading receiver for the Redskins and a key reason why Colbert was so successful last season, hauling in 27 catches for 522 yards and seven touchdowns. It’s his speed and his ability to run crisp routes that sets him apart as a prospect, but he most certainly needs to fill in his 6-0, 160-pound frame. As a package deal, SMU landed a good one in Colbert and Walker.

And it also speaks to what is becoming a Houston Lamar-to-SMU pipeline. Just days ago, SMU signed two members of Lamar’s lights-out defense – DE Zelt Minor and CB Cedric Lancaster. Now, two more of Tom Nolen’s players are committed to the Hilltop. It’s clear that something is working for the Ponies coaching staff on the Lamar campus.

HS Coaching Changes

The other frequent feature of the DCTF Weekend Recap? High school coaching changes. Every offseason, there are dozens – sometimes hundreds – of coaching changes across the state, and we track them all here on TexasFootball.com. And in the past few days, we’ve had a number of notable changes reported.

-Holliday has hired Frank Johnson as its new football coach and athletic director, according to the Wichita Falls Times-Record News. Johnson has been the head coach at Colorado City for the last 11 years, racking up an 82-42 record in that span with nine playoff appearances. From a classification perspective, this is a lateral move: both Colorado City and Holliday play in Class 2A Division II. And perhaps most stunning: this represents the first time since 1974 that Holliday has hired a head coach from outside of its program. Johnson replaces Cody Patton, who guided the Eagles to a 6-5 record in his only season at the helm.

-Buda Hays has found its replacement Blake Feldt, who jumped for the job at Odessa Permian. The new head Rebel is Neal La Hue, according to the San Antonio Express-News, who comes from San Antonio Roosevelt. La Hue has been the head coach at Roosevelt for the past seven years, guiding the Rough Riders to a 42-33 record, but his teams have missed the playoffs the past two seasons. This is a significant step up for La Hue – Buda Hays is in a one-school town with great tradition—and it will be interesting to see how the product on the field reflects that.

-Brownsboro is without a coach, as the Athens Review reports that Ty Thomison has resigned his post for personal reasons. Thomison had been placed on administrative leave back in January and officially resigned on Feb. 5, but the district did not announce the vacancy until late last week. Thomison spent two years as the Bears’ head coach after 15 years as an assistant, and his team showed great improvement in the second year, going 5-5 after a 1-9 campaign in 2011.

-An ongoing controversy in Salado came to what appears to be an end late last week, as Salado coach Glenn Talbott formally submitted his letter of resignation, according to the Killeen Daily Herald. This comes after months of discussions with superintendant Michael Novotny, and by all accounts, the two just simply could not see eye-to-eye. Talbott has been the head coach at Salado for three seasons, and they didn’t go all that well, going a combined 8-22 in that span, including a 2-8 mark in 2012 despite a drop down to 2A.

-Finally, we learned from Mike Forman at the Victoria Advocate late last week that Mike Treybig will retire as Palacios’ head coach and athletic director at the end of the school year. Treybrig has been around a long time – a head football coach for 24 seasons – and has had a number of different stops, from Houston Marian Christian to Vanderbilt Industrial to Sweeny and finally at Palacios. With the Sharks, he helped to break a 43-year playoff drought in 2007, and accumulated a 31-50 record overall for the hard-luck program. Overall, he’ll retire with a 136-109-1 record, and a legacy: he helped get guys like Tank Carder (whom he coached at Sweeny) to the NFL.

Greg Tepper is the associate editor of Dave Campbell's Texas Football and TexasFootball.com.

He can be reached via e-mail, via Twitter (@Tepper) and via the DCTF Facebook page.