Texas High School Football’s most electric passing offense ran the flexbone veer for 17 years.
From 2007 to 2023, under former head coach Houston Guy, the Wall Hawks went 167-49, compiling more wins than times they threw the ball in that span. Ok, that’s an exaggeration. But coaches remember a 2013 state semifinal game against New Boston, where the Hawks won 30-3 with zero passing attempts.
In Wall, elementary school boys learned multiplication tables… and how to run a midline option. By high school, they could read defensive ends and 3-technique linemen faster than a Dr. Seuss book, handing to the fullback or pitching to the slot back in their sleep.
Guy had built a 3A football machine. But like the best head coaches, he sensed something brewing under the hood. The JV team had a quarterback who could sling it, a crop of wide receivers that could go get it and a play-caller who wanted to let them do it. Guy used to joke around with the assistant coaches, saying they’d start airing it out the second he left. Then, they’d all laugh, knowing Guy was exactly right.
But even their wildest imagination couldn’t have conjured the past two seasons up. Wall has made the Class 3A DII state semifinals after Craig Slaughter, who was elevated from defensive coordinator in January 2024, converted Wall from the veer to a spread offense. The Hawks are averaging 49.9 points per game. Senior QB Landon York has thrown for 3,661 yards, 55 touchdowns and five interceptions. The offensive line has surrendered six sacks on 338 drop-back attempts, just 1.78 percent of the time.
This is the story of how Slaughter, as a first-year head coach, changed the only offense Wall ever knew by gambling on an offensive coordinator who had yet to call plays in his 15-year career and a JV quarterback who’d yet to run the spread, and why that bet felt like a sure thing all along.
The coaching staff compares QB York to a high school version of Peyton Manning. Think back to Manning barking audibles until the last second on the play clock. After a week holed up in the film room, he knew the exact play a defense was running based on the tiniest tells, like a safety lining up at eight yards depth instead of ten.
When York was a freshman scout team QB for the varsity defense, Slaughter used to be paranoid his blitzes wouldn’t work on Friday night because York countered them so easily. Offensive coordinator Rob Londerholm admits he’s called the wrong formation in a game before. The fans never knew because York noticed it and called the play correctly in the huddle.
“Nine times out of ten, he’s already beaten you before the ball is snapped,” Londerholm said.
But the similarities don’t stop there. Like Manning, York has the build of a classic pro-style quarterback at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds. During a sophomore year JV game against Lubbock Liberty, while Wall still ran the veer, York completed Manning-like throws like 12-yard comeback routes and outs thrown to the opposite hash. Slaughter says he also has a captain’s leadership traits, on display last week in the Region I Championship against Idalou, when the offense started the game with a pick-six and a couple of punts.
“Landon York is the one I hear walking up and down the sidelines,” Slaughter said. “I can’t say enough about his leadership. It’s not chewing butt, but it’s not being nice either. It’s that perfect line. You can’t tell if Landon threw five touchdowns or five picks. He is the most level-headed kid. That shows up in those big moments.”