Mesquite ISD on Wednesday morning has announced the hiring of Pflugerville Weiss head coach Vernon Hughes as the next head football coach at Mesquite Horn High School. Hughes takes over for Courtney Allen, who led Horn for the past three seasons.

Hughes, a native of Jackson, MS., played collegiately at Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas Lutheran. He decided to stay in Texas after graduation and coach Texas High School Football where he started his career out as an assistant coach at LaGrange before going to Hutto, Del Valle and Pflugerville Weiss.

In 2023, Hughes was promoted to head coach at Weiss where he replaced the retired Steve Van Meter. He posted an impressive 17-5 record in two years leading the Wolves. After winning a share of the district title in Class 6A in 2023, Weiss dropped to 5A-Division I in 2024 and posted an 8-3 mark with those three losses coming by a combined 19-points, including a 35-28 loss on the road in the bi-district playoffs to eventual state finalist Angleton.

Pflugerville Weiss did all this with a freshman signal-caller after the Wolves projected starter Jax Brown went down with a season ending injury in the team’s scrimmage a year ago. Brown signed with Sam Houston this offseason, while Weiss freshman QB Jaxon Schaad in his first season leading the offense picked up five FBS offers.

Horn fans can expect an up-tempo, fast-paced, QB friendly offense as Hughes counts Steve Van Meter as one of his major mentors; Van Meter’s offenses have produced multiple FBS quarterbacks at Friendswood and Hutto in the past.

Hughes inherits a Mesquite Horn program that is in a state of upheaval at the moment with nearly the entire coaching staff departing and multiple high-profile players who have departed the program over the past two seasons. Additionally, Mesquite ISD last week ruled Horn had to forfeit their two wins for using ineligible players. He will face a major challenge in building a coaching staff and rebuilding a program in a brutal District 11-6A.

Weiss, on the other hand, will look to find a head coach late in the game with a team that has a chance to be a contender in 5A-Division I Region III in 2025.