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.”

Now, picture Peyton Manning running the triple option. 

That’s the image Rob Londerholm had when he went to Guy in the fall of 2023, when York was a sophomore, and said he wanted to start airing it out on the JV team. To his credit, Guy said, ‘Go for it.’ Not only did they have a quarterback, but they also had a talented group of wide receivers in the sophomore class. So Londerholm, the JV play caller, started implementing some pass plays. Then he had York line up in the shotgun for the first time in his life. By season’s end, they were spinning it around the yard. 

The wide receivers had won a ton of games throughout their careers, but most of the time, they drove home after touching the ball only once, if they were lucky. Now, the ball could come their way on any play. 

“It’s like being blind your whole life, and then all of a sudden you can see colors,” All-State wide receiver Reid Robertson said.

The JV season went so well that when Slaughter took over for Guy that offseason, he elevated Londerholm to be a varsity play caller for the first time in his career. But his biggest concern wasn’t a new playcaller; it was negative plays.

Coaches love the flexbone because it keeps the offense on schedule. 1st-and-10 turns to 2nd-and-6 turns to 3rd-and-2 turns to 1st-and-10. By changing to the spread, Wall was opening itself up to sacks, interceptions and bad snaps that could derail drives. But Wall’s offensive line, coached by Bobby Williams, gave up one sack in 15 games last season. That sack was the only time they ran max protection. Coaches say running back Brady Neal blocks like a sixth offensive lineman who happens to have 1,000 rushing yards.   

“Landon will tell you his job is easy because of those guys,” Londerholm said. “He can sit back and go through three or four progressions because, one, he’s talented enough to do that. His mind works like that. Two, those guys give him as much time as he wants back there. The offensive line is really the heart and soul of what we do.” 

If the offensive line is the consensus most unselfish group on the team, the wide receiver corps is a close second. Reid Robertson leads the team with 59 catches for 1,251 yards and 19 touchdowns. He averages 21.2 yards per catch and scores a touchdown 32% of the time he touches the ball. His high-point ability and route-running make it to where he’s uncovered even when he’s covered, but York refuses to force the ball to him. 

“A lot of teams that have Reid Robertson would throw it to him 30 times a game,” Londerholm said. 

A wide receiver in Wall’s offense could have just as productive of a game catching 10 passes as catching zero. Last week against Idalou, Kellan Oliver, who’s tied for second on the team with eight touchdown catches, wasn’t even targeted. But his full-speed routes forced the safety to cover him, constantly opening up another receiver for a big gain.

“Not one time did he complain about not touching the ball," Londerholm said. “Because he knows the next game, I might get seven or eight catches. It’s a ‘we’ thing first.”  

Watching the players operate with the attitude is the most fun part of this season for Londerholm, not the touchdowns. They’re too close to care who gets credit for this season.  

Twenty of the team's 21 seniors have gone to school together since kindergarten, a couple of years after Londerholm first got to the district. People often ask him why he waited 15 years to be a play-caller. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t think about climbing the job ladder. But there was always a voice in his mind telling him things would happen for him when they should.

All the while, this senior class was growing up right in front of him. Now, they’re proving some seasons are worth waiting for.

“These are the puppies that I’ve got to see grow up into big dogs,” Londerholm said.