My Internet experience is an unusual one.

As the editor-in-chief of the most prestigious football outlet in a state that cares about football more than any other, I'm no stranger to online criticism. That's no bellyache — my job affords me extraordinary perks, not the least of which is that I get to think about football all day every day — but rather a fact. And with millions of passionate football fans consuming our content (more than ever before in 2025, thanks to you), I've grown accustomed to that passion spilling into my e-mail inbox, my Twitter mentions, and various message board comments.

Even if I am correct more often than detractors may claim, I am wrong more often than I'd like to admit. And it's important to call your own foul, for the sake of integrity.

And so, to throw additional fuel on the online fire, here are ten — 10! — Texas high school football teams I was dead wrong about in 2025.

Amarillo Palo Duro
Admittedly, there's a lot I like about Palo Duro — from their outstanding coach Eric Mims to their swagged-out mascot, the Dons are a program I have a lot of affection toward. But I was not a believer. After all, Palo Duro hadn't had a winning season or a playoff win since 2014. And despite 16 starters returning from 2024, I wasn't convinced, in part because of a brutal District 2-5A Division I — Lubbock-Cooper, Abilene Wylie, and Wichita Falls Memorial all looked superior, and you could make an argument that Abilene Cooper could keep the Dons out of the playoffs. So imagine my surprise when the Dons rattled off a 10-2 season, complete with their first playoff win in more than a decade, their first outright district title in more than two decades, and their first 10-win season since 2001. Nice one, Tepper.

Sheldon C.E. King
This one is less about the team itself and more about its district bunkmates. While everyone is going ga-ga over North Shore, Summer Creek, and Atascocita, C.E. King (rightfully) feels as if it doesn't get the respect it's due. Factor in a relative unknown on the sideline in first-year coach Cory Laxen, and I wasn't exactly banging the Panthers' drum. In fact, Dave Campbell's Texas Football picked C.E. King to miss the playoffs, finishing behind Kingwood for the fourth spot. No bother — the Panthers barnstormed the Houston area (and the state) with perhaps the fastest team in Texas, as Dionne Sims, Dillon Mitchell, and Timothy Potts drove C.E. King all the way to Arlington and the program's first 6A Division II state title game. It was a remarkable breakout season, and one I certainly did not see coming.

Canton
One of my wife's favorite teams for non-football reasons, my expectations for Canton were pretty low. In my defense, while they put together a strong 2024 season with an 8-3 record, the Eagles were also hammered by graduation, returning just five starters from that team. My thought was that it would continue the historical trend for Canton of a fall-off after a great season — the Eagles haven't had back-to-back winning years since 2016-17. But the Eagles soared even higher in 2025 on the backs of the most prolific offense in school history, as sophomore quarterback Cort Ray dazzled in his debut season for coach Heath Ragle's bunch. Mea culpa, Canton — though with an exciting young core coming back for 2026, don't expect me to make the same mistake twice.

Commerce
Not to turn this into a column in defense of myself, but it's not like I thought Commerce would be bad. The Tigers were coming off a playoff season and brought back a fair amount of star power from that team, and we even picked them to finish third in District 7-3A Division I (behind Malakoff and Winnsboro). But they far exceeded my admittedly modest expectations, beating Winnsboro and Malakoff in consecutive weeks to take control of the district and riding a breakout season from dual-threat junior quarterback Aidan Brown (52 total touchdowns) to the third round of the playoffs, taking eventual state finalist Grandview to the brink in a one-point loss. It's Commerce's second trip to the regional semifinals since 2001's state championship team, and I know coach John McSheffery is happy to make me look silly for underestimating them.

Grandview
Speaking of the 3A Division I state finalists, it's hard to put into words just how stunned I was by the Zebras' run to the title game. Coming off a lackluster (by their standards) 7-5 season and running into the teeth of not just a brutal District 5-3A DI but a brutal Region II, Ryan Ebner's team — from my view — looked like a good-not-great second-round playoff team. Not a serious threat. Boy, was I wrong. Between the emergence of big-time playmakers like Bleu Hubbard and Mason Landers, plus a flair for the dramatic (the Zebras went 5-0 in one-score games), there are few teams in Texas that made me look sillier than Grandview.

Houston Memorial
It's hard to follow a legend. That's my excuse for being so bearish on the Mustangs entering 2025, with the retirement of the iconic Gary Koch, who led Memorial for a remarkable 32 seasons between 1993 and 2024, racking up 198 wins in the process. So when Brooks Haack — the former Katy star quarterback, born the same year Koch took over at Memorial — took the reins after Koch's retirement, I viewed the Mustangs as a wait-and-see team (especially after a ho-hum 4-7 season the year prior). Well, I waited, and what I saw blew me away: the first 10-win season at Memorial since 1982. Yes, Brooks Haack did something Gary Koch never did, in his first season at the helm, and made me look like an idiot in the process.

Ingram Moore
This is the team I'm most delighted to be wrong about. There is not much to say about the Warriors' football program over the last three decades — Tom Moore High enjoyed exactly two winning seasons and two playoff victories between 1997 and 2024. The summer edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football predicted the Warriors fourth in the rough-and-tumble District 13-3A Division I...and that was before the town became the epicenter of the devastating July 4 floods that killed scores across the Hill Country. But coach Tate DeMasco never lost faith — even after an 0-4 start — and the Warriors soon became one of the stories of Texas high school football, springing huge upsets in the first two rounds of the playoffs en route to a remarkable 7-6 season. I was spectacularly incorrect, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Laredo LBJ
60-147: that is Laredo LBJ's all-time varsity football record heading into the 2025 season. One playoff appearance in their 21-year history. So you'll have to excuse me if I paid little mind to the Wolves entering the 2025 season, even if coach Leonel Mireles III told Dave Campbell's Texas Football that he "believes his team's experience at the skill positions puts them in playoff contention, which would be a massive breakthrough." Well, I'll be darned if he wasn't exactly right, as the Wolves put together what can only be described as the best season in program history, going 7-4, including upset wins over Weslaco, Mission Veterans Memorial, Laredo Alexander, and Laredo United South. And talk about a feel for the moment: Laredo LBJ went 6-0 in one-score games.

San Angelo Grape Creek
When Texas high school football fans think of San Angelo high school football, they probably think of San Angelo Central, the flagship school out in the Concho Valley. And next, they probably think of Lake View. Then, a distant...distant third would be the mighty Panthers of Grape Creek. Perhaps it's because it's the newest of the programs, starting in 1998. Maybe it's because of the relative lack of success — they have more winless seasons (7) than playoff appearances (5). But the Panthers put everyone in Texas (especially me!) on notice in 2025 with what can only be described as the best season in program history, going 7-5 and winning the school's first-ever playoff game behind the hard-charging running attack led by Darrell West. In my face.

Yoakum
We might as well finish with the team that won the state championship in the state's most unpredictable class (read: the class I was most wrong about). Entering the season, I wasn't even sure Yoakum was the second-best team in its own district — after all, defending state champ Columbus and always-dangerous Hitchcock loomed large in District 12-3A DI. But coach Bo Robinson's Bulldogs seemed to take that personally, especially once they got to the playoffs and went all-in on their Wildcat scheme behind RB-turned-QB Jace Morales and super-athlete X'Zavier Barnett. The result: the program's first-ever state championship, a cathartic title for Robinson and his family, and egg all over my face.