timeout!

1 hour ago, PackAttack said:

I don't disagree, didn't watch the game. It may have been close by your standards, but a 27-13 win on the road 300 miles away against the #1 team in 8-5A DI with an elite coaching staff is a big win in my book. Lancaster is better than their now 6-5 record.  Winning by two scores on the road is a good win anytime, DCTF had Lancaster a +4 at LaPorte.  They exceeded that prediction. Being statistically close in the playoffs is no good at all unless your winning.

You think about how well Lufkin played against Lancaster and how we had Forney on the ropes late in the game. Then all the other games that were winnable, except Longview. You can't help but to think about what could've been possible with a bit more polish. Just that extra that some programs always find to win. I could be wrong, but I don't think Lufkin would've beat LaPorte had we played them. Whatever Lancaster done to win that game. Lufkin wouldn't have had it. 

37 minutes ago, Dawg78 said:

Towards the end of the season Barber's Hill was hitting their stride. They play Richland next and I saw a couple of Richland games in Birdville and they are pretty good - ought to be a good game. LaPorte pretty much shut down Lacey; however, Lancaster shut down the Bulldog running game, as they did ours. Lancaster had about 5 or 6 unsportsmanlike penalties, it got pretty chippy, and LaPorte had a few really bad calls that went Lancaster's way and gave them an edge late. It was a good game and the score does not reflect how close it really was. I think LaPorte has 14 sophomores on Varsity including their starting QB, they are very young and gave Lancaster all they could handle. LaPorte brought in an elite coaching staff and it's making a huge difference as this is their first PO appearance since 2017. 

Coaching matters..

https://lufkindailynews.com/sports/high_school/pack-basketball-drops-season-opener/article_d6075a34-c05b-555e-9759-64dbf2903185.html

9 hours ago, PackAttack said:

The Pack Boys traveled down to Houston tonight to play Pro-Vision Academy and took a tough 82-70 loss. Don't know much about them, they are a private charter school near the Texas Southern campus.

There whole purpose is getting players into college to play ball. Anyone on that team is there for that purpose. No different than IMG, just not as big and well known. Similar to Faith Family basketball in Dallas. So an 82-70 loss is not too bad for a public school like Lufkin. Lufkin may be close to sub 500 when district starts. But will be battled tested and much better because of it. 

9 hours ago, PackAttack said:

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/17601558/65061cb71600960ab08d9354

Demarkus Chinn #27 Lufkin Panther Junior RB. He will be one of the guys next season.

 

Would've been nice to see him used more this year. He has some size to him and can run. The original plan was to go with two big backs when the year started. Instead we replaced Gavin with a small scatback. When we had another guy with more size that could've help fill that role. Done trying to figure out these coaches. 

49 minutes ago, Pack13 said:

All I know is DFW plays a lot higher level of football across the city than the houston schools do right now. Wouldn’t mind heading south. I do like the College Station schools being in the district idea. 

DFW is where is at right now. In football and basketball. I prefer a solid DFW district over Houston. The last two years have been hard for Lufkin. But being that district kept Lufkin coaches feet to the fire. It forced Lufkin to be prepared every week. We will prob end up in some Houston district, along side several sub 500 schools, who are no older than my wallet.

6 minutes ago, Pack13 said:

I have reasons to believe the district will be heading north again. 

Anything is possible now. Never would've imagined Lufkin playin in a DFW district. Always thought we were a safe bet in Houston area. Now that Longview is likely going 6A, feel like they will want to keep Tyler and Lufkin together. There will be plenty of speculation leading up to Feb. Keep an eye on any rumblings from Matt Stepp. He nailed it last year before the official release. Thinking he has a reliable inside source. 

Agree with everything you said PA. Nothing beats the feeling of watching the football program be successful. But I’ve come to appreciate the other boys/girls sports. The PAC has made watching basketball  an enjoyable experience here. I can’t brag enough about how nice of a facility it is. Combine that with us having one of the top Sophs in the state. It makes for a nice consolation. I’ll be hanging out at the PAC for several games Nov. 20/21 The Pineywoods Hoopfest is a great way to kick off the home opener. Lufkin vs Duncanville and a perennial from AZ is something to get the fans excited about. The experience will pay off down the road. Not expecting us to beat Duncanville. Although stranger things have happened. Just glad to see our guys have chance to compete with a program like that. 
 

Would love to still be talking Lufkin football matchups for this week. But it’s just not in the cards for us. We do have another talented to guy to root. AB will be one of the top recruits out of Texas when he done. Maybe even the nation. This will be a fun season for Panther basketball. I’ll be there watching with some popcorn and snicker in hand.😁

Highlights from Lufkin vs Shadow Creek. Lufkin schedule is brutal. Even the exhibition games have been a challenge. Parks is playing with more confidence this year. As mentioned by McManus in the article. Him and AB will have to carry the team until the rest come along. They won’t get the easy post points with Walker gone now. So it will be a different look. They have some other guys that can play. It may take a while to for McManus to find he’s best rotation. We lost some really good guys to graduation. Kamari, Moody, Tre, Deason, Cam, O’ Hart and of course Walker, all instrumental in the success of the program the last couple of years.

7 hours ago, Pack007 said:

Off-topic, but I feel bad for Gavin. His family posting on fb about what happened. 

Horrible situation to have been in. He has the support of his family. Hopefully all parties involved will get the help they need to move forward. 

I can tell AB been putting in work in the weight room. He will be a load to handle as he his body continues to fill out. Looking forward to seeing him and the rest of the team this year. Walker, Moody and the seniors from last year help lay the groundwork for the guys taking over this year.

Glad to see McManus got us in some competitive tournaments. The experience will pay dividends down the road. They won’t face another team as good as Duncanville this year. 

I look around see other fans getting excited about the post season. And think back to how that used to be a thing here. We are already 6 year removed from our last playoff run. And even that was just a blip after a 5 year drought. The program is dead right now. And will continue to struggle as long as things stay the same. My gut feeling is LISD is will let Quick stick around another 3-4 years until he retires. 

1 hour ago, PackAttack said:

Next year will really expose those coaches?? They, at least the big three have been exposed for years now.  Good grief, look how Green runs that offense?  He just got through with a 4 Star RB and still no playoffs. Why has the OL not been good the last 6 years, players are not physical, it's bad training, bad coaching.  Exposed????  Already been there a while.  Sorry PN, I'm off the train, these guys could be 15 DI P5 players next year. Quick, Green and Cook will still be there, nothing will change. Results will again be disappointing cause they all think what they do is great. I believe Soderquist gives it a hard go on the D side, he believes in his kids, and you can see the effort there. We are just not as physical a program as many of the teams we play. Outlaw use to make sure we were smashing folks in the mouth on both sides of the ball, Quick has forgotten those days, we no longer are that program, especially on the offensive side. Exposed???? Longview has beat us 41-5, 56-7 and 42-0 consecutively, how much more exposed do we need to be?  People say, O but Longview is really good now. Well crap, that's where the Lufkin program used to be ALL the time, and now they are kicking our every year.  That's how far this program has fallen.  Then there are those folks out there who have only watched Lufkin in the last 10 or 15 years, they can never understand what I'm talking about. They don't know what great Panther football really is, because the only place they may have seen it is on some old video. We are just an average football program today. Better next year?, not falling for that. Will still not be a Longview, Aledo, or name any elite 5A program. Those are the guys we used to compete with or beat all the time. Tired of all the excuses, false hope, no playoffs and waiting for the better that will never come. We no longer have the staff here who want to do what it takes to build a Longview or College Station type program here. It's not all staff, not going to put them all in one pile as they say, but there are two for sure that should have been gone long ago. Anyway, that's all on Quick and not any of us. I'm not the one getting paid $130K a year to not make the playoffs three years in a row.  That is a tough evaluation.

Well said PA. Nothing will change until the program is under new leadership. The fans will just be forced to put up with this staff.

Did Lufkin ever release the enrollment numbers??

16 minutes ago, Webleedpurple said:

I am ready to put my Purple shades back on. I can't wait for next season.

😎😁

52 minutes ago, PurpleNation said:

I think they will 100% make the playoffs next season. In reality a lot of good teams would have struggled to make the playoffs in this district. Of course the district is going to be weaker next season because there will be nothing close to this that would geographically be able to put together. They return a ton of starters and I think not having Kedren may actually open things up for the offense. I think we got carried away trying to feed him. They played toe to toe with some really good teams this year. Forney, Lancaster are Top 10 caliber teams and McKinney North was Top 15. I looking forward to next season. I think they will definitely be a factor to make a run.

I'm in all on the defense. I would like to see them switch to a 4-3 next year. Alexander is too good to be playing backup to Zion. Still don't understand why the Murphy kid at LB didn't get more playing time. He made plays every time he was on the field. Reminds me of Mandela Roberts with that quick burst to the ball. I don't know what Quick plans are for next year. But I would have Murphy starting at one of the LB positions, Hoop in the middle, and I would like to see Carson Jones get a shot at a spot. I keep telling people that kid is head hunter. I believe the entire secondary returns and now you can move Hood into the starting lineup at DE. Lufkin isn't lacking for any talent on defense. 

We had opportunities to win all of our games in the 4th qtr, except Longview. Nothing we could've done to walk out of that place with a win. The other games were winnable. We just need better OL play and play calling. McNorth was the only game outside of Longview our defense just fell apart. 

I hope the kids do well next season. I'm not holding my breathe though. We will be entering year 13 with Quick and not much has changed in most of those years. My guess is we will still have OL issues. 

Longview is the closest comparison for Lufkin. And they never have the problems we seem to always have. At least during the Quick era. Haven't seen a LV practice, so I can't speak on that. Only what I've seen in person and on game film. The OL is solid on all levels when I watch them. All the way down to the freshmen games I've seen. That tells me the expectations are set early on. Anyone who saw Lufkin JV Thursday, wouldn't notice much difference between the OL play Friday. Lancaster blew past linemen in both games. The JV could barely get punts off because of it. 

18 minutes ago, Webleedpurple said:

Has anyone heard if we host a playoff game Friday or Saturday?

I heard we will. Don’t know the teams though.

24 minutes ago, LufkinPack said:

Lol so true. We’re always “young”. We’ve been young since 2017 🤣

Yep..lol. I remember when I first noticed it. I was like wait a minute..I thought we was young the year before. And then it kept happening. 😅

36 minutes ago, LufkinPack said:

Well now what? Wash, rinse, repeat? Despite a heroic effort last night and what I thought was above average play calling for this staff, we’re still 5-5 and sitting at home during the playoffs for the 3rd straight season. We all know what winning programs would do but that’s not us so. I guess we just hope for a lesser district next season along with what kids we have returning to make something happen. 

We have seen this movie a million times and know how it ends. Lufkin in a competitive district prob misses the playoffs next year. I know this staff all too well. Green is losing his workhorse back, that he has leaned on for 3 years now. And still was unable to crack a playoff spot. So he won't have a get out of jail card. And I suspect will struggle getting the offense moving. Despite some of his flaws, TJ was a 3 year starter and worked hard at the position. Just wasn't always put in the best position to be successful. Johnson will have to take his lumps early on. I would feel better about him, if he had more meaningful playing time this year. In retrospect, he prob should've spent another year on JV getting some reps. A great off season could set him up for good year. I think it will take some time though. 

Breaking in those two positions alone will be a challenge. I think Lufkin could get a spot in a really weak district. Which really wouldn't mean much. If you facing a team from a really competitive district like the one we are in now. Best case scenario is prob one and done next year. I think the defense will be much improved. But you have to be able to score points at some point. Not sure the OL problems get fixed over the next year.

6 minutes ago, PackAttack said:

Someone on this forum predicted a 5-5 finish before the season began. I said no way that happens, I predicted no worse thathan 7-3 and a 3rd place finish. Well, looks like I was wrong. It's not just 5-5 either. This team started 3-0 in non district.  Finished 2-5 in district.  Just terrible.

And we only beat the two worst teams in district.

28 minutes ago, Packfan49 said:

You might right about s S&C coach but the larger cities just have so many more kids to draw from. Di d you just notice how much bigger some of Lancaster  kids were. That part of DFW has many cities in that area, Lancaster,Desoto,Cedar Hill, Duncanville ,you can go from one to another without knowing you have left a city

I'm familiar with the are. You can't coach size. But your guys could definitely benefit from being a bit stronger, faster, and better conditioned. All things that can be improved to a degree. Longview is usually undersized on the line when they face those DFW schools too. But hardly see them getting whipped on the line like us. Those guys are tough as nails in the trenches and use speed and technique to out maneuver bigger lines. Out saw it last year when they played Mansfield Timberview. Mansfield fans thought they would just steam roll over Longview because they were so much bigger. Longview was also smaller than McKinney on the line and they held up. So it can be done with the right people in place. Lufkin just need to start over. 

And what was up with all the false starts? Beating Lancaster is hard enough without the penalties. Lufkin done much better when the began to go to some of their other skill players. Preston still showing us how underutilized he was for most of the year. Kevo and Murphy also played well. That trio could've been something special this year with a more creative offensive coordinator.

1 minute ago, LufkinPack said:

Lufkin just matches up well with Lancaster. I think they slept on us a little bit last season, but we were right there with them step for step two years in a row now.  

Was just saying this. The Longview game was the only one we completely fell apart. We were in all the rest and had opportunities to win. Lack of proper coaching and direction has held Lufkin back. 

So many issues with the program. And now a possible 4th consecutive missed post season is on the table for Quick. Lufkin O-line has to be addressed or this program will stay in the dumps. It was the same yesterday at the JV game. The line just letting guys blow past them. Not much resistance at all. We also just look physically small when compared to most of the other teams we play. We need a strength and conditioning coach.