wolfpack4life

They have multiple 9th graders with D1 offers already. Their sophomore class is good and their JR class is experienced from a lot of players seeing time as sophomores last year. Those two LBs (Sueing brothers) can play. Tyler went from getting blown out by McNorth to nearly beating them and this is a better McNorth team than last year. They may or may not make post season this year, but they will be a force for years afterwards.

Wallace is '26, so he'll be a sophomore this year. PA mentioned that Forney graduated SR LBs....they actually didn't lose much of anything to graduation. They return 9 starters on that defense (DCTF says 8, but I counted 9). That includes all of their LBs from last year. One of those LBs is Landry Hopkins, one of the top '26 LBs in Texas. And now they add Riggins...who'll probably be in the top 2 or 3 2025 LBs in Texas when the updated 2025 rankings come out. Has offers from everywhere. Forney has 3 starters back on their defensive line, I wouldn't be shocked if they move to the 3-4 this year to accommodate all of those LBs. That or they stay in the even front and one of those LBs move down to DE... Bad news for the opposition regardless.

Taylor could've went anywhere that he wanted. Dude had 40+ offers including Bama, Georgia, Ohio State...you name it. Ultimately OU landed Tatum for 4 reasons. NIL, Baseball, SEC and uncertainty with Lincoln Riley's future at USC. Baseball was equally as important as football for Taylor (he's a draft prospect in baseball). We all know these players love the SEC and there is a lot of talk about Riley leaving SC for the NFL after this year. He'll probably have a chance to play pretty early at OU too. What isnt talked about enough is the NIL portion of it. Lobo alum Vincent Taylor, cousin of Bobby Taylor who both won a basketball state championship in 1992 at Longview, is a highly successful sports agent and represented Taylor and his family during the NIL process. I don't want to tell too much but, let's just say Taylor will be well compensated at OU. Vincent Taylor is also the agent of Trent Williams and other notable NFL athletes. Now, on the topic on Taylor's talents...when you have varsity snaps at Longview as a 9th grader...that says alot. The only other player that did the same this side of the 80s was Jalen Hale. What Taylor does at RB is one thing but what really makes him unique is his ability to line up out wide and cook you as a WR. As a matter of fact, if he played WR, LB or S...he would've been 4* talents at those positions as well.

OL is King's bread and butter. An OL guru. I've seen him coach up 5'11 200 pound tackles to all state teams. What people have to understand is he was a state championship winning OL in HS. Then played OL on the D1 level at Northwestern St, where he played all 5 positions at some point. He's considered one of the top 100 players to play for the school. https://nsudemons.com/honors/n-club-hall-of-fame/john-king/228 Then as coach, learning from the great Pat Collins while coaching OL and being OC under him certainly had its perks. Even though he's HC, he still coaches OL directly. Matter of fact, Longview has 3 coaches dedicated to coaching the OL. Coach King, Coach Borens (former OL for the Lobos that played in two state championship games and a semifinal, most starts in Lobo history), and Coach Hancock (former coordinator in ETX). I also saw Coach CJ Lottinger in Taylor Tatum's commitment announcement yesterday. If hes back at Longview, wow. He coached some good offensive lines around ETX over the years...including Marshall's state finalist line in 2005 and Longview's state championship line in 2018.

Yeah...we don't complain much about trench play. We've had years that were better than others for sure but I can't say that we've put a trash product on the field in the King era. 2016 DL may be an exception...but that wasn't a Berry DL. You have two OL and DL gurus on staff in Coach King and Coach Berry. Both coaches are very hard on both units. I tell people all the time, one of the hardest things to do in TXHSFB is play OL for Coach King. He is going to push you to the limits mentally and physically...you'd definitely better have thick skin. If youve ever seen a Longview practice, you know King has a mouth on him lol Iron also sharpens iron. You can't have a good OL without a good DL and vice versa. King and Berry are also very similar in the sense of what they're looking for in a kid. They don't simply want the biggest. They want the best. They want dogs.

Tutt was the guy during 7v7. Tutt was apart of that baseball run so in his absence during the spring, '25 Maverick Rowe was QB1 and did pretty well. It was his 2nd spring throwing varsity passes because of others who were in baseball. Thing to remember about Tutt, although he isn't a returning starter, he's a 3 year varsity player. '25 DD Williams (6'5 190) also in the mix, but today I'd say he's 3rd in the pecking order. It's ultimately coming down to Tutt and Rowe IMO. I'm cool with whoever.

Aledo is a beast. Champs until otherwise proven. That was the bad thing about us not beating them last year, THIS year was actually supposed to be their year.

I think both will be better, or at the very least ...the same as 2022. Lancaster is a more talented and experienced team compared to last year and defensive returning starters don't do them justice for what they have on that side of the ball. For instance, those returning starters aren't counting two D1 LBers that transferred into Lancaster from Cedar Hill and Duncanville respectfully. They've also had D1 talent transfer in at WR, which pushed one of their D1 WRs to full time safety. List goes on. They aren't deprived of any ballers on either side of the ball. They actually look like a really good football team from top to bottom. For Longview, the Lobos are just straight loaded. I don't think people quite understand...but the 2024 and 2025 classes have now merged to form what will be 2023 Longview...that is insane. We're talking 2 deep at most positions. The same way that people in Lufkin are excited for the 2025 class (and rightfully so)....Longview folks feel the same way about both the 2024 AND 2025 classes. We're talking about two special classes that blewout everyone that they faced as freshmen, including Highland Park and Denton Ryan...on the road! Having special SR and JR classes on one team is what gets you ranked top 2 in the state. The senior group that just left, much like Longview's freshmen ('26) team this past year, were good classes with a special player or two but wouldn't call the groups as a whole special like '24 and '25 are. • 14 3 year players in this SR group, and they've played in a lot of playoff games. • 6 3 year starters on defense • 7 of 11 starters on defense with offers, including the entire secondary • 13 back from a squad that played in the defacto state championship against Aledo and had them down 14-3 at half • Taylor Tatum just received his 5th star • Solid big and experienced OL in front of him and the other talented backs • D1 talent at WR and TE QB1 won't have to do much with all of that around him. Hit some passes off play action and take care of the ball. Lancaster and Longview are looking really good. I expect everyone in the district to be better. The only teams that I'd be shocked to see in playoffs are the Mesquite schools.

Alijah Johnson just transferred back to Longview from Aledo. So two in the backfield with D1 offers for the Lobos.

Alijah transferred, yes. But now Longview is about to use '25 LBs Brenden Reese and Kason Brooks... and/or possibly '26 Mason Washington at FB. All 3 are D1 prospects, so it's not the end of the world. All the transfer did was open up an avenue for other talented players to see the field. I mean, seeing a 6'1 220 D1 LB in the backfield is not going to be fun for opposing defenses. Taylor Tatum and Boosie Washington will already be enough to deal with. Bauer was '26 and more so effected Longview's future than it did the current team. It would've been nice to keep him because I've never witnessed a Lobo secondary with 4 D1 players, but even without him, we'll have 3 D1 DBs (Buddha Garrett, Chase Smith and Willie Nelson) to go along with 2 others with D2 offers (Jaiden Simmons and Javion Robertson). Jaiden Simmons is a 3 year starter and those D2 offers could turn into D1 offers at some point. I didn't even mention '25 Jailynn Taylor who transferred in and will play next level as well. He was a varsity starter last season as a sophomore. 6'0 180. Secondary is solid. Would I have preferred to keep Johnson and Bauer? Yep. Will the train derail because of their absence? Nope. We're ranked 2nd in the state without them so that says a lot.

Longview has 6 with D1 offers (so far). RB Taylor Tatum, WR DK Reese, LB Brenden Reese, S Chase Smith, S Buddha Garrett and S Willie Nelson. More on the way. It would've been 8 had Alijah Johnson and Lebron Bauer not left for Aledo and Allen. But we'll be fine without them. 7 of 11 starters on Longview's defense currently have some sort of college offer, including the entire secondary.

Tutt is apart of the stacked SR group. Was a magician as a freshman, this will be his 3rd year on varsity. Of course, he had been backing up Allen all of that time. There was a time when some thought he was better than Allen. Could be in for a breakout SR year now that Allen is gone. Tutt was with baseball during the spring. '25 Mav Rowe was QB1 in his absence and looked pretty good this spring too so Longview has bodies at QB. The JV kid you're talking about is probably 3rd best QB in the program right now...4th in terms of potential. We have an incoming Freshman that'll undoubtedly be P5.

The Tatum at QB thing has more to do with Boosie and Mason Washington than any question marks that we have at QB. That's 2 other backs not named Tatum that will play college ball. They're trying to get as much talent on the field as possible and Tatum, like so many other baseball studs, actually has a sneaky arm. Not a Haynes King arm but enough to be somewhat effective. Not sure if it'll happen though. Maverick Rowe looked great this spring.

McNorth probably has one more year of juice left in them, thanks to McKinney ISD zoning trends. Their SR class is solid, but beyond that there isn't much. I gave Lufkin the edge because it's at Abe and they'll have a little more depth. Would've given them the edge if it was in McKinney. What I don't understand is the thought of Forney taking a step back. They were really young last year (multiple D1 players returning) and had dominant subvarsity teams...not to mention well coached. One of the fastest growing school districts in DFW too. They are well over the 6A cutoff as I type. Mesquite ISD won't be good. Tyler is interesting.