2024 LUFKIN PANTHER VARSITY FOOTBALL DISCUSSION TOPIC

[timeout!]

4 hours ago, CardiacPack said:

Nope not at all, that’s why I wished he would’ve stayed at OLB. Previous spring he suffered an injury before the season even began and it gradually got worst where he had to sit out almost the entire season. 

Scary to think how good he could be at LB with that speed. 

[PackAttack]

33 minutes ago, Pack13 said:

Wasn’t calling you out specifically just the last post talking about it. Still waiting on O line. I look forward to seeing them in the scrimmage. I thought teams actually backed off Young last year because they knew the line could be beat. That’s why I’m concerned. If teams feel they can pressure with 3 or 4 rushers again this year and stop the run with 7 in the box we will be in trouble. I’m hoping we see more options though with a running qb and a speedy back like Chinn. I actually liked that play the last few years we just didn’t run it much. 

You would think most of the responsibility for a good OL depended on the ability of the OLC to design something that works. I don't  know this as fact, but It has been said here a couple times that the Panther OL is made up of the lineman who are not good enough to play DL.  Like I said, don't  know. Just know it seems to be a recurrent issue.

[timeout!]

58 minutes ago, PackAttack said:

Did not say that at all. The three years Young was a Panther were phenominal, he was 80% the offense. My point, was he was the lone best threat in the backfield those years. Did not have a mobile QB to offset the D, Young had to make his own way for the most part. Just saying this 2024 running game by committee looks to be interesting to watch and give opposing defenses more to work on. Definitely different than the last 3 seasons.  It's not lost on me that defenses loaded up on Kedren to stop him, to no avail and rarely shut him down. That's why he owns 4 of 5 top rushing games in Lufkin history.

My question always lies with the OL, or what are the coaches doing different this year with this talent, than the past three?  Not having a playoff platform built before this season makes a difference, even with great talent on board. You can't ignore that fact. 

 

That was one huge issue. The threat of Young should've been used to set up other stuff. Instead we just kept running him into brick walls. A lot of what he did was from raw talent. I watched several Longview games and they hardly ever ran him into the ground the way Lufkin did with Young. They will usually have 2-3 guys they keep in the mix. Green never really tried to ease the work load for Young. 

[wolfpack4life]

13 hours ago, timeout! said:

I watched several Longview games and they hardly ever ran him into the ground the way Lufkin did with Young. They will usually have 2-3 guys they keep in the mix. Green never really tried to ease the work load for Young. 

We'll have a solid 4 man backfield again this year too. King loves his RBs. And they'll be running behind an OL with 3 starters back and two TEs that go 6'3 255 and 6'2 250 a piece.

SR Boosie Washington is getting the D1 attention but so is JR Mason Washington (5'11 200) who saw carries last year as a sophomore. The pair torched Reedy last year in the playoffs when Tatum went down.

SR Buster Mumphrey (5'10 190) is returning starter at FB. 

But maybe the most interesting RB is transfer JR Javarion Pereira (5'11 185). He looked fantastic during the spring, no telling what his ceiling is but he was the most consistent RB for Longview this spring which says a lot. 

[PurpleNation]

17 hours ago, Pack13 said:

Some of yall on here acting like Young isn’t the reason they had the wins they did. The offenses they had the last two years were atrocious. Youngs yards after contact has to be close to his career total. The lines inability to pass protect, requiring the need for keeping in an extra blocker or two inhibited the offenses ability to be efficient. Many teams were able to drop 8 and still apply pressure. If anyone has any reason to believe that will change let me know. 
I think the offense has some weapons, I’m a huge fan of the mobile qb but when it comes down to it the offense will be as good as the line allows. 

I think they leaned on Young to much at times. They didn't start throwing the ball to Preston until late in the year. Half of the time they would throw lobs to a 5'6 WR that had no business getting those targets before Preston. When Hammond showed read option nobody on defense was worried about him keeping it. You could just crash down with your edge player with no worries. That's not gonna be the case this year. Teams will have to slow play it or risk giving up huge chunks or yards to the QB.  They're gonna be significantly better then last year and it's going to be evident early on. They return a ton of kids and are upgrading at the most important position on the field. If they can't manage this group to a thanksgiving week game at the minimum I'll be shocked.

[PurpleNation]

17 hours ago, Pack13 said:

I’m just looking at legit concerns while some of are drinking the koolaid. Who is the backup qb? I don’t believe Lufkin has had the starting qb stay healthy a full season in a while. I like the versatility at running back but Chinn missed much of the spring with a hamstring pull as did many other players, what is with all those injuries? I think the receivers are great and talented but the ball has to get to them. Preston seemed to get thrown to once every three games last year. Will something be done to fix that. We heard last year the offensive line only looked bad because the defense was so good. Turned out not to be true. So why is it true this year? What have numbers looked like in summer workouts? What have they changed about their off season to develop players more? I haven’t seen many take steps towards improvement over the last few years. 

Gavin and Taylor are the back up QBs if an emergency occurs. Both are more than capable of running the offense. You can call it kool-aid but they should be good next season and DCTFM also agrees. How many teams that didn't make the playoffs ranked in the top 20? They beat Consolidated who went to the 4th RD. Were in both games against Forney and Lancaster late another 2 teams that also made the quarter finals. Longview was the only team we didn't compete with and I can promise this season it's going to be very different when we play those guys. 

[PurpleNation]

15 hours ago, timeout! said:

That was one huge issue. The threat of Young should've been used to set up other stuff. Instead we just kept running him into brick walls. A lot of what he did was from raw talent. I watched several Longview games and they hardly ever ran him into the ground the way Lufkin did with Young. They will usually have 2-3 guys they keep in the mix. Green never really tried to ease the work load for Young. 

I think Tatum got hurt in a game they were up huge in. They may not have ran him into the ground but I remember thinking he had no business being in when he got hurt. Maybe I remember it wrong and WP4L can correct me.

[PurpleNation]

On 6/29/2024 at 1:38 PM, CardiacPack said:

Agreed! This team has to much talent not make it far into the playoffs or all the way….IF each player is used correctly. I’m hoping they can all stay healthy because every single one of them will be needed to have a successful season. Go pack! 

I really wouldn't be surprised if they did. The teams to beat in Region 3 will be Consolidated and College Station. I think PAM is a year away and not really sure what to make of Barbers Hill right now. Smithson Valley will be the semifinal game for whoever makes it out of Region 3. None of those teams scare me with what we have have this year. Same College Station we beat as Freshmen while missing 6 starters due to injury. 

[Pack13]

36 minutes ago, PurpleNation said:

Gavin and Taylor are the back up QBs if an emergency occurs. Both are more than capable of running the offense. You can call it kool-aid but they should be good next season and DCTFM also agrees. How many teams that didn't make the playoffs ranked in the top 20? They beat Consolidated who went to the 4th RD. Were in both games against Forney and Lancaster late another 2 teams that also made the quarter finals. Longview was the only team we didn't compete with and I can promise this season it's going to be very different when we play those guys. 

I agree they should be good on paper. But the players aren’t what worries me. That being said I agree Preston should have had more long pass than the smaller receiver did. Never understood that but reenforces what I said about I’m not worried about the players. I also agree with you Johnson should have been the qb after forney. That game was the most uncomfortable I saw defenses all year because Johnson could run and when young stepped in no one knew what was going to happen. I know they were in games but they never looked as fresh as other teams in the second half. Tyler exposed them with speed in the second half. I just hope Lufkin made the adjustment to improve in those areas 

[LufkinPack]

Biggest advantage College Station and Consolidated have over Lufkin is coaching. They are way ahead of us in that department. We will have to out athlete those guys. 

[PackAttack]

1 hour ago, LufkinPack said:

Biggest advantage College Station and Consolidated have over Lufkin is coaching. They are way ahead of us in that department. We will have to out athlete those guys. 

We beat AMC twice and can't make the playoffs, AMC went on to play 2 and 4 rounds respectively the last two years. We just didn't get better as the year progressed. 

Quick is the only person left who originally came here with Outlaw in 1995. Green was hired as WRC in 1996 and Cook as a assistant in 2002. Winfred Simmons was already here when Outlaw arrived, he came over to LHS from Dunbar in 1974.  They have the longest tenures on the current staff. No one other coach on staff has had anything to do with any of the great Panther playoff teams of our distant past and only James Durham was around for the 2017 -2018 playoff years.  Quick is about to enter his 30th year at Lufkin, Green his 28th year and Cook his 22nd year and Simmons's enters his 50th year, the last several as an JV OL coach.

AMC and CS have made the necessary staff changes over the years to stay a relevant contender, no matter the competitiveness of the district they played. Both moved up from 5A DII to 5A DI at different times and didn't miss a beat winning titles and making the playoffs every year.  Some may debate whether complacency crept into our program, whatever happen took a while to slide it into the last three years. All that coaching experience did not translated into a ton of playoff success these last twelve years. That's a fact.

There will be some changes in the coaching staff this year, Jeff Tate has moved to a job inside the district, Trevor Kiminski is now at Magnolia West. These are the only two changes I'm aware. Both were tied to baseball and coached JV football.  If anyone know of other changes or additions in staff please let us know.

[wolfpack4life]

3 hours ago, PurpleNation said:

I think Tatum got hurt in a game they were up huge in. They may not have ran him into the ground but I remember thinking he had no business being in when he got hurt. Maybe I remember it wrong and WP4L can correct me.

Yeah, he got hurt on this play in the 2nd round against Reedy.   https://youtu.be/pOEzISEMQ50?t=3633

But then, the Washington boys took over and absolutely gave Reedy the business. Boosie had 141 on 14 carries that night, Mason had 100+ too I believe. I know he took this one to the house after half and its a 65 yarder. https://youtu.be/pOEzISEMQ50?t=5966

 

[LufkinPack]

2 hours ago, PackAttack said:

We beat AMC twice and can't make the playoffs, AMC went on to play 2 and 4 rounds respectively the last two years. We just didn't get better as the year progressed. 

Quick is the only person left who originally came here with Outlaw in 1995. Green was hired as WRC in 1996 and Cook as a assistant in 2002. Winfred Simmons was already here when Outlaw arrived, he came over to LHS from Dunbar in 1974.  They have the longest tenures on the current staff. No one other coach on staff has had anything to do with any of the great Panther playoff teams of our distant past and only James Durham was around for the 2017 -2018 playoff years.  Quick is about to enter his 30th year at Lufkin, Green his 28th year and Cook his 22nd year and Simmons's enters his 50th year, the last several as an JV OL coach.

AMC and CS have made the necessary staff changes over the years to stay a relevant contender, no matter the competitiveness of the district they played. Both moved up from 5A DII to 5A DI at different times and didn't miss a beat winning titles and making the playoffs every year.  Some may debate whether complacency crept into our program, whatever happen took a while to slide it into the last three years. All that coaching experience did not translated into a ton of playoff success these last twelve years. That's a fact.

There will be some changes in the coaching staff this year, Jeff Tate has moved to a job inside the district, Trevor Kiminski is now at Magnolia West. These are the only two changes I'm aware. Both were tied to baseball and coached JV football.  If anyone know of other changes or additions in staff please let us know.

I’m ready for the rumored big change. But yeah. 

[Pack13]

3 hours ago, PackAttack said:

We beat AMC twice and can't make the playoffs, AMC went on to play 2 and 4 rounds respectively the last two years. We just didn't get better as the year progressed.

This. I don’t think we beat AMC if we met them last year end of October. What those teams do as well is raise the athleticism of all their athletes. Yeah we have high top end ones. But the ones that make up the others positions are better than ours and we see the end results 

[timeout!]

Another issue we have is inexperience. We have a bunch of talented seniors, but they have ZERO playoff experience. The only thing they have close to it. Is having to win the final few games the last couple of years to make it. And still failed to even do that. I can understand losing a couple of close games to Lancaster. But losing to McNorth both years, one game being at Abe and then coming up short to Tyler High is inexcusable. I place most of that blame on the coaching staff. Especially the loss to Tyler High, who had an entirely new staff. But I called that one before the season even started. 

Anyway...new district, region and Qb this year. A plethora of talent to lean on and players wanting to change the narrative about Lufkin football.

[PackAttack]

[wolfpack4life]

1 hour ago, timeout! said:

I place most of that blame on the coaching staff. Especially the loss to Tyler High, who had an entirely new staff. But I called that one before the season even started. 

Yeah I told people when JT announced their hire that Tyler High upgraded big time. 

They have a killer staff and I think they take a step forward this year especially offensively. Multiple D1 guys on that side of the ball. QB1 impressed me last year as a sophomore, he has to be one of the top '26 QBs in the region.

Defense will be the question for them but they're returning 6 starters on that side of the ball including the Sueing brothers at LB. 

[LufkinPack]

2 hours ago, Pack13 said:

This. I don’t think we beat AMC if we met them last year end of October. What those teams do as well is raise the athleticism of all their athletes. Yeah we have high top end ones. But the ones that make up the others positions are better than ours and we see the end results 

Discipline and coaching. Gotta have it. 

[PurpleNation]

6 hours ago, wolfpack4life said:

Yeah, he got hurt on this play in the 2nd round against Reedy.   https://youtu.be/pOEzISEMQ50?t=3633

But then, the Washington boys took over and absolutely gave Reedy the business. Boosie had 141 on 14 carries that night, Mason had 100+ too I believe. I know he took this one to the house after half and its a 65 yarder. https://youtu.be/pOEzISEMQ50?t=5966

 

I guess you can't really fault the staff. I thought he got hurt in the 2nd half. 

[PackAttack]

We officially have a Week #3 game on the 2024 schedule.

Lufkin will travel to Texarkana to play 7A Little Rock Southwest Gryphons at Tiger Stadium @Grim Field on September 13th, 2024 at 7 PM.

https://www.lrsd.org/o/lrsw -  A Gryphon, is a mythological creature with the body, hind legs, and tail of a lion and the wings, front talons, and head of an eagle. The are a relatively new school established, they opened in 2020.

7A Little Rock Southwest was 2-7 on the year and 1-5 in district in 2023. They were 2-8 and 1-7 in 2022 and 1-9 and 1-6 in 2021.

https://x.com/SW_Gryphons_FB

They play in the same 7A district with Bryant, Conway, Cabot and Jonesboro.

[PackAttack]

Jorvorskie Lane speaks about Lufkin Youth Football.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/gXinm22VbjGomLpL/?mibextid=D5vuiz

[PackAttack]

Actually thought it was Pulaski Academy in Little Rock for a long while because they only have 9 games on their 2024 schedule and an open date on 9/13.  I guessed wrong, just knew it was a school  in Arkansas.

Thankful they have a games scheduled, the team has been a lot like us the past three years, missed the playoffs.  Not sure how this SW team is rated this season, will do a bit more digging.

[PurpleNation]

1 hour ago, PackAttack said:

We officially have a Week #3 game on the 2024 schedule.

Lufkin will travel to Texarkana to play 7A Little Rock Southwest Gryphons at Tiger Stadium @Grim Field on September 13th, 2024 at 7 PM.

https://www.lrsd.org/o/lrsw -  A Gryphon, is a mythological creature with the body, hind legs, and tail of a lion and the wings, front talons, and head of an eagle. The are a relatively new school established, they opened in 2020.

7A Little Rock Southwest was 2-7 on the year and 1-5 in district in 2023. They were 2-8 and 1-7 in 2022 and 1-9 and 1-6 in 2021.

https://x.com/SW_Gryphons_FB

They play in the same 7A district with Bryant, Conway, Cabot and Jonesboro.

Wow didn't think it was these guys. This is a bad football team.

[PackAttack]

1 minute ago, PurpleNation said:

Wow didn't think it was these guys. This is a bad football team.

Two different sources gave us this info.  Pulaski Academy still doesn't have a 9/13 game on their schedule, while looking on the LR SW schedule they have Rogers Heritage penciled in on 9/13.    ???????

[mr. b]

Haha.  What happened to the 3 time state champions. ?