KIRK DOOLEY'S BLOG Archives - Page 35 of 39

September 11, 2015September 11, 2015

HP Scots vs Prosper at AT&T Stadium Arlington Saturday, September 12, 2015, 11am Kickoff

Kirk Dooley’s Blog

The ghosts of Davis Webb and Torii Hunter, Jr. will be floating above the field at AT&T Stadium on Saturday during the Highland Park–Prosper game. Davis and Hunter won’t be there, but their legacies will be.

Prosper was just another dusty little town north of Dallas when the Tollway expansion and the residential real estate booms made Prosper the next “next Plano”. Families moved in, schools were built and the Eagles played well in 2A and 3A football. The population continues to boom and should hit 20,000 any minute now.

The Eagles went from pretty good to real good three years ago under the leadership of Webb, a highly recruited quarterback and Hunter, a highly-recruited wide receiver. Two years ago Webb, as a true freshman at Texas Tech, broke the Big 12 freshman record for yards passing in a single game. Hunter now starts at Notre Dame and helped the Fighting Irish dehorn the Horns last Saturday.

Webb and Hunter put Prosper on the map. As the town grew, the school landed in 4A, where the Frisco and McKinney schools beat up on the Eagles. But with fancy new facilities, upper middle class families and kids similar to Highland Park’s, this program is on the verge of greatness. Enter Chris Ross, the guy who can do it.

Ross coached Cedar Park from a small dot on the road near Austin to a Texas football powerhouse. He retired from coaching to take an athletic director’s desk job in Leander to live happily ever after. But being removed from the kids and fellow coaches wasn’t the panacea he had envisioned. He missed coaching.

The head coaching job at Prosper opened up and the folks who hired Ross hit a coaching home run. They lured him back onto the field and that makes Prosper the team to watch over the next five years.

This weekend there are two players to watch. Running back Robert Mahone has 90-yard runs for lunch. Two weeks ago he averaged 13 yards per carry on 12 runs. Anytime he touches the ball, he can find the end zone. Quarterback Ryan Davis ran for 183 yards last week. The Scots defense can pick its poison.

Now that the Scots’ 84-game home wining streak has been snapped, look for a more relaxed and more focused Highland Park team. That pressure is now off. The team is still green in some areas but expectations will be higher in Game Three.

The most fascinating thing to watch will be the former linebackers who now populate the Scots’ defensive line. Key linemen keep getting injured, backups are getting hurt and now the coaches are borrowing linebackers and other athletic players to plug in. These new defensive linemen will have their work cut out for them on Saturday, trying to corral both Mahone and Davis, but I predict that they’ll rise to the occasion.

Next month I’ll explain how the loss to Paluski turned out to be a good thing.

September 4, 2015September 11, 2015

HP Scots vs Pulaski Academy September 4, 2015

Kirk Dooley’s Blog

More than half a dozen media credentials have been requested by ESPN for the Scots’ Friday night match with Pulaski Academy of Little Rock, Arkansas.
There’s two reasons for that. First, ESPN is producing a special on the quirky Arkansas high school powerhouse, the team that never punts and always uses onside kicks on its kickoffs. The second reason is that Highland Park was the only team to beat Pulaski last year and the Scots hope to duplicate that effort this week.
After HP came away with a 48-42 win last September at Highlander Stadium, the Bruins went on to win 13 straight games, averaging 50 points per game. On one hand, the quality of private school football in Little Rock is not the same as 6A football in Texas. On the other hand, the Scots had to recover an onside kick late in the game to preserve the victory. It was a close game.
What will be different this year?
For starters, the Scots now know what to expect. They couldn’t scout Pulaski last year and then in the game they were shown formations they had never seen before. How about all four wide receivers lining up next to each other on one side? How do you defend that? How do you prepare for that? If you have film, you can be ready when it comes up in a game situation.
But Bruins coach Kevin Kelley probably knows he won’t surprise the Scots this week with formations he used last season. However, I’m willing to bet that during the offseason he has gone back into his evil laboratory and concocted some creative new formations. Be ready for anything.
The Bruins will be starting a sophomore quarterback and it will be his first varsity start. As a freshman backup he completed 31 of 49 passes for 381 yards and six touchdowns. Not worried about a sophomore quarterback? Remember what sophomore Graham Harrell did to the Scots at Texas Stadium a few years ago.
Pulaski will be returning six starters from their 13-1 state championship team. There was some confusion whether the Bruins were even in a conference but apparently they are in a private school conference in Little Rock. Coach Kelley has been quoted on saying how bad he wants to end the Scots’ home winning streak.
Last season the Bruins jumped out to a 28-14 lead before the Scots realized a game had begun. HP’s own Antman, Stephen Dieb, scored to tighten the score to 28-21. Then lightning struck as linebacker Mitchell Kaufman returned an interception 33 yards to tie the score. The Scots defense held on a Bruins fourth down, giving the offense excellent field position and so they scored again before the half. Highland Park scored 21 points in a minute and a half to go in halftime with a 35-28 lead.
Sometimes it’s a good idea to punt.

November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

HP vs MIDWAY: Kirk Dooley’s Blog

As the Battle of Midway approaches, the Highland Park football team is preparing for the Game of Year with its 11-0 opponents from the suburbs of Waco.

The Midway Panthers are on the same level as Denton Guyer, Aledo and Mesquite Horn – superlative teams that the Scots have challenged over the past couple of years and teams that can go all the way this year.

Of course, so can the Scots.

On paper, the Panthers have it all – a great quarterback, excellent running back, D1 receivers and an offensive line that is bigger than some colleges. But as good as the Midway offense is, it is no better than this year’s Highland Park offense. The Scots match up at quarterback, running back, offensive line and receivers. The Panthers’ star 6’3” receiver, Devontre Stricklin, may be better than any individual the Scots have, but HP’s four starting receivers are better than Midway’s top four.

Defense? I think this is where the Scots can have the edge. Midway has all-state Lenoy Jones, Jr. at middle linebacker and two outstanding safeties – Marcus Johnson and Kahlil Haughton (who are both excellent kick returners). But as a group the Panther defense has given up 23.8 points per game, which is unusual for a team that rocks an 11-0 record. The Midway offense averages 47.5 points per game and so the team has been outscoring everyone. In their four-game pre-district run, the Panthers won by 8, 10, 7 and 6 points. Two of those teams, Lake Travis and Mansfield Timberview are both 10-1 and still alive in the playoffs. In the only district game where Midway faced a team with a winning record, they beat Copperas Cove, 66-54.

If the Scots put up 54 points, they will win this game. Period.

More than any game HP has played this season, the speed of outside linebackers Hayden Schnieders and Mitchell Kaufman will help determine the outcome of the game. I think the Scots’ defensive line (Danny Gouskos, Nick Waterman and Micheal Thornton) and the inside linebackers (Michael Linehan and Matthew White) will clog up the middle and put the pressure on the OLBs and secondary (Carter McDade, Stephen Briggs, Benji Walzel and Boomer Bakich). These guys seem to thrive on pressure and welcome the challenge. The guys who played last year remember how they outplayed Guyer in the semifinals and were 55 seconds away from beating an unbeatable team.

The HP defense is giving up 12.8 points per game. Midway is averaging 47.5. The Scots defense, if it is firing on all cylinders, will get in the heads of the Midway players when they realize these Dallas guys can stop them and force them to punt.

The Dallas Morning News picks Midway to win, 42-31. I think Highland Park wins the game by that same score, as the Scots defense holds Midway to 16 points below its average. The Panthers won’t see it coming. They are pumped to play Lake Travis next week and, as it’ll turn out, they won’t be playing next week.