Published 12:10 am Wednesday, August 3, 2022
By Chris Moore | PANews.com
Football fans across Southeast Texas have been getting the latest issue of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, which includes summaries and predictions for every high school and college football team in the state.
The magazine has long been a must-have for football aficionados. Players and coaches often use the predictions as fodder for discussions.
This year two local teams earned the predictions of second-place finishes in their respective districts.
The magazine predicts the district shake ups to cause new leaders to emerge. For instance Crosby and Barbers Hill, who were previously in 5A-Division II with Nederland and Port Neches-Groves, moved up to District I with Memorial. Campbell’s predicts Memorial will come in second behind Crosby with Barbers Hill finishing third. The magazine also named Titans safety Daevon Iles as the District 8 preseason defensive MVP.
“I don’t purchase it or look at. It is mainly for the fans,” Memorial Head Coach Brian Morgan said. “There are some talented teams in our district. There are some teams that weren’t in our district. We played Crosby and Barbers Hill. They are the same teams from last year. They graduated a bunch of guys like we did. I don’t know that you can write a lot into it. How did offseason go for you? How about spring and summer? The first two non-district games will tell a lot for us. We have a lot of guys we think can play. We might come out after two games and not think they are very good. It is the nature of it.”
The publication also named Memorial as one of four dark horse teams that could “crash the party and bust our brackets come playoff time.”
PNG and Nederland are in District 9-Division II this season.
Last year Campbell’s magazine caused some buzz around Port Neches-Groves after it predicted PNG would miss the playoffs for the first time in eight years and finish in fifth place in their district. The prediction was often referenced during the season that saw PNG finish third in the district and advance to the third round of the playoffs.
Fans wearing purple will likely be pleased with the prediction this year, which sees PNG finishing second in the district behind Fort Bend Marshall, which opens the season as the No. 4-ranked team in 5A-Division II. Dave Campbell’s also named PNG quarterback Cole Crippen and the preseason offensive MVP.
Texas City and Nederland round out the top four.
Nederland was predicted to finish second in the district last season, but a senior exodus left the Bulldogs without much experience. This year the 400-page publication guesses the Bulldogs will finish in fourth place.
Nederland Head coach Monte Barrow also said he had not seen the predictions but said he and his staff know the players are aware.
“I surely haven’t looked at it this year because since, I filled it out, our team has changed tremendously,” he said. “That doesn’t mean a whole lot. Everybody gets everything and everyone hears everything. We don’t try and block out the noise because they are going to hear it on the street, in the classroom and at home. We just want to make sure the players know it isn’t about what they think about us, it is what we do.”
