The Playoff Picture is starting to form

By Alan Zepeda / TexasPrepInsider.com
Three weeks left in the season and the playoff picture is clearing up, let's look at 4A this week.

18-4A: Brenham, Livingston and Waller are in great shape while Caney Creek and Montgomery are looking to pull an upset somewhere to get in. Livingston has been a powerhouse this season but how the heck are they doing it? Their defense is solid but their offense is next to last in the district. Just win baby.

19-4A: Each team has a loss and with three weeks left things are wide open. Wheatley is in the best shape, Scarborough has no realistic shot, other than those two it is a coin flip.

20-4A: Yates looks real good while the last spots will be fought for among Sharpstown, Washington and Waltrip. The other three teams need a lot of help to get in.

21-4a: Galena Park is in good shape with Crosby and SMILEY having the inside edge at a playoff spot. Barbers Hill is on the outside looking in as are C.E. King and Forest Brook, the other two teams have not played good football this year and are doubtful at this point.

22-4A: It is still wide open in this one with four teams in front (PNG, Lumberton, Nederland and Dayton), with Central and Ozen still having chances. Vidor and LCM are pretty much out.

23-4A: Let's say it now, a good team will be staying home for the playoffs. One out of Texas City, Dickinson, Friendswood and La Marque won't make the playoffs. That is a freaking shame because those four all deserve playoff spots. Other teams are still alive but have no realistic shot.

24-4A: Still a lot of football to be played and this district is just getting started. El Campo and Lamar Consolidated look like playoff teams with Bay City and Terry fighting it out for the last spot.

AROUND THE AREA

Don't play with matches: La Marque flirted with disaster too many times this season and it finally happened, they lost and everything has gone crazy in 4A land for Houston. That district is so tough that the slightest down day and you will lose and the Cougars did just that.

Cy Fair vs. Cy Falls: That was a fun game to watch. Sam did his part but Shane Turner was the star of this show. How about the coaching job that David Raffield has done, no one gave them a serious shot at the playoffs and they look headed right there.

Our new 4A # 1 is; El Campo, tough choice but they have won, beaten good teams and really with La Marque showing iffy all year long we were trying to figure out to drop them down a notch in the rankings or not.

Thus El Campo inherits our top spot. They have given up only 8 points a game and 221 yards a game. Bob Gillis' is doing a heck of a coaching job this year and their numbers are great across the board. Two fumble recoveries a game, one interception a game, 30 points scored a game, 8 points given up a game, good against the run and the pass. The run, wow, they are better than good against the run they have given up 112 yards a game on the ground.

High School Football Websites 3.0: Yes as you have noticed we are into a new boom for high school websites. This is actually the third time we have seen a boom in the number of sites out there. The first run was the originals such as John Walk (Walksports.com) and Buck Cargill and that entire group. These were the originals they got things started and showed what could be done on the internet. We, Texaxsprepinsider.com, came along at that time and was known as Texasprepfb.com.

When the internet ad revenues skyrocketed you saw the growth of a slew of new high school football sites, seems everyone and their brother wanted to cash in, this was HSFW 2.0. A lot of great sites came out at that time but some sites were out there that just did not understand what was going on. When the ad revenues collapsed on the internet you saw about 75% of the sites collapse and quit. That left it to the hard core high school sites such as ourselves left to carry the ball. We joined up with High School Xtra and changed our name to Texas Prep Xtra. At this point video was still useless on the internet, speeds for people at home were not fast enough, and you did it for the fun and not the money because there was no money to be made.

Now we are in generation 3.0 for high school football websites. Several places have stepped up what they do and are using their resources. This is one reason why we liked HSGameTime.com, they were doing things right and getting some of the right people out there. There are some sights out there that started up and are throwing out crazy money trying to get ahead of the game and beat the rest.

Good luck to those but if one thing has shown over the past ten years is that doing high school football in Texas is not a money making venture, it is fun but not very profitable. Very few have been able to make anything at doing this with the exception of DCTF, even ourselves, I put everything we make into the writers we have. I expect another year or two on this run and you will see another shakeup with some of the sites closing shop.

HSGametime.com will be here because they are using resources they already had and are available, and we will be here. We will also still be here because for me and my crew it was never about the money, we would still see 3-4 games a weekend if we were not doing the site. We all have full-time jobs and this is what we do for fun, it is our passion. Those who are doing sites for the same reason will make it to 4.0. The big winner in all of this though, is the fan, there is a ton of info out there from video, to analysis and to recruiting info.

This week on the site, on top of our regular features, I will start breaking down the top juniors in the state and area. I will also be back on ESPN radio on Friday night talking more football and recruiting.

See you at the ball game.

Alan Zepeda
Alan Zepeda is the editor of
TexasPrepInsider.com, an exclusive content partner of HSGameTime.com. To
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Posted by TJ Aulds  at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)