Torres Tackles: Records don’t determine football team’s worth

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Bill Parcells once said you are what your record says you are. This antiquated way of thinking may be the reason why he wasn’t able to stick around to reboot the Dallas Cowboys or the Miami Dolphins during his head coaching stints there.

Nonetheless, the idea that you are what the final score says doesn’t seem to follow suit for high school ball, specifically under UIL rules, especially since the non-district portion of the schedule has no bearing to whether a team will be able to make the playoffs.

Many Texas high school football purists dislike the current rules that sends everybody (OK, four teams) to postseason play, especially because for most districts that means more than half of the teams will see a bi-district matchup. But critics will point to years where a team, like the Gonzales Apaches of the late 70s who posed an 8-2, 8-2 and 9-1 record from 1976-78 missed the playoffs because they weren’t district champions.

Nonetheless, this is 2015 and District 15-4A DII will be sending four off to the playoffs.

Last season the La Vernia Bears, led by then-head coach Bo Robinson, came away with a 10-2 record, with a 4-1 non-district record, an unblemished district title and a tight three-point loss in the second round of the playoffs.

This year’s team went 1-4 in non-district before beating Rockport-Fulton and Beeville Jones to move to 3-4 overall, 2-0 in district.

The Gonzales Apaches were district runner-ups last season, losing all five non-district games before going 4-1 in the games that matter. They too went two games deep in the playoffs, ending their season 5-7.

This year’s iteration has gone 0-5 in non-district before beating Pleasanton and Rockport-Fulton to become the other undefeated district team this season.

Tonight’s game features two teams who are both 2-0 in district but a combined 1-9 in non-district. Dave Campbell’s football magazine had these teams pegged as district champ and runner-up, with the Bears taking the title. Even with the tough non-district portion, prognosticators wouldn’t change their prediction of the Bears becoming district champions over a team like, for instance, the Pleasanton Eagles who went 4-1 in their non-district.

Simply put, not all records are equal. Just look at the schedule.

La Vernia took on Wimberley (2-6), Port Lavaca Calhoun (7-0), La Grange (6-2), Sinton (7-0) and Navarro (7-0).

Meanwhile, the Apaches took on Giddings (7-0), Cuero (3-4), Navarro (7-0), Yoakum (3-5) and Bellville (6-2).

Meanwhile, the Pleasanton Eagles took on San Antonio Edison (3-4), San Antonio Lanier (0-8), Carrizo Springs (1-7), Poteet (3-4) and San Antonio Christian (1-6).

Obviously the schedule doesn’t give you the whole picture. After all, things like injuries, matchups, referee decisions and even just the way a ball bounces can determine whether a team wins or loses.

But what the schedule does highlight is the fact that before the district season begins, nothing really matters.

Just look at La Vernia and Gonzales.

“[La Vernia has] played some really good football teams,” Gonzales’ head football coach Kodi Crane said. “[It] took them awhile to find themselves, very similar to us. But whenever they did, they’re hitting on all cylinders.”

La Vernia is also under a new coach, Brandon Layne, who has inserted his own philosophies to the team.

A district champion can be determined tonight, midway through the district season with a battle of top competitors in Gonzales and La Vernia. Meanwhile, Pleasanton, who boasted the district’s best overall record can drop to fourth or fifth after their game against Beeville Jones.

Last season the Eagles took fourth in the district, although their overall record was 6-4, two games better than the 4-6 Apaches in 2014. But because of UIL’s way of determining playoff contenders, a process that I tend to agree with, It was Gonzales that went into the season as a runner-up and a more favorable playoff game as opposed to Pleasanton taking on another district champion to start their postseason run.

Crane has been quoted a few weeks ago saying that he doesn’t believe his team is a typical 0-5 team and so far he’s been right. The Apaches and the Bears are not what their records say they are at this point, and by the end of the year it’ll show in the playoff standings.

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