For the 10th time since Gordon Wood first roamed a Brownwood sideline in 1960, a new head coach will be leading the Lions football team into a season opener as Jeryl Brixey makes his debut at 7 p.m. Friday at Hugh Sandifer Stadium when the maroon and white battle the Class 5A Division II Abilene Wylie Bulldogs.
The previous nine head coaches for Brownwood are 5-4 in their debuts, with the last three – Chuck Howard, Kyle Maxfield and Sammy Burnett – each coming up short in their initial outing.
“I’m looking forward to the year and feeling, I guess, curious would be a good word, about how we’re going to progress and how the kids are going to react and what the season holds,” Brixey said in regard to his outlook approaching the season opener.
The Lions and Bulldogs are familiar foes, but didn’t play in Week 1 last year as a multi-hour lightning delay at Gordon Wood Stadium resulted in the game being canceled. Wylie went on to a 9-2 season and the District 2-5A Division II championship, while the Lions finished 6-5 overall and earned a third straight bi-district title.
Brownwood, which enters the season ranked No. 24 in Class 4A Division I by Harris Ratings Weekly, is coming off a shaky scrimmage against 10th-ranked Alvarado last week, but after reviewing film, Brixey feels many of the Lions’ miscues are correctable.
“Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem,” Brixey said. “We struggled with Alvarado, they’re a really good football team and you start with that, and then we’re a very inexperienced football team. But once you watch it, you didn’t see us get physically outmatched. The plays they made were us just not blocking the right people or not having our eyes where the should be in the secondary and being where we’re supposed to be. When you’re getting beat because you’re just physically outmatched, that sometimes is a hopeless feeling. But when you get beat because of what you’re either doing or not doing, you feel like you can get those things fixed, and we are going to get them fixed, but part of that is just experience.”
Led by sixth-year head coach Clay Martin, who owns a 35-20 record at Wylie, the Bulldogs – who are ranked No. 28 in Class 5A Division II by Harris Ratings Weekly – return 33 of 44 lettermen, but only five offensive and two defensive starters from the 2024 squad.
Players to watch for Wylie include 6-1, 225-pound running back Julius Laine, who rushed for 1,290 yards and 20 yards a year ago before his season was cut short due to a knee injury. Also back on offense is 5-9, 175-pound receiver Dylan Regala, who grabbed 34 receptions for 526 yards and five scores in 2024.
The Bulldog defense is anchored by 6-0, 200-pound linebacker Bo Kates (105 tackles, 1 fumble recovery), 6-3, 180-pound defensive back Blaze Ruffin (26 tackles, 3 INTs), and defensive end Deandre Rodriguez (32 tackles, 3 for loss, 2 sacks).
“They’re Wylie and they’ve got tall, rangy kids that run well, they’re well coached, they’re going to play hard and they’re not going to beat themselves,” Brixey said of the Bulldogs. “They play an odd front which is what we worked against the most and, to me, that should help us a little bit with our execution, but at the same point in time, they may line up in different places, so we’re going to have to be able to pick other things up. Offensively, they’re going to get in the spread, and they have a big, strong running back that’s going to be a load to tackle.”
Regarding how the Alvarado scrimmage, in which the defenses had no restrictions and were allowed to run whatever they saw fit, will benefit the Brownwood offense in the opener, Brixey said, “I would like to say it would help us a lot, but we didn’t handle that very well the other day. That’s why we’ve got keep building, keep learning and be able to handle it. In my experience, when we do handle it and people start gambling and shooting gaps, things that were killing us the other night, when you know what you’re doing, defenses can pay a steep price for that. We just have to get to the point where we know what we’re doing.”
The projected starting offense for the Lions heading into the opener is Judson Coalson (1,653 passing yards, 13 TDs, 7 INTs; 353 rushing yards, 3 TDs in 2024) at quarterback, Levi Pearson (846 rushing yards, 8 TDs the last two seasons) at running back, Robbie Robinson at fullback, Carson Noe (38-473, 3 TDs) and Connor Cornelius at receivers, Grant Gray (27-437, 5 TDs) at tight end, and a combination along the offensive line of Gustavo Gonzalez, Aidan Packheiser, Avuid Gomez, Omari McNeal, Jackson Rainey and Ryland Martin.
On the flip side of the ball, the Brownwood defense will likely feature Caven Webster (71 tackles, 1 interception, 1 fumble recovery), Wyatt Wolf (100 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 fumble recovery) and Sirr Beam at the safeties, Raven Prado (52 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery) and Nick Rodriguez at the corners, Brinson Martin (145 tackles, 1 sack) and Isaac Gonzales have locked down linebacker spots with Durham Brown, Hudson Fry and Trent Buffington also fighting for playing time. The defensive line will be anchored by Christian Gray, Hayden Fulkersin and Raul Eberhardt.
As for what he hopes to see from the Lions Friday night, Brixey said, “Execution of being in the right place defensively. We’ve got to do a good job of playing fundamentals. We’ve got defensive linemen whose job is supposed to keep offensive linemen off linebackers and they’re not doing that, and that goes back to being unselfish and giving yourself up so someone else can make a play. I’d like to see us play unselfish, team football offensively and defensively.
“We also have to keep working in the regard of not having penalties. The other night we had four or five, but it felt like a thousand, defensive offsides calls, and it was all over, not just one kid. The first play of the game on offense we twitched so that’s -5 yards. So first and foremost I want to see us eliminate penalties and turnovers because if you’re having a lot of those, it’s going to be hard to win a football game.”
According to Harris Ratings Weekly, Brownwood is a 10-point underdog, while the Lions are a 22-point underdog according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
“I think it’s a game if we go out and play well, we certainly have every chance of competing and winning,” Brixey said. “Regardless the outcome, we’re going to come out of the game knowing we have to get better. Every game we play this year we’re going to come out of that game knowing we have to get better because teams that play for a long time, every single week they get better. That’s going to be our goal going into the game, play hard, play for 48 minutes, get after it, and be smart. You don’t have turnovers, you don’t have penalties, and you don’t give up the big plays, you’re going to be in the football game. If we can come out of this game and we play hard and we didn’t have penalties and we didn’t have turnovers, I think we’re moving in the right direction.”