GRIDIRON GLANCE ’25: Brookesmith Mustangs

August 22, 2025 at 6:56 am Derrick Stuckly

BROOKESMITH – First-year head coach Blake Hood inherits a roster with just one starter back as the Brookesmith Mustangs aim for their first trip to the playoffs since 2020.

Hood, a 2018 Blanket graduate, spent the past two seasons as an assistant football coach and head basketball coach at Rochelle.

As far as Brookesmith being the right fit for his first foray as a head coach, Hood said, “First off it’s a little closer to home. I was ready to branch out, try something different and challenge myself. After praying, it led me to be at Brookesmith. It’s a nice, young group, hungry in terms of athletics and I don’t think I could be in a better place.”

The most experienced member of the roster for the Mustangs, who are coming off a 5-4 campaign in 2024, is Addy Heard. Other players to watch, according to Hood, are Blake Loyd, Austin Loyd, and Jase Julien.

“Those guys have good work ethics, great attitudes, and they’re by far the most athletic,” Hood said. “Those four would be the ones to be looking at. We don’t have any seniors, we have two juniors and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. We’re a little bit young, but we’re very athletic. I think the only thing holding us back are some reps and playing time, which was pretty much limited for these guys last year. In the time I’ve been here I can see they’re hungry and ready to go and ready to play some football.”

The Mustangs will kick off the 2025 campaign at Mullin (Aug. 29), followed by another road trip to Gorman (Sept. 5) before back-to-back home games against Moran (Sept. 12) and Paint Rock (Sept. 19). Brookesmith currently has no opponent for Sept. 26 and concludes pre-district action Oct. 3 at Olfen.

“I just want to see, obviously, improvement,” Hood said of the early season objectives. “I just want to see our mindsets change. I think we’re picking up some slack from last year. I want to see us being able to execute the small things and being able to take care of the small things before we get into the big picture. I want them to continue to have great attitudes, I preach about that all the time. I want us to be electric, I want us to be flying around, being aggressive, and I want them to have fun, work hard and be successful.”

Brookesmith is housed in District 15-A Division II along with preseason No. 3 Richland Springs as well as No. 25 Rochelle and picked to place third in the league, ahead of Panther Creek and Lohn.

“It’s going to be a battle between Richland Springs and Rochelle but there’s no doubt in my mind, as hard as these kids are working and they way their attitudes have changed from last year, that it’s not impossible,” Hood said. “Hopefully we can earn a playoff spot.”

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BROOKESMITH MUSTANGS 2025 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

August 29	at Mullin	7:30 p.m.
September 05	at Gorman	7:30 p.m.
September 12	Moran	7:30 p.m.
September 19	Paint Rock#	7:30 p.m.
September 26	OPEN
October 03	at Olfen	7:30 p.m.
October 10	at Richland Springs*	7:30 p.m.
October 17	Panther Creek*	7:30 p.m.
October 24	at Rochelle*	7:30 p.m.
October 31	Lohn*	7:30 p.m.
November 07	OPEN