Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Texas

by Nick Eatman

  Dallas, playing without Dez Bryant who was held out of action with the recurring foot problems, trailed 9–6, but had the Bills pinned deep in their own territory midway through the fourth quarter. And that’s when it happened. Again. Playing so well for most of the game, the defense gave up a huge play late, just as the unit had done throughout the season. The Cowboys couldn’t corral quarterback Tyrod Taylor for a near safety in the end zone and let him scramble for a first down. Moments later, Bills running back Mike Gillislee dashed around the end for a 50-yard touchdown to put the game away.

  The Cowboys, soaked and nearly frozen from the constant rain, headed toward the warm locker room knowing there was just one more game left to play in their dismal season, where nothing seemed to work, especially at the quarterback position.

  Moore completed 13 of his 31 attempts for 186 passing yards and an interception. Nothing to get excited about, although considering the weather conditions and the game being his first start, it appeared he would probably be behind center in the season finale back home against the Washington Redskins.

  Ironically enough, Cassel thought he would’ve been playing in this game when he was traded by the Bills to the Cowboys earlier in the season. As it turned out, he won the same amount of games for Buffalo as he did with Dallas—one.

  To make this carousel even stranger, the one quarterback who wasn’t with the team anymore, Brandon Weeden, had been picked up and signed by the Houston Texans, a team that was dealing with its own quarterback issues. Weeden not only started that weekend’s game, but also led Houston to a 34–6 win over Tennessee. That put them one step closer to the AFC South title, which they claimed the following Sunday.

  And if that wasn’t enough, on the Cowboys’ flight back to Buffalo, which is typically more than three hours anyway, bad storms in the Dallas area closed the DFW Airport temporarily, causing the charter to circle around for nearly forty-five minutes before the decision was made to fly elsewhere and refuel.

  The destination turned out to be Houston, and before too long, the joke going around the plane was that Weeden himself would be there to greet the team. It was just a quick stop to refuel before the Cowboys made it back to Dallas, making the trip about a six-hour journey.

  An hour for each point scored in the game.

  Before the season finale against Washington, the biggest question being asked by both fans and reporters was whether or not Garrett was planning on using younger players and resting starters since the game meant very little to the Cowboys or even the Redskins, who had already clinched first place in the NFC East. Garrett scoffed at the notion.

  In his final meeting with the team on the Saturday night before the game, he showed the players a video he had the Cowboys’ television department put together that recapped the final game and at-bat for New York Yankees great, Derek Jeter. The future Hall-of-Fame shortstop had announced his retirement, and with his club eliminated from the playoffs, the regular-season home finale would indeed be his last in venerable Yankees Stadium.

  Garrett showed a highlight of the game, and how Jeter was able to drive in the winning RBI with a hit. His teammates mobbed him at first base, happy that he could go out in style in front of the home fans.

  “People said that game didn’t matter,” Garrett stated to his team. “Well, it mattered to someone. It mattered to Derek Jeter. We’re privileged to play this game. We only get sixteen of them. I can promise you, every game matters. You might not know why it matters at the time, but they all count for a reason.”

  One person who absolutely got the message was wide receiver Terrance Williams, who thought about telling Garrett after the meeting how much he enjoyed it before changing his mind.

  “I just thought I would show him on the field,” Williams said. “There wasn’t any need to talk about it. Just go do it.”

  With Bryant again sitting out the last game, Williams had a career-high 173 yards receiving on eight receptions, easily putting together the best game of his career. He was a steady target for Moore, who kept slinging the ball around despite the Cowboys falling behind 24–0 in the second quarter.

  When the dust settled, Moore had at least made the score more respectable, the Cowboys eventually losing, 34–23. The quarterback finished with 435 yards passing, the seventh-highest single-game total in Cowboys history.

  But while the 400-yard club was a nice ending for Moore, the number that overshadowed his effort was simply four, as the team stumbled to the finish line with a 4–12 record. The four-win season for the Cowboys was one of the worst in franchise history, and the worst for Jerry Jones since they went 1–15 back in 1989, his first year as owner.

  Who could’ve dreamed the Cowboys would be mentioned with that inept squad? This was supposed to be a Super Bowl year, a year that would put Tony Romo, Jason Garrett, and the Cowboys back on top.

  Instead, it was a painful journey that provided more twists, turns, dips, and spins than any rollercoaster that their Arlington neighbors, Six Flags over Texas, could ever create.

  But finally, as the Cowboys walked off the AT&T Stadium field after another disappointing defeat, the ride was over. And that was the best news the team had heard in months.

  Chapter 18

  CHANGING COLORS

  Friday

  While some things will change over time, others will always stay the same.

  In many cases, that’s the story of high school football teams in Texas, especially when it comes to schedules and rivalries. No matter how tough a district might be for a school, particularly in Plano’s case given how loaded it was with competitive teams, every head coach in Texas knows things can and usually do change every two years.

  The University Interscholastic League (UIL) is the governing board of Texas high school athletics and gets together every other year to restructure the districts in an attempt to even the playing field for all schools, along with having every new district make geographic sense.

  While Jaydon McCullough always expected some change, this year’s realignment was welcomed, considering the Wildcats had found themselves in the only nine-team district in Texas for the last two years. At the same time, even when there was change, he knew the three local schools—Plano Senior, Plano West, and Plano East—would always be together and most likely combined with Allen, one of the state’s perennial powerhouses.

  McCullough, some of his assistant coaches, and Plano ISD athletic director, Gerald Brence, attended the annual Dallas-area realignment announcement, which turned into somewhat of a coaches convention as teams immediately try to not only figure out their new district mates, but also rapidly scurry to find non-district opponents.

  More than five hundred coaches and athletic directors jammed into a giant room at an athletic complex in North Richland Hills, where McCullough learned his Wildcats were moving down to a traditional eight-team district and only keeping the two other Plano schools, Allen, and McKinney Boyd. Moving out of his district were Lewisville, Hebron, Flower Mound, and Flower Mound Marcus. They were replaced by Wylie, McKinney High School, and John H. Guyer High School in Denton, which was surprising and was met with mixed feelings. Denton was not only the farthest destination now for the Plano schools, but Guyer was traditionally quite competitive in all sports.

  Still, getting back to eight teams was a plus and the switch was more of a wash for McCullough, who quickly picked up some non-district foes, including Hebron.

  Adding opponents to the schedule was a bit easier than actually finding new coaches for the staff, though, particularly trying to replace departed defensive backs coach, Chris Fisher, who was dealing with his own realignment and scheduling about six hours north in Amarillo. During his first day on the job as the new head football coach at Palo Duro High School, Fisher used his realignment-day experience at Plano to help him quickly fill some scheduling gaps. He had planned to seek out a possible game a
gainst a school in Wichita Falls, where he went to college at Midwestern State; and as it turned out, Fisher was indeed able to schedule his Dons a game there against Rider High School, which also happened to be from where his wife, Janna, had graduated in 1994.

  On a personal level, just being away from his family for the next few months would be a challenge in itself for Fisher, whose wife and daughters stayed in Plano to finish out the school year. Part of that decision included letting Darion Foster stay as well and graduate with his fellow seniors at Plano. While he decided against playing football, or even wrestling, at the collegiate level, Foster did make his aunt and uncle rather proud when he announced his decision to attend Midwestern State, where both of them had earned their degrees.

  Likewise, quarterback Matt Keys knew he wasn’t playing college football, which allowed him to pick the school of his choice. Keys was accepted by the Business program at the University of Texas and decided to spend his next four years in Austin.

  “I always rooted for the Longhorns as a kid,” Keys said, “so it’s a great fit for me. They have a great business program there, and I’m looking forward to just having fun and being a student.”

  In fact, he was getting a head start on doing so in the spring. Legally Blonde was a success for Keys, who said starring as the quarterback in front of thousands of people every Friday night more than prepped him for the stage. The play sold out all three nights, but Keys wasn’t done performing.

  One of the thirteen finalists for the annual Mr. Plano award, which is a pageant-style contest where each organization in the school is represented, Keys was actually the representative for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and not football. Still, his on-stage rap of Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham set him apart, as he was crowned the 2016 Mr. Plano.

  But as January rolled into February, one of the best-kept secrets was about to be revealed as Plano prepared for National Signing Day, which had become a holiday of sorts for fans wanting to see what high school studs would be joining which college football programs.

  Signing Day has become an event for nearly every high school across the country, giving student-athletes in all sports a press-conference type of setting to announce their college decisions in front of their families, friends, coaches, teammates, and peers.

  At Plano, the speculation was building for weeks about what running back Brandon Stephens would do come Wednesday, February 3. After de-committing from Stanford a few weeks earlier, he had kept his decision quiet, not even informing many of his friends about the visits he was taking to other schools.

  On the day of the event, Plano set up eleven different tables in the gymnasium, including five for football, along with some for signees in women’s soccer, men’s soccer, and men’s golf. But the main attraction was Stephens, whose table wasn’t like the other athletes who had their college of choice printed on a sign. His was covered up, creating even more drama for the occasion. His father, Tim, who had sported Stanford red throughout the season at home games, was wearing a red pullover, perhaps suggesting his son might be headed back to Stanford, or maybe Oklahoma.

  The unveiling had to wait until the rest of the students were announced. Four of Stephens’ teammates were headed to the next level as offensive tackle K’Darius Smith signed with SMU, while the trio of Byron Tate, Zach Wakefield, and Isaiah Williams, who missed the entire season with a knee injury, all signed with Southwestern College, a lower-level NAIA school in Kansas.

  Finally, it was Stephens’ turn to reveal his choice. With three local Dallas TV stations standing in front of him, cameras rolling, he walked to the podium and first thanked God, his parents, his coaches, his teammates, his classmates, and everyone else who helped him on his journey. He then motioned for Smith to bring him his backpack, which had the college cap he was about to wear, with his mother, Charlotte, quickly coming off of her bleacher seat to help uncover the sign at his table.

  “At this time, I’m going to make an announcement that I’ll be attending the University of California at Los Angeles,” said Stephens as he pulled out a baby blue cap that had UCLA on the front. Charlotte then unzipped her jacket to sport her UCLA gear as well.

  The crowd cheered, but several were stunned. UCLA never seemed to be on Stephens’ radar, although the running back said they were firmly in the picture over the last six weeks.

  “There was a lot to like about the place,” Stephens said. “Once I decided that Stanford wasn’t the best fit for me, I knew I wanted to stay out west. When I visited there, I just knew it was a good fit.”

  Local football fans had heard a similar announcement a year earlier when Plano West star tailback, Soso Jamabo, also signed with UCLA. Once on opposing teams, Stephens said he kept in touch with Jamabo throughout the past year.

  “It’s funny because at first I wasn’t a big fan of him because he was my rival,” Stephens said of Jamabo, who averaged 6.1 yards per carry, totaled 404 yards, and rushed for four touchdowns as a true freshman in 2015. “And now I’m going to be in the same backfield as him. We’re both pretty excited about that.”

  Stephens signed his letter of intent, as did all of the student-athletes, and just like that, he was a UCLA Bruin. And for his parents, the process was finally over.

  “We’re so happy for Brandon and proud of him for being able to make his own decisions,” Tim Stephens said. “I think going to a school that is a long distance away will be good for him. It’s good for the soul.

  “But, hopefully, we can get back to a little bit of normalcy.”

  A few steps away, McCullough looked on with pride, knowing Brandon Stephens was one of the most highly rated recruits Plano had ever enjoyed. Seeing him sign with a traditional power such as UCLA was great exposure for his program. But at the same time, McCullough was sad to see his star player go.

  The coach stuck around to do a few interviews, but not for too long. McCullough shook hands, took some pictures, and told a few stories, but then said his goodbyes, citing a busy schedule on his plate for the rest of the morning.

  The head coach walked back to his office, knowing he had assistant positions to fill, a quarterback to find, and a superstar running back to replace. There literally was no time to waste, as the 2016 season opener was only seven months away.

  Saturday

  Bowl games in the last week of December usually get forgotten by New Year’s Day. A star-studded lineup of games on January 1, not to mention the College Football Playoffs and National Championship Game, almost always overshadow any team effort or individual performance that might have occurred just seven to ten days prior.

  But the national buzz that Baylor created after dominating North Carolina without a true quarterback, the number-one receiver in the country, and the team’s leading rusher, wasn’t going away. National pundits were weighing in, offering up high praise to Art Briles and his staff, throwing out words such as “masterful” and “genius” for the way the Bears overcame all of their injuries and off-the-field distractions to manhandle a Tar Heels team that the experts thought was simply a better squad.

  Football is a copycat business, and it’s the same at all levels. Successful coaches get a chance to move up the proverbial ladder, which is how Briles got to this point in the first place, starting at tiny Sundown High School in West Texas and moving to Sweetwater, Georgetown, and then Stephenville High School, where he won four state titles, before moving up to Texas Tech as an assistant coach. That led him to head-coaching jobs at the University of Houston and now Baylor, where he had taken one of the worst college football programs in the country and made it a national power.

  Because hiring Briles away from Baylor had somewhat turned into a lost cause over the last few years, most athletic directors knew Briles wasn’t going anywhere, especially now that he had turned Baylor into an elite program. So if you can’t get the head coach, at least try for his assistants. Or bette
r yet, former assistants under Briles at other stops.

  What the Russell Athletic Bowl showed was that Baylor could more than play the cards that were dealt. There’s no better sign of a good coach than one who can make the best out of a seemingly bad situation—something Briles showed the minute he took the job.

  A few weeks after the Bears’ win, Briles wasn’t thrilled to learn that Texas had hired a couple of his former assistant coaches, most notably Sterlin Gilbert to be the Longhorns’ new offensive coordinator. Gilbert held the same title at Tulsa, a staff that was a who’s who of Briles’ former assistants, including head coach, Phillip Montgomery. He had been with Briles for eighteen years, at three different stops, before taking the Golden Hurricanes’ job before the 2015 season.

  Gilbert and Matt Mattox both got into coaching thanks to Briles, who hired them on his staff at Houston back in 2005. While Briles was certainly happy for any of his young coaches to get the chance to move up, he was halfway joking when he described the two hires as “identity theft,” knowing both Gilbert and Mattox had a strong understanding of the offensive concepts Briles liked to use.

  The uneasy feeling of seeing those moves would’ve been magnified by a thousand had his running backs coach and passing game coordinator, Jeff Lebby, also walked out the door. Keeping him on staff was beneficial to the team and his entire family, so when the University of Missouri called numerous times in an attempt to land Lebby as its co–offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, the possibility caused some nervous nights for the Briles family.

  While Texas seemingly hired Gilbert to get an inside track on adopting Baylor’s offensive system, that didn’t appear to be Missouri’s sole reason for its interest in Lebby, who had coached with the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator, Josh Huepel, while at Oklahoma before coming to Baylor. Still, at the end of the day, Lebby passed on the job just like he had done a few years earlier when a spot on the San Francisco 49ers’ staff had opened up. Baylor had a great thing going, and Lebby certainly wasn’t ready to move himself and his family.