I have seen some really good quarterbacks this season…Baker Mayfield from Lake Travis, Luke Walters from Pleasanton, Gilbert Garcia from Holmes, Kalen Brackwell from Alamo Heights, Zach Galindo from O’Connor, Garrett Smith from Smithson Valley, and Quentin Dormady from Boerne, but I was really looking forward to finally seeing Weston King, the New Braunfels quarterback. Coming into last nights game, King had more passing yards than any of the quarterbacks I just mentioned. Wow!!! Last year when these teams played, King had only 69 yards passing.
I worked a few New Braunfels game a long long time ago when there quarterback was the Kliff Kingsbury!!! He played college football and professional football (he was on the New England Patriots team that won Super Bowl 38). Right now, he is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Texas A&M Aggies…the Aggies starting quarterback is FRESHMAN Johnny Manziel from Kerrville Tivy High School!!! Gosh, I got to seem both of them play…wow, I am one lucky dude!!!
I worked the 2001 Alamo Bowl for ESPN Radio which featured Texas Tech and Iowa..Kliff was the quarterback for Texas Tech and Wes Welker was the wide receiver for Tech. Wes plays for the New England Patriots. Nate Kaeding was the kicker for Iowa…he was a kicker for the San Diego Chargers. I am done with all the name dropping!!
As for Judson, I was expecting them to play much better than they played at San Marcos and at New Braunfels Canyon. They really need to get back to playing Rocket football!!!
The Unicorns and Rockets teams are playoff bound and the main thing for both teams are too stay healthy, keep the offense very simple, don’t make stupid penalties, and win the game…going into playoffs with some momentum is always good.
New Braunfels like to pass the ball and even though Judson has had a lot of success this season running the ball, they also like to put on an air show!!! I was ready for a long game, but Bobby Stautzenberger was concerned about our live scoreboard show at 10:30pm and a 36 minute first quarter didn’t help either!!! We were very fortunate that this game didn’t go in to overtime like some other games in the area last night…it was actually a blowout in favor of the Rockets that finally ended at around 10:20…man, we made it!!! Bobby was very relieved!!!
Since the game was practically over in the 4th quarter and there was no chance of New Braunfels making a huge upset comeback, a bunch of Seniors as well as a bunch of young players for both teams got the opportunity to play and get there names on my stat board…that was a class act by the coaches.
The New Braunfels quarterback, Weston King, had more passing yards than last years game, but to be honest, I wasn’t impressed by him. King was 17 for 38 for 192 yards and 3 interceptions. The leading receiver on the Unicorns was Caleb Marlar with 6 receptions for 106 yards. Marlar also had some very impressive kickoff and punt returns. Cody Bevil, the running back, had 24 carries for 84 yards. On one of the New Braunfels drives, they had a 1st and goal at the 1 yard line…basically, they had 4 chances to score and the Judson defense stopped em 4 times…wow!!! Man, that has gotta be demoralizing. Had they scored, we could have had a closer game!!! New Braunfels will play Roosevelt next weekend in the first round of the playoffs.
Even with a new coach, new offense, and 2 consecutive losses to start to the season, I was a bit concerned about how the season would turn out, but I have been very pleased and kinda surprised with the vast improvement of the Judson Rockets. I thought it would take more time to gel and get that offense rolling. They end the regular season with an overall record of 7 wins and 3 losses with 4 wins and 1 loss in district play!!! Wow. The losses came to teams that are each poised for a very long playoff run…Lake Travis, Steele, and Smithson Valley. Dude, the combined record for those 3 teams is 29 wins and 1 loss!!!
The Judson Rockets ran a total of 68 plays for 498 yards last night. Jarveon Williams, the running back, had 11 carries for 44 yards and 2 touchdowns; not a great game for Jarveon, plus he got hurt and didn’t play in the 2nd half. I am hoping he will be OK for next week. Rayjohn Austin-Ramsey, the quarterback, had his best running game of the year…11 carries for 193 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ramsey also had 188 yards passing. Andre Wilson was the leading receiver for the Rockets with 5 receptions for 139 yards. Dude, Latrae Zacharie, a back-up running back, had a 93 yard touchdown run, but it was called back because of a stupid penalty.
The Judson Rockets will play the Churchill Chargers in the first round of the playoffs next Saturday at 12pm at the Alamodome. I am gonna call this the FLOWERS BOWL…Tre Flowers is the safety for the Rockets (he committed to Arizona State a few weeks ago) and Dimitri Flowers is the wide receiver for Churchill. Erik Flowers, a former NFL player, is Dimitri’s dad and Tre’s nephew…pretty cool!!!
This afternoon, I will be at the Alamodome for UTSA Roadrunner football as they host the McNeese State Cowboys. My article for UTSA will be published tomorrow.
On Monday, I am going to have a high school football playoff article.
Right now, I will be at Rutledge stadium on Friday night as the Wagner Thunderbirds host the Madison Mavericks and Saturday, I got a doubleheader at the Alamodome as the Judson Rockets will play the Churchill Chargers and the O’Connor Panthers play the Southwest Dragons. If anything changes, I will update my High School football schedule page, but right now, I am planning for these 3 first round playoff games. Sweet!!!
