What's Up With Wills: No Doubt Which State is Best

If you don't know by now, Wylie is at the top of the list of my favorite teams to cover in the Metroplex. Some of it goes back to knowing head coach Bill Howard going back to the days when he was at Class A Mildred. Some it is how well former coach Mark Ball has treated me over the years. And the rest is offensive guru Billy Whitman, God rest his soul. But the No. 1 reason is the attitude the Pirates bring every Friday night. It's a chip-on-your-shoulder attitude that rubs a lot of opponents the wrong way. Not me. Wylie plays hard every Friday night, and that's why going from 4A to 5A has been a better than expected transition for the Pirates. Wylie made the playoffs last year, and will make it again this year (hope that's not too much pressure). Why? Because unlike a few other teams in 8-5A, Wylie has a knack for winning games its not supposed to. Two years ago it was Plano. Last Year it was Plano East. Last week it was Hebron at the dreaded Woodshed, the second time in four years Hebron has lost a home game. "We have two edges at Wylie that we've always had," Howard said. "Our kids never quit. Even some of the games we've gotten beat we made it close. And we play very physical. Our kids work very hard and I think we have that mental and physical toughness." Howard points to one play from last week's game. Pirates defensive lineman Colton Whitehead put Hebron left tackle Joel Gray, 6-6- tower going to Texas Tech, on the ground early in the game. That set the tone for the Pirates, who were able to rally for a win. Also don't forget Wylie always builds its defense around its nose guard, and the Pirates have a good one in Nikita Whitlock. "He's the best we've ever had," Howard said. GAME OF THE WEEK -- McKINNEY BOYD 35, FRISCO CENTENNIAL 28 Daryn Alves and Ryan Mossakowski were on the August edition of Vype Collin County, and apparently struck up a friendship. They talked about their different styles of playing quarterback and their upcoming game against each other. They faced each other last night when Alves' McKinney Boyd team played Mossakowski's Frisco Centennial team at Frisco ISD Stadium. Boyd won the game, 35-28. But in the stunners of stunners, neither star quarterback had a part in the game-winning drive in the final two minutes of the game. That was Boyd sophomore Jonovan Griffin, who replaced Alves for reasons unknown. Boyd coach Don Drake wouldn't comment after the game on whether Alves was hurt or benched. And it was Griffin who took his team 91 yards, scoring on a 55-yard run with 1:06 left in the game to break a 28-28 tie, taking a book out of Alves' playbook. "Jovovan is a special player in his own right," Drake said. Griffin threw a 91-yard touchdown pass to Alves in the first half as the Broncos ran several plays with both quarterbacks in the lineup, ala Arkansas last year with Darren McFadden. The first half did feature great plays by Alves and Mossakowski, two quarterbacks that have very different styles, which made Thursday's battle of 1-0 teams one of the week's most talked about games. "They are total different types of quarterbacks," said Jeffrey Fuller, a teammate of Alves' last year who is now a freshman receiver at Texas A&M. "Both are really skilled. Daryn is going to get you on the ground. Ryan will get you through the air. It should be fun to watch." Both quarterbacks had big games in last week's season openers. The 6-5 Mossakowski, who committed to Kentucky recently, finished 21-of-31 passing for 251 yards as Centennial routed Denton, 71-20. Alves put up ridiculous numbers as usual, rushing for 246 yards on 22 carries in a 27-21 victory over McKinney North. But more impressively, the 5-8 Alves finished 15-of-19 passing for 197 yards in the opener. "I worked all summer in the offseason to work on my arm strength," Alves said. "I wanted to be a better passer coming into this season. "Ryan can throw the ball 50 yards," Alves said. "I like to scramble. The fans should be on their feet the whole game." The fans were, only it was the Boyd side cheering for another quarterback on the strangest of nights. Alves' final play was a botched fake punt. It was Griffin after that. "I was just trying to win a game," Griffin said. HOT TEAMS Southlake Carroll. It seems too many of us have fallen into a trap of believing one playoff loss has suddenly turned Carroll into a second-tier team. Foolish. Carroll has too much tradition, too much want-to from the middle school level up to not continue to be an elite program. And the Dragons scored 35 points against a really good Plano West team. Watch out. Flower Mound Marcus. Head coach Bryan Erwin has Marcus back as a consistent Top 10 program. Running back Stephen Hopkins is a star in the making. Marcus went out and crushed a proud Grapevine program, 55-3, holding the Mustangs to 147 yards. Rockwall. The Yellow Jackets were easily one of the best teams I saw last year. And even with quarterback Braden Smith gone, the Jackets aren't missing a beat. It's never easy to travel out to Odessa or Midland and get a win. So Rockwall's 15-14 victory over 5A Midland Lee was one of the most impressive in Zero Week. VYPE HOT TEN TEAMS Each week will rank the area teams in order of who has the best chance to win a state championship: 1. Euless Trinity. Any questions. 2. Plano. Offense starts out slow. 3. Southlake Carroll. QB Kyle Padron a Player of the Year contender. 4. Highland Park. The machine rolls on to win No. 700. 5. Celina. Unstoppable. 6. Carter. My sleeper pick in 4A is 1-0. 7. Everman. Might have had the win of the week, 14-12, over Waxahachie. 8. Allen. QB Matt Brown is back. No surprise here. 9. Cedar Hill. RB Ben Malena is the man. 10. Arlington Bowie. Will go as far as QB Christian Matthews takes them. VYPE HOT 10 TOPICS -- ONLINE 1. Any questions on which state has the best football teams. Texas teams combine to go 5-1 in the Herbstreit Classic, the highlight Euless Trinity's blowout win over John Curtis of Louisiana. 2. Plano rested its top offensive players in its scrimmage against Mesquite and it may have played a factor in the Wildcats' getting off to a slow start against Irving MacArthur. Plano started slow again Thursday night against DeSoto, trailing 20-7 at the half before tailback Rex Burkhead rallied the Wildcats to a 28-20 victory. 3. A shocking 40-8 loss for Plano East at Flower Mound. Usually I call Panthers coach Johnny Ringo after games to check in, but I didn't have the heart Friday night. My eyes and ears in Plano had been telling me that Plano East was down this year. They may be right. 4. Allen's running game never got going in a 21-7 win over Longview, my sources tell me, but quarterback Matt Brown, well he's back throwing laser passes to his receivers. But mostly using his legs to make big plays. Brown was at it again with another big night in a 55-15 victory over Monterrey, Mexico. Brown is as good a running quarterback as I've seen in a long time out of the spread formation. Defenses just can't afford to let this guy get out of the pocket. It's good to see you back Matt having a big game against a quality opponent. 5. I still can't get over this Marcus 55, Grapevine 3 score. No score jumped out at me more this week. The Marauders appear to have found a coach in Bryan Erwin. And Marcus is an excellent case study in how the right hire can turn around a program. High school football is becoming like college football. 6. Now Marcus will get tested, I insist, by the Plano West defense. The Wolves first-team defense only allowed 21 points, and I popped by coach Mike Hughes' office the other day, and he doesn't seem to discouraged. His main problem is with an offense that can't sustain drives, which was also a problem last year. It's tough because West has a championship defense, I'm convinced of that. When I asked one Plano insider why Plano West can't seem to get a running game going with Hughes' offensive line background, that person said, "I don't know. Plano West always has a bunch of running backs coming up. I don't know what happens to them." 7. I'll take Mesquite over Hebron on Friday night. Stallions quarterback Luke Halpin was very good at the state seven-on-seven tournament, and that carried over with a 393-yard, four-touchdown effort last week. Halpin seems at ease with Kelly Page out of the picture. 8. McKinney will be without receiver Matt Lipka for Friday' opener against Sachse. Lipka is trying out for the Team USA U16 baseball team, and the shortstop/pitcher is likely to make the team, forcing him to miss the first three regular season games. Lipka is the second Lion to make the team in consecutive years. Quarterbck Zach Lee pitched for Team USA U16 last summer. 9. Richland's success in seven-on-seven carried over with a 42-0 season-opening win. 10. Look who was leading all 5A area rushers after Week 1. Daryn Alves with 246 yards. The Randomness that is me 1. Am I the only one nervous about the Cowboys' trip to Cleveland? It seems like the Browns have always given the Cowboys' problems, and Cleveland can score points on offense and on special teams. And any team with a good passing quarterback -- in this case Derek Anderson -- scares me against this Cowboys' defense. 2. Give Rick Neuheisel the college coach of the year award now. To pull quarterback Kevin Craft out of the doldrums after a four-interception first half and to see the UCLA quarterback rally his team to an overtime victory was sensational. Whatever Neuheisel did at halftime was brilliant. Bottle that up. 3. College football has taken the place of baseball as my favorite sport. It took 34 years. 4. But here's one: the Red Sox will catch the Rays. I can't stand the Yankees, but thank you Joe Girardi for putting Tampa on a losing streak. 5. What happened to all the rain? 6. Tonight will be a great night to watch football. Temperatures in the 60s. Bring a jacket. Do you agree or disagree with Todd's opinions? Sign up for your free VYPE.com membership and you can let folks know how you feel.