What's Up With Wills: Inside Hebron's Amazing Turnaround

Hebron coach Brian Brazil's called his team's 44-28 victory over Southlake Carroll on Friday night a "program changer." And indeed it is. But it's not the most impressive thing Brazil and his Hawks have done this season. No, that would be overcoming an 0-3 start that included losses to Plano, Wylie and Mesquite. "Looking at how tough our schedule is, I was hoping 0-3 wouldn't turn into 0-10," Brazil said. Now look at the Hawks. If they win at Flower Mound Marcus on Friday night -- another difficult opponent -- they will have gone undefeated in a really good District 6-5A. The Hawks, who went 10-4 last year, will again establish themselves as a big-time playoff contender with a huge offensive line, a good defense, a dual-threat at quarterback in Justin Iwuji and a 1,000-yard rusher in Darius Staten. "I'm blown away by our kids," Brazil said. '"They went through a tough time. They had a lot of people telling them they weren't very good. But they're really even keeled." That helped Hebron when the Hawks lost their first two home games at "The Woodshed", a stadium that has taken on a name in itself because the Hawks have won so many games there and everywhere. Face it, it's easy for coaches to tell their players when they're 0-3 after three non-district games that the season that really matters, district, hasn't even started yet. It's another thing to actually turn things around, especially in a district that has three programs that have won state championships. "I credit my coaches," Brazil said. "They did a great job of not letting the kids revolt on us." Even after five consecutive wins, Hebron still faced more adversity Friday when Carroll fired the game's first salvo with Shawn Hoagland's 58-yard interception return for a 7-0 lead. Hebron responded with Staten's 69-yard touchdown run and Iwuji's 5-yard TD run. Hebron ended up 484 yards rushing and 634 total yards. Iwuji had 273 yards and Staten 205 yards. Those sound like numbers of the program Brazil modeled his team after, Ronnie Gage's Lewisville teams (Brazil was an assistant under Gage) that won two state titles in the '90s. Only Hebron does it with the Spread offense, not the Lewisville Wishbone. Still, either way, it's power football. And it was Hebron, not powerhouse Carroll, that was running out the clock at the end of the game, a huge deal even if the Hawks aren't that far removed from a 16-0 state title season in 4A. "It was a great confidence builder to beat a team like Carroll," Brazzell said. "Beating the name was part of beating the team. Getting to take a knee and running out the clock on Carroll, I never dreamed of something like that." GAME OF THE WEEK - Wylie at Allen, 7:30 p.m., Allen Eagle Stadium It's slightly stunning that this turns out to be the biggest game of the year in 8-5A, and one of the biggest in the area. Wylie (8-1, 4-1) is in position to get a share of the district title in its third year in 5A. That says a lot about what Bill Howard has done with the program. Not to mention that the win at Hebron gets better every week after Southlake Carroll lost at The Woodshed. Allen (8-1, 5-0) carries its 22-game district winning streak into Friday night, and while that is all fine and dandy, this is a program that is measured on playoff success, and while the Eagles have had big wins in the regular season and the playoffs, their real season begins next week. It was only a year ago that the Eagles' season was done at lunchtime on a Saturday. Both teams come in playing outstanding on defense. Wylie might have the more tenacious group, but Allen's is physical and very good in the secondary with Jeremy Reeves and Stephen Terrell. This game could come down the quarterback play and who has a better game between Allen's Matt Brown and Wylie's Jerod Monk. HOT TEAMS Cedar Hill. Don't look now but the Longhorns are a very steady 8-1 heading into their district finale at Irving Nimitz. Cedar Hill still has the blemish, a 37-14 loss to No. 1 Euless Trinity, and has won six games since then, including last week's 41-0 blasting of Grand Prairie. Colleyville Heritage. It's hard to argue with Colleyville's 8-1 record. Still want to see what they do in the playoffs. The Panthers potential first-round playoff opponent could be a Southlake Carroll, Hebron or Flower Mound Marcus. Rockwall-Heath. Back again. Wow huge game coming for Mickey Moss and his team against Highland Park. This could easily have been the Game of the Week but still want to see what Heath can do against the Scots before anointing them as a top team. VYPE HOT TEN TEAMS Each week we will rank the area teams in order of who has the best chance to win a state championship: 1. Euless Trinity (9-0). Playoff time is almost here Trojans' fans. 2. Highland Park (9-0). The Scots get one last tough test with Rockwall-Heath. 3. Carter (9-0). A tremendous regular season for Allen Wilson and company. 4. Everman (9-0). Just win baby. 5. Allen (8-1). Eagles need win over Wylie for third straight perfect district season. 6. Plano (8-1). The Wildcats need to play best game of the season vs. Jesuit. 7. Wylie (8-1). This is Wylie's big chance to announce itself as a title contender. 8. Prosper (8-1). Just amazing to see Prosper at the top of 3A area teams. 9. Rockwall-Heath (9-0). Here's your chance Rockwall-Heath. 10. Ennis (8-1) Still not sold on Lions' defense, but congratulations to Graham Harrell. VYPE HOT 10 TOPICS -- ONLINE 1. Plano West clinched a playoff spot even with a 36-21 loss on Friday to Wylie. The Wolves might be Exhibit A on why it's a joke that four teams make the playoffs out of each 5A district. Of course, Plano West can take this week's bye week and get in some good practices and come out in the first round of the playoffs and prove that it deserves to be in the postseason. Plano West does have an impressive win over Flower Mound Marcus on its resume, but the Wolves didn't step up and play within two touchdowns against Allen, Plano or Wylie. The big problem is the Wolves can't establish a consistent running game. After a good effort against Plano East, West had only 91 yards on 24 carries in last week's 36-21 loss to Wylie. 2. Wylie's roster has the best name on any area roster -- running back Nick Knott. My good friend Scott Harrison, who broadcasts Wylie games, must love getting the opportunity to say this "nick nack" name on Fridays. Knott is living up to his name, leaving defenders in knots. He had 126 yards on 18 carries against Plano West. 3. The end is almost here for Plano East, which has a 13-game losing streak going into Friday's game against McKinney Boyd at Ron Poe Stadium. Last week it was a 30-14 loss to Allen. I'm not going to embarrass the Panthers by saying that wasn't a bad loss. Plano East is too good of a program to think like that. So now the Panthers get one last crack to avoid to matching the 2003 Plano Wildcats' 0-10 season. This will be a must-follow game on Friday. 4. Plano has had a chance to catch its breath with a bye week and now gets Jesuit to finish off the regular season. The Wildcats need to come out Friday, play with both authority and passion and take it to Jesuit. It's as simple as that. This is the biggest game in the young coaching career of Jaydon McCullough. A statement game if you will. The Wildcats need to be physical on both sides of the ball, pound the ball at Jesuit and not worry about how many times quarterback Carson Meger chunks it and Kris Lott catches it. The only thing that matters this week is the coaches tuning out everyone and make a physical statement against a Jesuit team that will want to play a physical game with Plano. It's not time to not care what anyone says or thinks outside of that locker room, Wildcats. Play your game and feed the ball to Rex Burkhead and put yourself in a physical mentality entering the playoffs. 5. It will be real important for Allen to stay loose and play with a chip on its shoulder the rest of the way, just like the Eagles did against Plano. Allen can deny it all it wants, but the skeptics will come out in full force next week before the first playoff game, regardless of what happens against Wylie. The outside opinion is that Allen already should have a state football championship under its belt, so for all the success with deep playoff runs under Joe Martin and Tom Westerberg, there is still an underachieving tag on the Eagles. So play with a chip on your shoulder Eagles. And be motivated by what the outside really thinks about your football program. Good things will follow. 6. What a job by Scott Smith and his coaching staff at Lake Highlands for basically sowing up a district championship last week with a comeback win over Carrollton Creekview. Antoine Harrison was spectacular with 147 yards rushing and two long kickoff returns. This has to be a special season for the Wildcats and especially Smith, who must feel some sense of redemption. Smith was snubbed last year by his alma mater, Plano, getting one job interview and not a second. Smith will never say in public that his treatment by PISD was disrespectful, even if it was more than that. I'm betting Smith gets up every morning motivated by not at least being a finalist for the Plano job. 7. I'm still going with Waco Midway to win one of the two 4A state titles. This team is loaded with good players, including running back John Hubert and safety Amhad Dixon. Get to know them very well Everman, Carter, Highland Park and Rockwall-Heath and any other teams that might run into Midway in the playoffs. 8. It's too bad high school games have to be played on Halloween Night. In some venues, it has a big impact on crowds. 9. Look around the high school and college game and it's hard to believe how few good punters there are left at either level, forcing teams to use a rugby style of kicking. Where have you gone, Russell Erxleben. 10. Can't wait for that first Saturday of high school playoff games in two weeks. Friday is fun, but Saturday's quadruple header at Texas Stadium is the best. THE RANDOMNESS THAT IS ME 1. Not much else to say about the Cowboys other than to wonder why the person who selected Brad Johnson as the team's backup quarterback still has a job. Guess the fact that the owner is also the general manager says it all. 2. Pretty ridiculous to hear Philadelphia fans booing baseball commissioner Bud Selig as the Phillies are being handed the world championship trophy. But it's hardly surprising. I've watched football games around Eagles' fans to know Philly has the worst fans in the country. They are disrespectful of their own team and to fans of other teams. They are rude and obnoxious. The only saving grace is that the Eagles have never won a Super Bowl. 3. Read with interest some of the turnarounds that new Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux had with former Rangers' pitchers Doug Davis, Danny Kolb and Francisco Cordero. Then again, none of these guys has sustained any brilliance -- Davis' case is different because of the cancer deal -- so it's hard to really see what kind of impact Maddux will have. He gets a lot of credit for Milwaukee having the second-best ERA in the National League, but then again it is a league where the pitchers hits and didn't C.C. Sabathia give up like no runs in 20 starts. Doubt the pitching coach had much to do with that. 4. Last week's episode of Friday Night Lights was a real downer. First of all, the writers are repeating too many storylines -- Tyra making bad decisions, Riggins being stupid with his loser brother, the whole quarterback controversy which we already had. Look, the fact that Sarcecen is now QB2 is interesting in some aspects, and believable, but it's just too bad they've put him through this a second time. Can't think of that ever happening. 5. The genius of comedic writing was found yet again in "Chuck" last week. Great job first of all of dealing with old pop culture like arcade games and Rush's "Tom Sawyer." Brilliantly done. Too bad "Chuck" gets crushed in the ratings by yet another monotonous season of "Dancing With The Stars."