What's Up With Wills: Why Allen's Backup QB Is So Good

By Todd Wills Allen coach Tom Westerberg can either sit around and feel sorry for himself and his team every time his starting quarterback gets hurt in the playoffs - it's happened again this post-season with starter Matt Brown - or he and his staff can do something about. The Eagles have chosen the latter, defying the bad luck this time. It's why Allen is still playing in December after backup Tucker Carter led the way to a 28-22 win over the mystique of Odessa Permian last Saturday at Texas Stadium. Say what you will about Allen, the school built to win in football, not having a state championship yet. But when it comes to having a backup quarterback ready to play, whether it be in the regular season, or the playoffs, no one does it better than Westerberg and his staff. Westerberg's insistence on having more than one quarterback ready - something he inherited from Joe Martin - paid off big time against Mojo. Carter completed 10 of 16 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns against Permian. He didn't throw an interception with Brown out with a shoulder injury. Westerberg said it all starts in practice, where Carter gets time with the first- and second-team offense. "He throws the ball as many times in practice as Matt does," Westerberg said. "It's all a matter of whether he's throwing with the ones or the twos. It's not a whole lot different." Carter has also been in on all the film sessions and meetings, so it's not like he's coming in cold knowing an opponent. And Westerberg said as far as the mental side of the game goes, the backups are usually ready to handle it. There is proof to back that up. Allen has dealt with injuries or ineffective quarterback play before, and the names of Carlyle Aguren, Travis Pickup, Stephen Payne and Nathan Dick are all familiar names as backups in Allen. Aguren came in for the Eagles in last year's in the 37-32 bi-district loss to Rowlett and passed for 239 yards and three touchdowns in almost rallying his team and avoiding a huge upset. Payne played OK when Nathan Dick was hurt on the first offensive play in the 2006 state semifinals against Southlake Carroll. And Nathan came in for his brother Casey in the 2004 triple overtime win over Arlington Lamar in the playoffs. It's an illustration of the tremendous job Westerberg and his staff do to keep quarterbacks ready, and the expectations they place on them. "We expect backups to play as well as the starters," Westerberg said. GAME OF THE WEEK - Euless Trinity (13-0) vs. Allen (12-1), 4 p.m., Texas Stadium Let's go back to Sept. 19 for a moment and look at some numbers from Trinity's 24-14 victory at Allen: Allen had 19 first downs to 18 for Trinity. Trinity had 358 yards to 316 for Allen. Allen had three turnovers to Trinity's one. Sounds like a pretty even game to me (sorry, I wasn't there). Having seen Trinity up close, it seems like Allen has a heckuva chance to win, whoever plays quarterback between starter Matt Brown, who is hurt, and Tucker Carter. Allen had a key interception in the end zone with a chance to cut the lead to 24-21 in the regular season meeting. It looks like Allen's offense can put up points - Trinity, which has injuries in its secondary, couldn't cover Plano's Kris Lott. Allen's defense should do a much better job against Trinity's offense, which appears to be relying on great play calling. Prediction: Allen 27, Trinity 10. HOT TEAMS Rockwall-Heath What an effort by Heath to win a playoff game without their best offensive player, running back Kendial Lawrence, who missed most of his team's 17-14 playoff win over Ennis. Heath's defense forced eight turnovers and had a huge goal-line stand in the fourth quarter. Cedar Hill Obviously the Longhorns have forgotten all about their early season loss to Euless Trinity. They've already won a playoff game over Southlake Carroll, a huge confidence boost. Celina, Pilot Point, Prosper Is it possible we could draw a circle with a 20-mile radius around three towns north of Frisco and The Colony and produce three state championships? Hey, it's very possible. 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 (13-0). I left Trinity on top due to the unknown status of Allen QB Matt Brown. 2. Everman (13-0). Just win baby - Stephenville is next on the list to go down. 3. Allen (12-1). The Eagles do a great job of keeping backup QBs ready. 4. Wylie (11-2). The Pirates have to stop the run this week. 5. Rockwall-Heath (13-0). Heath just keeps proving me wrong Prosper (12-1). Prosper will be tested by always hard-nosed Abilene Wylie. Celina (10-3). The light always goes on for Celina in the playoffs. Pilot Point (11-1). Pretty good group of teams up there north of Frisco. Cedar Hill (12-1). Can the Longhorns make it two titles in three years? Skyline (12-1). The Raiders are right back where they were last year. VYPE HOT 10 TOPICS -- ONLINE Wylie's Texas Tough Nothing that Wylie does in the playoffs ever surprises me. This is a Pirates team now working on three regional final appearances in five years with a leap up to the 5A level. Wow. It's a sign of great coaching passed down from Mark Ball to Bill Howard. Attention to detail from their assistant coaches. A hard working group of players who have embraced a style of play that relies on toughness and playing hard, something out of the mold of the old Permian teams that had their opponents labeling them as dirty and the real people who pay attention to football seeing them as a team that plays to the whistle. Wylie's offense is explosive and has several playmakers starting with quarterback Jerod Monk. But it's the defense led by noseguard Nikita Whitlock that sets the tone. Whitlock not only dominated the line of scrimmage as always but also returned a blocked punt for a touchdown in Wylie's 43-20 drilling of Arlington Bowie. Not surprising that Wylie won, but that it won by a 23 points, a bit of a shocker. Midway vs. Longview If you've read this column all season, you know that Waco Midway has been a team to receive a ton of accolades here, and I believe it was predicted Midway would win a state title about two months ago. I'm tempering my pick a little because Longview looks awfully good and I didn't like the undisciplined way Midway played out the fourth quarter in its 41-36 victory over Highland Park. As for the Scots, just didn't see enough defense and the fact quarterback Luke Woodley had to miss two possessions in the first half was just too much to overcome. Always disappointing to see Carter lose a playoff game, but it sure looks like Longview had the better team and did what it had to do at the beginning of the game, jumping out to a 14-0 lead before the Cowboys ran an offensive play. I know in the press box in Corsicana during the Highland Park-Midway game that a lot of praise was being thrown to Longview, which of course dropped from 5A after making a nice playoff run last year. Bracket Breakdown OK, on with my updated bracket picks. In 5A Division I Region I, I'm staying with Allen over Trinity, even with the questions about the quarterback spot. In Division I Region II, my Garland team is gone so I'll go with Skyline (12-1) to take the next step against Round Rock Stony Point (12-1) and make it to the state semifinals. in 5A Division II Region I, I'll go with Wylie over Cedar Hill (Wylie was my original pick in this regional) and with Lake Highlands out in 5A Division Region II, I'll take Klein Oak (10-1) over Copperas Cove (12-1). On to 4A. In Division I Region I, it's tough to go against Wolfforth Frenship (13-0), who should get by Denton Guyer (11-2). I'll stay with Midway over Longview in Division I Region II, barely, with the winner wiping out Frenship the next week. in Division II, Region I, Everman (13-0) will beat Stephenville (11-2) and in Region II Rockwall-Heath (13-0) will beat Tyrik Rollison at Sulphur Springs (11-2), setting up a huge showdown next week. Coaching Matters I'm beginning to get the feeling that Plano East coach Johnny Ringo will be back next season. Again, tough for Ringo to be fired after a 1-9 season when Plano athletic director Gerald Brence went 0-10 in 2003. How about the key participants in last year's Plano coaching search? The winner, Jaydon McCullough, went 10-2 at Plano and lost in the second round to defending state champion Trinity. The other finalist, Mickey Moss, has Rockwall-Heath at 13-0 and in the state quarterfinals. Another guy who was interviewed, Lake Highland's Scott Smith, the Plano alum and former assistant, finished with a 10-3 record and went one round deeper in the playoffs than Plano. Looks like the Wildcats had some pretty good candidates. Glory Days I'd be remiss not to mention that my alma mater, Austin Westlake, is surprisingly still alive in the 5A Division I bracket despite a 9-4 record. Westlake gets San Antonio Clark (12-1) in the Region IV final. This is always a grudge match. I remember being the best man in a wedding of Westlake guy and a Clark gal. They were always arguing about who had the better athletic program. Oh the Wylie-Cedar Hill game pits two of my favorite coaches, Wylie's Bill Howard and Cedar Hill's Joey McGuire. I covered Howard back in the mid 1990s at Class A Mildred just outside of Corsicana. I was there the night McGuire, then an assistant, was named the new head coach at Cedar Hill. Should be a great tripleheader Saturday at Texas Stadium with Wylie-Cedar Hill at noon, Allen-Trinity at 4 p.m. and Midway-Longview at 8 p.m. THE RANDOMNESS THAT IS ME 1. One thing I'll never get is why coaches refuse to give reporters a straight answer about anything. I texted an assistant coach at Oklahoma State to ask him why head coach Mike Gundy called a timeout with 32 seconds left in the game with Oklahoma leading 54-41. If the clock runs the game is over. Instead Oklahoma scored what should have been a meaningless touchdown, but we know that's not true. The assistant coach's answer to the question in his text, "Dunno." Amazing. This guy I texted isn't the video coordinator. He's one of the top assistants. 2. Like last week, I can't be objective about the Texas-Oklahoma dispute, so it's over and everyone should move on. But there a few points to be made. One, some in the media, from The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel to the The Ticket's Craig Miller, are trying to sell the fact that Sooners coach Bob Stoops took the "high road" last week. That's just not true. He went on ESPN's "Mike and Mike" radio show and talked up the Sooners, and then Stoops pulled one Saturday night to the ABC sideline reporter that he wasn't going to be dragged into the argument, and then Stoops proceeded to talk about his team's resume. He politicked as much as anyone. Two, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione had the most ridiculous quote of the weekend: "Our program is grounded in really strong core values." Which must explain OU football currently being on probation. Third, Mack Brown did himself no favors in 2004 by robbing Cal of going to its first Rose Bowl since 1959. Brown and Texas paid a price for this on Sunday. 3. The Cowboys appear to be back, but wow, do they look like they have their hands full Sunday at Pittsburgh. The Steelers defense is really good, so it will be up to the Cowboys offensive line to give Tony Romo time to make plays 4. Friday Night Lights was off last week for Thanksgiving. It will be back Wednesday night on the 101 on Directv. "Chuck", all I can say, is very funny. 5. I promised a Quantum of Solace review, but I still haven't gotten out to see it. Maybe Saturday night since I won't be watching the Big XII title game between two opponents Texas beat, Oklahoma and Missouri. See, I've kind of pulled a Stoops here by saying I wasn't going to talk about it, and then talking about it.