What's Up With Wills: Collin County Is Football Capital of Texas

By Todd Wills Just call Collin County the football capital of the world. Or at least be prepared to do so in two weeks. Of the six remaining Metroplex playoff teams, one is from Tarrant County, Everman. One his from Denton County, Denton Guyer. And four are from Collin County -- Allen, Wylie, Prosper and Celina. A truly amazing story. It's no surprise to see Allen, Wylie or Celina playing in a semifinal game. Celina has eight state titles. Wylie has one. Allen has now been to three state semifinals in six years. Prosper, which will play in state championship game, is the new kid on the block. The Eagles had never made the state quarterfinals before this season. Now they'll play Waco La Vega (12-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday at Texas Stadium for the Class 3A Division I state title. Prosper had its signature win on Oct. 17 when the Eagles pounded their nemesis, Celina, 33-7. It's what they did the next week, beating Whitesboro, 35-7, that convinced Prosper coach Kent Scott that his team could be a special team. "The Celina win was a program builder for us," Scott said. "It was good for us to play Whitesboro the next week. They had pounded us last season. So we were fired up for that game." Prosper has proven to tight team and a bit of lunch-pail team. Before this season, Prosper was known as the high school that Noel Devine and Deion Sanders flirted with. The Eagles might have been a more talented team last year. They have their best team this year. Scott points to players like quarterback Hunter Nix and center Cole Dafft, a three-year starter. Dafft has gone from 180 pounds as a sophomore to 265 pounds as a senior. "And he's no different from all of our offensive linemen," Scott said. Prosper has also won because the Eagles have stayed focus and been loose for big games. They didn't tighten up for Celina, and they didn't tighten up last week against Abilene Wylie, another opponent with great tradition. "Last week we were unbelievably loose for the magnitude of the game they were playing in, Scott said. "I don't know if our players were unfamiliar with Abilene Wylie, because our coaches weren't. This team has different team chemistry than any team I've ever been around." Scott was stunned, but proud, when it was mentioned that Prosper is one of four teams from Collin County still in the postseason. "Just look at the tradition," Scott said. "Plano. Celina right down the road. Look at the D/FW area. The Carrolls, the Ennises, the Waxahachies, Everman, Aledo. It says something about the kind of kids we have and the quality of the coaching." GAME OF THE WEEK - Wylie (12-2) vs. Copperas Cove (13-1) Wylie has proven its toughness in wins over Hebron, Arlington Bowie and Cedar Hill. Copperas Cove showed it is a force to be reckoned with after crushing a very good Klein Oak team, 45-7, last week. The Pirates' defense again will have to be the difference maker. And it's hard to imagine Nikita Whitlock, Toby Ball and Co. having another huge effort. Wylie will get out of its comfort zone of Texas Stadium for a 6 p.m. game at Waco ISD Stadium. It's very tough to win at this point of the season. The Wylie offense led by Jerod Monk and Nick Knott will have to minimize the turnovers and mistakes. HOT TEAMS VYPE HOT 10 TEAMS (OR SIX) Each week we will rank the area teams in order of who has the best chance to win a state championship: 1. Everman (14-0). Just win baby -- Can the Bulldogs' stop Sulphur Springs QB Tyrik Rollison. 2. Allen (13-1). The Eagles can't let up after beating Euless Trinity. 3. Wylie (12-2). The Pirates have to deal with a red-hot Copperas Cove team. 4. Prosper (13-1). Prosper moves on up to Texas Stadium. 5. Celina (11-3). Just when you think that Celina is going to drop off the map. 6. Denton Guyer (12-2). One heck of a success story here. VYPE HOT 10 TOPICS -- ONLINE What you see with your eyes usually gives you a fair chance at figuring out how a playoff game will play out. Allen never skipped a beat with a new quarterback because Tucker Carter played well and the Eagles' defense and special teams are both special. Trinity just didn't look like a great team against Plano. And so what happened? Allen, playing the better football, came out and dominated Trinity with big plays on defense and a punt return for a touchdown. Hey, the object to beating Trinity is getting the lead and getting the Trojans out of their comfort zone and forcing them to rally from a double-digit deficit. Eagles running back Jeremiah Williams flashed back to early in his high school career with 180 yards. The result: 34-21. A sweet Allen victory. Allen must put a huge win over Trinity out of its mind immediately. Round Rock Stony Point is a quality team with a talented roster. This has been the round the Eagles have been unable to get past, losing to Carroll in 2003 and 2006. The program built to win a state title can't relax now, and I say won't. Allen will again show its solid in all phases of the game to roll over Stony Point, 28-7. Wylie magic. What else can you say? The Pirates have run the gamut with three wins over quality programs in Hebron, Arlington Bowie and Cedar Hill. There has never been a question about Wylie's spunk or its coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Shannon Purcell was at the top of his game Saturday, calling a great game. The Pirates' defense, led by coach Bill Howard and his staff, made the right adjustments at halftime and came out and caused a huge third-quarter turnover. These are proud times for Wylie. Prosper coach Kent Scott is the latest coach to refreshingly offer that the Eagles' win over Celina in the regular season was a program builder. Hebron coach Brian Brazil said that same thing after the Hawks beat Southlake Carroll in the regular season. There are just some teams -- Carroll, Plano, Euless Trinity, Highland Park and Celina -- that offer a chance at a signature win. And Prosper certainly has capitalized on its huge win with a state finals berth. 5. Nothing seems to stop Celina, not even a three-loss regular season. The Bobcats will have a really tough time this week beating 14-0 Liberty Hill. But this sure looked like the season Butch Ford and Co would have a short playoff run, and instead, here they are in the Final Four. This could be Ford's best coaching job. 6. Allow me to brag about my ability as a prognosticator. In my Nov. 10 online column for VYPE.com, I wrote this: "I'll pick Trinity and Allen to meet in Round 4. Give me Allen to win that game and go to the state semifinals." In that column, I didn't offer any reasons, but did last week, saying that Allen's defense would make the difference in a 27-10 win. The final was 34-21 Eagles, a little bit off, but still, I'll break my arm patting myself on the back. Also in my Nov. 10 online column, "My pick in Division II Region I is 8-2 Wylie. Just think with QB Jerod Monk and a great defense that the Pirates are the best team in Region I." Monk and the defense were the No. 1 and 2 reasons the Pirates dominated the second half against Cedar Hill. I'd buy a ticket -- I haven't had to buy one yet -- to see Longview play Lake Travis in the 4A Division I state title game next week. That would seem to be on Texas Stadium's schedule next week. Maybe Waco's Floyd Casey Stadium. Sulphur Springs' Tyrik Rollison may be the most exciting player left in the playoffs, with apologies to Lake Travis quarterback Garrett Gilbert. Rollison will test the Everman defense in Saturday's noon semifinal game at Texas Stadium. 10. Here are my state title picks: Allen, Wylie, Longview, Everman, Prosper, Liberty Hill, Kirbyville, Cisco, Canadian, Albany and Cayuga. THE RANDOMNESS THAT IS ME The question rages, who is the best politician in college football? It may well be Bob Stoops, not Mack Brown. Stoops was at it again this weekend, using the bully pulpit he knows he can go to because no member of the media -- except for The Daily Oklahoman's Berry Tramel -- has the guts to call out Stoops when he's making a fool of himself. When asked directly by another Sooner, Barry Switzer, on FOX who was the better team, Oklahoma or Texas, Stoops went into "politician mode" and failed to answer the question directly, going into some long-winded answer about three-way ties and tiebreakers. Why, you may ask? Because Stoops is of course on the defensive. He has to do everything he can to "sell" the Sooners to the media with Oklahoma's run of 60-point games while also taking pot shots at Mack Brown and Texas in classic politician fashion. He can't say his team is better than Texas because of 45-35 at the Cotton Bowl. Don't get me wrong, Brown is a politician, but his moves, going out and campaigning against Cal in 2004 and then going on TV during the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State -- an interview in which he said nothing wrong -- proved to backfire on the Longhorns' coach and will haunt him for years to come. So who is the master politician? Why it's Stoops of course. He politicked his way into the BCS Championship Game by choosing his words wisely -- "Don't drag me into this but here's my resume..." He convinced the Oklahoma media that he took the high road when he ran up the score on Oklahoma State and Missouri while, like Brown, going on the radio and using his TV time to politick his team into the title game. In essence Stoops took the low road, which is what any great politician is want to do and has right to do with a screwed up situation like the BCS system. It was masterful by Stoops indeed. He will have to fix one thing -- he can't be defensive right before an election. Stoops should have told reporters this weekend he's not talking about Texas anymore, but he's so on the defensive -- we see it all the time in presidential campaigns -- that Stoops knew only two things, to keep stating the same case of 60-point beatings and the home win over No. 2 Texas Tech. Maybe 2020 will bring us this campaign slogan in a senate race, "Don't be Duped, Vote for Stoops.." It's always interesting to see how coach's vote in the final USA Today coach's poll, mainly because it brings out the true crime that these ballots actually have anything to do with the BCS poll. For instance, Mike Leach's final ballot shows no regard for the beating the Red Raiders took in Oklahoma or for Tech's best win of the season over Texas. Leach was so impressed with his team's effort at OU that he voted the Sooners first and the Red Raiders second. He was so unimpressed with his team's incredible win over Texas that he voted the Longhorns fifth. Then there's Art Briles at Baylor. He thinks so little of Texas that he voted the Longhorns fifth and the Red Raiders sixth. The question here is with Texas and Tech right one spot apart, why didn't he rank Tech over Texas seeing that the Red Raiders beat the Longhorns. Why did he think so little of his conference that he had Alabama, which doesn't have a win over any of the one-loss teams, ahead of Texas and Tech? I give Briles the award for the worst vote over cast in any poll. And finally, Todd Dodge and Gene Chizik voted only loyalties and had Texas first. Not saying that they're wrong, but that agendas make the coach's poll a complete and utter joke. Anytime the Cowboys lose, the blame game starts about three seconds after the game. And with message boards and blogs, it's really gotten more heated. The leader in the clubhouse is Tony Romo, followed by Wade Phillips. The vote here goes to the Cowboys' special teams. The play of the game was the Steelers' Santonio Holmes' 35-yard punt return with the Cowboys leading 13-3 with less than 10 minutes to go in the game. The way the Cowboys' defense was playing, there's no way the Steelers go on two 60-plus yards in the fourth quarter. But the short field gave the Steelers the opening they needed. The Cowboys' coverage teams have been awful all season, almost as bad as Pacman Jones' kick and punt returning. Pacman actually played well on defense Sunday, but he has been brutal as a return man. Friday Night Lights recap: Now that we get closer to the NBC season starting next month I'll try to give away less and less and it might be best if you're a fan of the show and don't have Directv to not read on. I will say that Tyra's phone call to Landry was one of the best moments of the season and really gets down to the heart of the show. Otherwise, it what has been a hit-and-miss third season, last week's episode was way too cheesy for me. 5. "Chuck" thoughts: Another hilarious episode. The writers do an amazing job of mixing comedy into a spy show. Again, the scenes at the Buy More steal the show. They are refreshing and fun. The spy scenes last week -- not as good as usual.