Yoe starts 10-3A with an improved Troy team

This Friday night, football games across Texas start becoming very important. For a good portion of the state, district play gets underway this week as the jostling for playoff positioning begins. Both Cameron (2-1) and Troy (3-1) have both been impressive in their non-district schedules and each is expected to be somewhere in the playoff picture come November.

Yoe coach Tommy Brashear feels good about where his team stands at this point of the season after starting at 2-1. “The slow starts in the last two games has bothered me and we have to get out of that and fire and all cylinders,” Brashear said. “But, as far as the team goes, I feel they are a team-oriented group of guys, and in the years we have been successful that is the kind of the guys we’ve had.”

Troy opened the eyes of many when they bounced and improved Salado team in their season opener, 15-6. Since that point, Troy has lost to Lexington (49-28) and has defeated Robinson (35-28, OT) and Hillsboro (33-14).

“I think Troy is a little more competitive,” said Brashear on what he has seen from this Trojans team. “Their junior group is a good group for them and they have done a good job from 7th grade on up. They have that want to and that itch and competitive spirit. I can tell when I talk to their coach that he feels good about their team, too.”

Cameron has never lost to Troy and has the 10-0 all-time advantage. The scores have also been lopsided as of late as the Yoemen have the 353 to 53 scoring advantage since 2010.

Offense

The Trojans are returning a total of eight offensive starters from a team that averaged just 17 points a ball game. That average has moved up to just over 24 points per game in 2018. Troy was once known for their slot-t offense, but that has since changed the last few years.

“I think they have officially evolved to a multiple team,” said Brashear. “They were heavy slot-t for a long time and then they started playing some I and two-back stuff and even one-back stuff to run the ball. They are fairly decent at throwing the ball. It’s not their bread and butter, but they have thrown it better than they have the last couple of years.”

Troy is still a run-first team and not surprisingly the top player to watch on that side of the ball would be Zach Hrbacek, the top running-back.

“The running-back, number 21 is shifty and was selected as the preseason offensive MVP of the district,” Brashear said. “He is more scat, cutting and quit type back that runs hard. We faced a big guy last week that was hard to get down, but once you get down on his legs you take the wind out of him. This guy is quick and runs through arm tackles.”

Defense

Defensively, Troy is also returning eight starters from a team that gave up a total of 29.2 points per ball game. That average has dropped to 24.25 in four games this season.

Troy will base out of the 3-3 stack, but could line up in a variety of formations throughout the night.

“They will give us a lot of different looks on defense, especially on the defensive front,” said Brashear. “They want to base out of the 3-3 stack, but they will show some 3-4, 4-2 and if you’re hurting them in the run game, they will show you a 4-3. If they get in the 4-3 front, that would open up the pass for us, so I don’t know if we will see a whole lot of that.”

Brashear also noted that Troy likes to run a cover four look in the secondary, meaning they are going to try and prevent the big plays down the field. This could open up the more short to intermediate routes.

On defense, Beau Workman, a junior linebacker, would be considered not only the top defender for Troy, but also one of the best linebackers out there.

“Number 42 is one of the top-rated linebackers in the state,” Brashear said. “He has been on the team since he was a freshmen and is now a junior. He is physical kid that moves well for his size.”

Opening district on a strong note

Last season, Cameron limped into district and suffered a tough defeat to the McGregor Bulldogs on the road. Brashear and his players are looking to make sure that does not happen again this year.

“We need to start the district season off well,” Brashear said. “Everyone asks me about last year. We lost a game going into district and we lost the first district game, and had plenty of opportunities to win both of those games. We can’t let the down side of this loss affect us as we move on. We have to learn from our mistakes, fix them and get better. We need to start 1-0 and that is the goal. We have to go out and do it for a whole four quarters.”