2017 10-3A football outlook

For fans of the gridiron, it will be a long and sometimes-grueling seven months before 2-a-day practices get underway in preparation for the start of the 2017 Texas high school football season.  

You will typically see the first projections of the year in the summer month of June, but I'm going to take a look at some of the numbers now - just a short few weeks after the completion of the state championships. 

10-3A has always been regarded as one of the toughest districts in all of 3A football.  In fact, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football rated the district as the toughest in the state for any classification before the start of the 2016 season.  

Well, here is how it played out.  

Cameron, for the fifth straight season, managed to advance further than any of their district counterparts.  The Yoemen navigated their way through West, Woodville and Teague to the state quarterfinals before falling to Malakoff in a thrilling overtime classic at Waco ISD Stadium.  

Rockdale beat Cameron in what will go down as one of the most bizarre, and at the same time entertaining Battle of the Bell showdowns, 80-54.  The Tigers rode that momentum to an undefeated district championship before falling to the same Malakoff team in the third round of the playoffs, 27-14.  

Franklin (Teague) and Troy (Malakoff) both fell in the bi-district round to 9-3A.  McGregor, Academy and Jarrell all missed out on the playoffs.  In the end, it did not play out like some had projected or hoped, but overall this district remains rooted as one of the best out there.   

Now, let's take a look at the numbers from the 2016 all-district lists.  

Cameron Yoe (11-3/5-1; State Quarterfinalist)

# of seniors lost: 16 of 46  

# of all-district players lost: 2 1st team offense; 3 2nd team offense; 5 1st team defense

# of all-district players returning: Offensive Newcomer; 4 1st team offense; 3 2nd team offense; 1 1st team defense; 6 2nd team

defense

Franklin (8-3/4-2; Bi-District Finalist)

# of seniors lost: 14 of 34  

# of all-district players lost: 2 1st team offense; 2 2nd team offense; 3 1st team defense; 4 2nd team defense 

# of all-district players returning: 3 1st team offense; 3 2nd team offense; 2 1st team defense; 1 2nd team defense

Jarrell (1-9/0-6)

# of seniors lost: 17 of 35  

# of all-district players lost: 2 2nd team offense; 1 1st team defense; 1 2nd team defense 

# of all-district players returning: None

Little River Academy (4-6/1-5)

# of seniors lost: 15 of 33  

# of all-district players lost: 2 1st team offense; 1 2nd team offense; 1 1st team defense

# of all-district players returning: 1 2nd team offense; 1 1st team defense; 2 2nd team defense 

McGregor (4-6/2-5)

# of seniors lost: 11 of 40  

# of all-district players lost: 4 1st team offense; 1 2nd team offense; 1 1st team defense; 

# of all-district players returning: 2 2nd team offense; 1 1st team defense; 3 2nd team defense

Rockdale (11-2/6-0; Regional Semifinalist)

# of seniors lost: 18 of 46  

# of all-district players lost: Offensive MVP; 5 1st team offense; 3 2nd team offense; 3 1st team defense; 1 2nd team defense 

# of all-district players returning: MVP; Defensive MVP; 2 1st team offense; 1 2nd team offense; 4 1st team defense; 3 2nd team

defense

Troy (5-6/3-3; Bi-District Finalist)

# of seniors lost: 19 of 44  

# of all-district players lost: 3 1st team offense; 3 2nd team offense; 1 1st team defense; 2 2nd team defense 

# of all-district players returning: Defensive Newcomer; 1 1st team offense; 1 2nd team offense; 3 1st team defense; 2 2nd team

defense

In total, Cameron will have the most returning all-district players at 15. Rockdale has 12, Franklin has nine, Troy has eight, McGregor has six, Academy has four, and Jarrell has none.  

There are more variables than just last season's success combined with returning talent, but this will give everyone a good starting point as to where these teams should stand entering 2017.  

Expect Cameron, Rockdale and Franklin to compete for the district championship.  Teams such as Troy and McGregor are familiar with the territory and will have the talent to pull an upset on any given night.  Academy and Jarrell are expected to have more of an uphill climb based on tradition and sub-varsity results.  

The three aforementioned teams should be in the conversation as regional title contenders and will be in most preseason rankings.  It will take improvement to get there, but don't be surprised to see one of these teams playing deep into December and potentially for a state title. 

Next week we will take a look at my way-to-early top 20 teams in 3A division one.