By JOE DODD
1930. That’s how far back you have to go to find a Gilmer team that scored as many points in a game as the Buckeyes did in last week’s 71-28 crushing of Tatum. 1930 is also the first year that the Buckeyes met the Daingerfield Tigers on the football field. Gilmer won that first meeting 35-0 in a season that saw the Buckeyes record scores of 76, 86, 88 and 91 points for coach Henry McClelland.
The Buckeyes and Tigers have met 50 more times since 1930, with Daingerfield holding a series lead of 30-21 over Gilmer. The 52nd installment of this great East Texas rivalry will take place Friday night at Buckeye Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Gilmer could make a strong argument as the area’s most dominant team during McClelland’s tenure from 1924-1935. Nobody argues Daingerfield’s title as the most dominant team of the 1980s, as the Tigers went a combined 114-15-4 that decade and took home two state championships.
Gilmer, with a 73-14 record and one state championship, is well on its way to claim the title as ‘team of the decade’ for the start of this century, but Daingerfield continues to be the one nemesis that plagues the Buckeyes. Of the Buckeyes’ 14 losses since 2000, three have come against the Tigers. No other team has beaten Gilmer more than once in that same time span.
“Five-three is not a real good record,” admitted Gilmer head coach Jeff Traylor, reflecting on his success against the Tigers since coming to Gilmer in 2000. “I can remember them (losses) all so vividly.” Like the 35-14 thumping in his first season, and his 36-23 playoff loss in 2002. Not to mention the 26-17 loss in 2005 that ended the Buckeyes’ school record 21-game winning streak.
Daingerfield comes to Gilmer with a chance to add another thorn to the Buckeyes’ side. A Tigers’ win would end the Buckeyes current 21-game home winning streak. “That’s important to our seniors,” said Traylor. “They would be our second class to graduate without a loss at home.”
To keep the home winning streak intact, the Buckeyes will have to ignore the Tigers’ 28-point loss to Tatum two weeks ago. “Just look at last year and what happened to us,” reminded Traylor. “Tatum beat Daingerfield bad, then we beat Tatum by 24, so people thought we should win by about 40 points. That’s not what happened. Daingerfield gave us all we could handle last year.”
Traylor is referring to the 546 total yards and 42 points his Buckeyes gave up to the Tigers last year in a 62-42 win that felt more like a loss. “We couldn’t stop them. They literally embarrassed us defensively,” conceded Traylor. “Last year we played with no intensity. We just went out there flat.”
“We’ll find out about the maturity level of our team,” continued Traylor. “Are we an intense football team, or are we an emotional football team? If we are emotional; that means we won’t play real well. But if we’re an intense, disciplined, mature football team; we’ll play well. We’ll find out a lot about our team this Friday night.”
One measuring stick will be if the Buckeyes’ defense can continue its early season success. Last year the Buckeyes entered the Daingerfield game allowing an average of 229.5 yards and 17.5 points per game, before giving up 278 yards passing and 268 yards rushing to the Tigers. So far this season the Buckeyes’ defense has given up only 225.5 yards and 14 points per game.
Last year the Tigers controlled the football for 36 of the game’s 48 minutes. “Last year their offense was on the field the whole night,” complained Traylor. “We’ve got to get them off the field.”
Daingerfield head coach Randall Hugg thinks that will be easier to do with this year’s version of Gilmer’s defense. “Defensively what I see is they are much more physical. They’re flying around and playing hard,” said Hugg. “I feel like they’re stronger at this point than they were last year.”
“I thought last year was their best team, even better than their 2004 team,” continued Hugg. “But now I think this year overall they are much stronger on defense and, of course, the offense is rolling, so I think this may be probably the best team that they’ve had in my four years. One of our coaches was joking that we were getting ready to play a Big 12 team, since there are four of them committed to Big Twelve schools.”
Daingerfield has talented athletes as well, Traylor points out. “We’ve got to tackle [Johnie] Hurndon. In my opinion, he’s a (NCAA) Division One running back. They have a Division One wide receiver in Malcolm Walker; he’s a stud. He’s got a really good quarterback, Jared Hill. So we’ve got our work cut out for us just tackling their athletes.”
Last season Hurndon (6-0, 185, 4.5) accounted for 1,398 total yards and 23 touchdowns in the Tigers’ spread offense. In Daingerfield’s 22-17 win over Spring Hill last week, Hurndon rushed for 176 yards, scoring on a 71-yard run. Walker (6-2, 185, 4.5) had three catches for 80 yards and a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. Hill (6-1, 205, 4.5) completed 8 of 11 passes for 142 yards.
Blocking for Hurndon and company are returning starter Payton Hall (5-11, 260) and newcomers Jacob Hall (5-10, 200) at center, guards Zavian Gilstrap (5-9, 250) and Zarkevian Williams (5-10, 250) and tackle James Davis (6-2, 270).
“Defensively, they’ve got three really good linebackers,” said Traylor. “Julius Hurndon (5-10, 185), Carl Moore (6-0, 180) and Trea Crowder (5-10, 200).” Those linebackers anchor the Tigers’ new 3-3-5 stack defense, installed to create more turnovers. “That’s one thing last year that we weren’t able to do all year,” said Hugg. “In 10 ball games, we only had two interceptions, and very few [forced] turnovers for the whole season. We’ve already surpassed that on defense this year than we had in 10 ball games last year.”
Traylor said that the Buckeyes will be ready for any defense that the Tigers come out in. “We always prepare for everything. People change so much on us,” stated Traylor, who expects Daingerfield to bring more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage. “I’m sure, after watching Tatum, they’re going to commit to stopping our running game. So our passing game has got to keep getting better.”
No matter what defense the Tigers employ, Hugg expects a close game. “If you look back at all of our games with Gilmer; we’ve always had good games with them. Our kids are going to play hard, and it’s going to be a battle. It should be a fun game to watch if you’re a fan.”
Traylor agrees, and hopes that Buckeye Stadium will provide his team a spark. “Our kids really like to play at home. It’s just a great environment. The kids love watching that stands fill up; they sit in that weight room and just watch everybody get here. I think they’ll be real excited to play Daingerfield at home.”
SCOUT TEAM
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Offense - Rondarious Darden
Defense - Aaron Borens
Mirror Photos / Mary Laschinger Kirby
JUSTIN JOHNSON (top photo) of the Buckeyes sets up a touchdown with this bruising run against Tatum. LAMAR HARRIS (above photo) takes a pass from Darian Godfrey as Tatum’s Chris Johnson tries to hang on during second quarter action last Thursday night in Tyler. The 71-28 win over the Eagles moved the Buckeyes up to a No. 4 state ranking in Class 3A, according to the widely-followed AP poll. Gilmer returns home to face the Daingerfield Tigers Friday night, Sept. 14, at Buckeye Stadium. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
1930. That’s how far back you have to go to find a Gilmer team that scored as many points in a game as the Buckeyes did in last week’s 71-28 crushing of Tatum. 1930 is also the first year that the Buckeyes met the Daingerfield Tigers on the football field. Gilmer won that first meeting 35-0 in a season that saw the Buckeyes record scores of 76, 86, 88 and 91 points for coach Henry McClelland.
The Buckeyes and Tigers have met 50 more times since 1930, with Daingerfield holding a series lead of 30-21 over Gilmer. The 52nd installment of this great East Texas rivalry will take place Friday night at Buckeye Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Gilmer could make a strong argument as the area’s most dominant team during McClelland’s tenure from 1924-1935. Nobody argues Daingerfield’s title as the most dominant team of the 1980s, as the Tigers went a combined 114-15-4 that decade and took home two state championships.
Gilmer, with a 73-14 record and one state championship, is well on its way to claim the title as ‘team of the decade’ for the start of this century, but Daingerfield continues to be the one nemesis that plagues the Buckeyes. Of the Buckeyes’ 14 losses since 2000, three have come against the Tigers. No other team has beaten Gilmer more than once in that same time span.
“Five-three is not a real good record,” admitted Gilmer head coach Jeff Traylor, reflecting on his success against the Tigers since coming to Gilmer in 2000. “I can remember them (losses) all so vividly.” Like the 35-14 thumping in his first season, and his 36-23 playoff loss in 2002. Not to mention the 26-17 loss in 2005 that ended the Buckeyes’ school record 21-game winning streak.
Daingerfield comes to Gilmer with a chance to add another thorn to the Buckeyes’ side. A Tigers’ win would end the Buckeyes current 21-game home winning streak. “That’s important to our seniors,” said Traylor. “They would be our second class to graduate without a loss at home.”
To keep the home winning streak intact, the Buckeyes will have to ignore the Tigers’ 28-point loss to Tatum two weeks ago. “Just look at last year and what happened to us,” reminded Traylor. “Tatum beat Daingerfield bad, then we beat Tatum by 24, so people thought we should win by about 40 points. That’s not what happened. Daingerfield gave us all we could handle last year.”
Traylor is referring to the 546 total yards and 42 points his Buckeyes gave up to the Tigers last year in a 62-42 win that felt more like a loss. “We couldn’t stop them. They literally embarrassed us defensively,” conceded Traylor. “Last year we played with no intensity. We just went out there flat.”
“We’ll find out about the maturity level of our team,” continued Traylor. “Are we an intense football team, or are we an emotional football team? If we are emotional; that means we won’t play real well. But if we’re an intense, disciplined, mature football team; we’ll play well. We’ll find out a lot about our team this Friday night.”
One measuring stick will be if the Buckeyes’ defense can continue its early season success. Last year the Buckeyes entered the Daingerfield game allowing an average of 229.5 yards and 17.5 points per game, before giving up 278 yards passing and 268 yards rushing to the Tigers. So far this season the Buckeyes’ defense has given up only 225.5 yards and 14 points per game.
Last year the Tigers controlled the football for 36 of the game’s 48 minutes. “Last year their offense was on the field the whole night,” complained Traylor. “We’ve got to get them off the field.”
Daingerfield head coach Randall Hugg thinks that will be easier to do with this year’s version of Gilmer’s defense. “Defensively what I see is they are much more physical. They’re flying around and playing hard,” said Hugg. “I feel like they’re stronger at this point than they were last year.”
“I thought last year was their best team, even better than their 2004 team,” continued Hugg. “But now I think this year overall they are much stronger on defense and, of course, the offense is rolling, so I think this may be probably the best team that they’ve had in my four years. One of our coaches was joking that we were getting ready to play a Big 12 team, since there are four of them committed to Big Twelve schools.”
Daingerfield has talented athletes as well, Traylor points out. “We’ve got to tackle [Johnie] Hurndon. In my opinion, he’s a (NCAA) Division One running back. They have a Division One wide receiver in Malcolm Walker; he’s a stud. He’s got a really good quarterback, Jared Hill. So we’ve got our work cut out for us just tackling their athletes.”
Last season Hurndon (6-0, 185, 4.5) accounted for 1,398 total yards and 23 touchdowns in the Tigers’ spread offense. In Daingerfield’s 22-17 win over Spring Hill last week, Hurndon rushed for 176 yards, scoring on a 71-yard run. Walker (6-2, 185, 4.5) had three catches for 80 yards and a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. Hill (6-1, 205, 4.5) completed 8 of 11 passes for 142 yards.
Blocking for Hurndon and company are returning starter Payton Hall (5-11, 260) and newcomers Jacob Hall (5-10, 200) at center, guards Zavian Gilstrap (5-9, 250) and Zarkevian Williams (5-10, 250) and tackle James Davis (6-2, 270).
“Defensively, they’ve got three really good linebackers,” said Traylor. “Julius Hurndon (5-10, 185), Carl Moore (6-0, 180) and Trea Crowder (5-10, 200).” Those linebackers anchor the Tigers’ new 3-3-5 stack defense, installed to create more turnovers. “That’s one thing last year that we weren’t able to do all year,” said Hugg. “In 10 ball games, we only had two interceptions, and very few [forced] turnovers for the whole season. We’ve already surpassed that on defense this year than we had in 10 ball games last year.”
Traylor said that the Buckeyes will be ready for any defense that the Tigers come out in. “We always prepare for everything. People change so much on us,” stated Traylor, who expects Daingerfield to bring more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage. “I’m sure, after watching Tatum, they’re going to commit to stopping our running game. So our passing game has got to keep getting better.”
No matter what defense the Tigers employ, Hugg expects a close game. “If you look back at all of our games with Gilmer; we’ve always had good games with them. Our kids are going to play hard, and it’s going to be a battle. It should be a fun game to watch if you’re a fan.”
Traylor agrees, and hopes that Buckeye Stadium will provide his team a spark. “Our kids really like to play at home. It’s just a great environment. The kids love watching that stands fill up; they sit in that weight room and just watch everybody get here. I think they’ll be real excited to play Daingerfield at home.”
SCOUT TEAM
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Offense - Rondarious Darden
Defense - Aaron Borens
Mirror Photos / Mary Laschinger Kirby
JUSTIN JOHNSON (top photo) of the Buckeyes sets up a touchdown with this bruising run against Tatum. LAMAR HARRIS (above photo) takes a pass from Darian Godfrey as Tatum’s Chris Johnson tries to hang on during second quarter action last Thursday night in Tyler. The 71-28 win over the Eagles moved the Buckeyes up to a No. 4 state ranking in Class 3A, according to the widely-followed AP poll. Gilmer returns home to face the Daingerfield Tigers Friday night, Sept. 14, at Buckeye Stadium. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
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