The 2024 football season kicks off with the continuation of the Brown County rivalry between the Early Longhorns and Bangs Dragons, but each school is also experiencing a fresh start.

Both Early and Bangs have a new head coach this year, as Randall Case will lead the Longhorns and Colton Buzzard will guide the Dragons. And both will be making their debuts as head coaches when the teams take the field at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bangs’ Memorial Stadium.

“Leading up to it there’s always pre-game jitters no matter what seat you’re sitting in,” said Case, who spent the past seven seasons as an assistant in Early. “This being my first one as a head coach, it’s obviously a different feeling. I’m sure I’ll have those butterflies but once the kickoff happens I think it’ll be all coaching. You get zoned in and locked in and at that point you’re just coaching.”

Buzzard, who graduated from Coleman in 2009 and is returning to the area after serving as an assistant at San Angelo Central and most recently Gregory-Portland, said, “I didn’t sleep hardly at all Saturday or Sunday after getting film and breaking things down. I couldn’t wait to get started Monday morning. Game days drag out and take forever. You finish with first period athletics and you have to wait 10 hours until you get to play the game. I don’t how I’ll feel, but I know it will feel like forever until kickoff. But once it gets started everything is going to happen so fast.”

Early, which is coming off a 6-6 campaign, is looking to reach the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. A victory Friday would go a long way toward setting the tone Case wants to establish in his initial season.

“Any Week 1 is huge, but for our kids and this community especially, this is really big,” Case said. “Not to put too much pressure on it, but it’s a big-time rivalry and it would be huge for our school and these kids’ confidence moving forward to go out and get a win.”

The Dragons are looking to bounce back from a 2-8 campaign in 2023 and return to the postseason after missing out last fall. Buzzard, too, would like to start his season on a positive note, but also realizes greater challenges await.

“It sets the tone for the season usually, that first game, but it doesn’t define you as a team,” Buzzard said. “The most important games are district play, so yeah it’s a big rivalry game, but it’s another pre-district game for us to perfect our craft for the ones that matter which are district games.”

Both coaches were pleased with what they saw in their two pre-season scrimmages. Early squared off with Wall and Albany, while Bangs tangled with Valley Mills and Goldthwaite.

“The main thing is we came out healthy,” Case said. “A scrimmage is very scripted, there’s certain things you have to see no matter the situation. I thought our kids competed well, played hard and had a good showing, which is what we’re going to hang our hat on. We were very pleased, and again we came out with no injuries through these two scrimmages, so we’re very fortunate.”

Buzzard added, “I feel pretty confident. Our kids are grasping the offense and we’re starting to put in a lot more things. Defensively, we’re being real sound and understanding where to line up and what our keys are. We did have a couple of busts last week with our alignments and where our eyes need to be and Goldthwaite took advantage of it. But seeing that on film and seeing how to do it the right way, because later on in the scrimmage we fixed it, has me pretty excited about where we are.”

Both teams are experiencing changes in schemes as well, as Early is moving to an odd front on defense, while Bangs has installed the wing-T offense to go along with a 4-2-5 defense.

“Offensively you’ll see a whole different game from them moving to the wing-T,” Case said of Bangs. “That’s going to very different than what they’ve run in recent years, so we’ve been gearing up for that. You don’t see the wing-T a lot anymore, so our focus and preparation has been on that. Defensively, they’re going to run that 4-2-5 look, but you don’t want to show everything in a scrimmage and all we have is scrimmage film on them. It’s a new staff, so there will be some in-game adjustments that have to happen.”

Buzzard said of the Longhorns, “Early last year thumped Bangs pretty good, so we have a chip on our shoulder, which we should have. Coach Case has done a good job of getting that offense and defense rolling. They have some good athletes, a pretty good quarterback and really good receivers. We just need to do our job and if we do our job the way we need to do it, we’ll have success.”

The Longhorns return five offensive and four defensive starters from last year’s team, as players to watch include quarterback Weston Barton (16 of 39 for 243 yards TD, 3 INT), receiver Andrew Reedy (52-860, 7 TDs) and running back Ben Morris (161 rushing yards, TD) on offense, while middle linebacker Kaedyn Byrd (50 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 INT, 1 FR) will anchor the defense.

For the Dragons, Skylar Minshew takes over at quarterback with a crew of Brayden Gatlin, Nevaeh Menefied, Aden Jones, Jackson Edmiston, and Eliseo Rivas behind him in the backfield. The heart of the Bangs defense will be its linebacker corps of Hunter Crowell (68 tackles, 1 for loss), Cason Tidwell (58.5 tackles) – the top two tackle leaders a year ago – and Rivas.

Regarding what it will take for each team to emerge victorious, Case said, “Defensively, we need to see our kids swarm to the football with a bend but don’t break mentality because we do bring a lot of pressure and at times teams may pop one here or there. But we have to swarm the football and be relentless to it. Offensively, we have to put together long, lengthy drives and go punch it in the end zone when we get down in the red zone.”

For Buzzard, the keys to the game are, “Be physical, take care of the football and limit big plays. You keep a spread offense from making big plays, it’s hard for them to keep throwing those little passes over and over. We also need to fight and be mentally tough. Things are going to go against us. Things are not going to go our way the whole time. What are we going to do when things go the opposite way? Mental toughness is key not for just one play, but over 100 plays, not just one quarter but for four quarters. What are we going to do when we get hit in the teeth? Are we going to back down or fight back?”

According to Harris Ratings Weekly, Early is a 21-point favorite.

How to Listen/Watch the Game:

Listen to the game on KBWD AM.  The game will also be Live Video Streamed on KOXE.com as part of the KOXE Live “Game of the Week”.  Keith Woolf and Jason Duncan will have the call.