GRIDIRON GLANCE ’22: Early Longhorns

August 20, 2022 at 6:21 am Updated: August 21st, 2022 at 7:49 am Derrick Stuckly

EARLY – What could be described as “a perfect storm,” in the words of Early third-year head coach Daniel Price, could be in play for the Longhorns in 2022.

The Longhorns are coming off their best season in 15 years, posting a 9-3 record and earning their first postseason victory since 2007. Couple with that, 18 of 30 lettermen, including seven offensive and six defensive starters, are back from that squad. And the icing on the cake for Early is the drop in classification to Class 3A Division II as powerhouses Jim Ned and Brock are no longer in the district or postseason path.

“We have a bunch of seniors that have played a lot of football for us and have a lot of experience,” said Price said, who has guided Early to a 14-9 record in two seasons. “That leadership with them, that’s going to help us this year. Then dropping down definitely helps. It’s still going to be a tough district, but getting away from Breckenridge, Jim Ned and Clyde is exciting. We’re excited to get it rolling and see where these seniors can take us.”

Price further addressed the recent rise of the Early program, and the keys to the success.

“We’ve spent a lot of time building quality relationships with athletes, and they have trust and faith in us that we’re going to put them in the best position we can,” Price said. “Seeing that grow over the past couple of years, having that belief, we’ve always had the kids we could when with, but them having the belief they could win these last couple of years, they’ve really bought into what we’re doing and telling them. It started to turn two years when we won five games and made the playoffs, and last year we went 9-3 and won a playoff game. You can see that momentum and this class of seniors wants to see what they can do on their way out to start building some tradition.”

According to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, the Longhorns are the 15th-ranked team in Class 3A Division II, a new position to be in for Early.

“We’re exciting to be talked about,” Price said. “It’s an exciting time for us. It’s not pressure because we’re going to be prepared. If you’re prepared there’s not a lot of pressure there, you just have to go out and perform. We’re excited to get some recognition, but we know we have a lot of work to do to live up to that No. 15 ranking. But the excitement level is through the roof, and it’s been that way the last couple of years since we started to make the turn.”

Price will again be calling plays on offense and Rusty Clippinger returns as the defensive coordinator. The continuity and stability regarding the offensive and defensive schemes should provide Early with an advantage not all team enjoy.

“When we started camp, it looked like a Week 8 or 9 offense,” Price said. “Everything we want to do is already installed. We made some tweaks and a couple of changes, but it’s all about getting back into the rhythm of throwing and catching and running the offense. It gives us a good advantage of because we had a whole lot of success with it last year and bring a lot of guys back that know what they’re doing. Defensively, any time you can have consistency on the coaching staff it’s going to help you out tremendously. Our defense was really good last year, they kept us in a lot of ball games until we got the offense rolling. I look for them to do the same thing this year.”

There are still a few holes to fill on both sides of the ball, but Price felt strides were made in the right direction during scrimmage action.

“We struggled at times up front, but we’re replacing some guys,” Price said. “One of the things I really enjoyed was seeing the running back position. We lost a good one there and we saw the guys compete and know the drop off isn’t near as far as we might have thought after last fall. The things we need to work on are being physical and running the football. We have to throw and catch a little better than we did that first scrimmage, we dropped a couple. We’ve had some growing pains, but that’s what scrimmages are for.”

Preseason DCTF Offensive MVP for District 2-3A Division II, Early quarterback Jaxyn Price, is back after passing for 2,106 yards and 29 touchdowns last year. The Longhorns also returning their top four receivers – Jeremy Brown (55 catches, 720 yards, 5 TDs), John-Stewart Gordon (43-648, 9 TDs), Ki Houston (14-270, 4 TDs), and Cedrick Morelan (8-191, 2 TDs).

The backfield will feature returnee Kaleb Ozuna (174 yards, 3 TDs) and newcomer Griffin Cheslock.

Returning for an offensive line that paved the way for 37 points and 381 yards – 206 passing and 175 rushing – per game last season are guards Casey Moseley and Chris Fernandez, as well as Dalton Adams who saw time at tackle. Newcomers vying for time include Nicolas Thames and Malcham Williams at center, and Jacob Braun, Fischer Fulton, and Isaac Delgado at the other tackle position.

“We have a lot of experience coming back in the skill sets and up front,” Price said. “We have a chance to be pretty good, but we have to take care of the football. We’ve talked about it a lot with Jaxyn. Sometimes he gets a little anxious with his arm and sometimes it puts him in a bad situation.”

Defensively, the Longhorns surrendered 19 points and 253 yards – 133 rushing and 120 passing – last year, and forced 27 takeaways.

Among the returnees are honorable mention all-state defensive end Caleb McCullough (97 tackles, 16 for loss, 5 sacks), fellow defensive end Adams (24 tackles, 1 for loss), and Fernandez (40 tackles, 3 fumble recoveries) and Moseley (32 tackles, 1 fumble recovery) at the tackles.

Lining up again at middle linebacker will be Ozuna (106 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 interception), while the outside linebackers will feature a combination of Gavin Sanders (19 tackles), Houston Ortiz, Justin Pierce and Rohyn Price.

The cornerbacks – Brown (44 tackles, 3 interceptions) and Gordon (28 tackles, 6 interceptions) – are veterans, while the two safeties – Morelan (16 tackles) and Cheslock – are new to their positions.

“We lost some bits and piece that hopefully we can replace,” Price said of the defense. “We have two guys outside that have covered a lot of kids and have been a mismatch for a lot of people. The front seven need to play well. Those linebacker positions are going to be big for us early on because that was a lot of our production last year, those two outside linebackers on the defensive end.”

The Longhorns’ pre-district slate will feature a variety of opponents in rival Bangs; Class 2A Division I No. 12 Tolar; fellow 3A Division II school Comanche; Troy, from District 11-3A Division I; and 4A program Burnet.

“There’s not an easy one on there, so it should be exciting and a fun road,” Price said. “All of those are in preparation to get to Ballinger after the bye week. We’re looking for some young guys to step into some roles and find the right fit for us and where we’re going. We’ve made some of those decisions the last couple of weeks. But when it gets live and it starts to mean something and starts counting, that’s when you see those people rise to the top. Hopefully we get to see that with some of those younger guys that will get an opportunity to play a little bit and have a bigger impact than what they did last year.”

The Longhorns are also the DCTF favorite to capture the District 2-3A Division II title, competing against Ballinger, Brady, Grape Creek, San Angelo TLCA, and Wall.

“Ballinger is a perennial big time football school, Brady’s had a lot of success, Grape Creek had a lot of success last year, and TLCA was really beat up last year, but they were athletic,” Price said. “We know Wall, we’ve been with them for the last five or six years. It’s going to be a tough district. Week in and week out we’re going to have to show up and compete and do the little things right to win. Wall has a great football team coming back, but we were able to get after them out here at the end of the season and win that one, but there should be good competition throughout the district.”

As for how good Early could be, and what it will take for the Longhorns to reach that point, Price said. “We set a goal to play in December and maybe we’ll get there. I hope we do, but we’re going to have to put in the work to do that. I think we have an opportunity to be really good and we can be really good. We’re going to have to grow up in some areas and in terms of leadership. The seniors have to take control of where they want to go with this thing, but the sky’s the limit. We have an opportunity to go win some games and play for a while. I think these guys are geared up for it and hopefully we can make some good things happen around here.”

***

EARLY LONGHORNS 2022 VARSITY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 26	at Bangs	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 2	Tolar	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 9	at Comanche	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 16	Troy	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 23	Burnet#	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 30	OPEN
Oct. 7	at Ballinger*	7:30 p.m.
Oct. 14	at Brady*	7:30 p.m.
Oct. 21	Grape Creek*	7:30 p.m.
Oct. 28	at Wall*	7:30 p.m.
Nov. 4	San Angelo TLCA*	7:30 p.m.