GRIDIRON GLANCE ‘23: Comanche Indians

August 9, 2023 at 7:30 am Derrick Stuckly

COMANCHE – The Comanche Indians enjoyed one of the biggest one-year turnarounds in the state in 2022. Coming off a 1-9 campaign in 2021, the Indians flew under the radar in head coach Jake Escobar’s second year – yet ended their campaign as District 5-3A Division II champions and reached the second round of the playoffs with a 10-2 overall mark.

Comanche won’t be sneaking up on any foes this year, however, as the Indians return seven starters on both sides of the ball, according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, which also projects a district championship repeat to go along with a No. 13 preseason state ranking in Class 3A Division II.

“Everybody else has high expectations for us and we do, too, but we always will regardless of what we have coming back,” Escobar said. “Being the head coach at Comanche High School I feel like that just goes along with the position.”

Escobar did, however, admit the success of last season caught even him off guard.

“I’m really surprised to an extent because I feel like we’re still a couple of years away, but these kids have really embraced it,” he said. “I worry sometimes about them being overconfident and I’ve spoken to them about having a little swagger and being entitled, because nobody owes us anything and we’re still going to have to earn it. They’re taking it head on and I feel a little more at ease.”

As for moving from the role of the hunter to the hunted, Escobar said, “I sleep less than that first year when I came here and nobody really expected us to do anything. But I like this feeling, I’ve always liked the feeling. If you’re going to take over a program you have to be able to go to work everyday knowing everybody is trying to get you. If not, you’ll be complacent and that’s not who we are.”

Among the greatest strength for the Indians heading into the 2023 season is a core of skill players that includes running back Sawyer Wilkerson, who rushed for 2,601 yards and 29 yards last year; quarterback Layden Welch, who threw for 1,751 yards and 22 scores; and receiver Kyler Beaty, who yanked down 27 receptions for 450 yards with eight trips to the end zone.

“It’s good to be able to throw the ball out there and have a guy that can break it 80 yards for a touchdown, hand it off and have a guy go for 80 and have a quarterback fake it and go for about 80 yards as well,” Escobar said.

Leading the charge defensively for the Indians will be Pierson Sorrells, who tallied 79 tackles with 10 behind the line of scrimmage a year ago.

“Our defensive line MVP Pierson Sorrells is coming back and I feel like our ends are going to be solid,” Escobar said. “We also have Kyler Beaty and Layden Welch coming back in the secondary.”

Another perk for Comanche this year is 19 seniors on the varsity roster in a program that boasted almost 80 students out for football in the preseason.

“A lot of these young men, those 19 seniors, a lot of them went through that 1-9 season as sophomores,” Escobar said. “We’ve learned how to overcome adversity and they’ll do a great job of leading our younger guys in that aspect.”

Prior to the District 5-3A Division II race, the Indians will again tangle with Brady, Bangs, Early, Tolar and Albany. A year ago, Comanche defeated four of the five with the lone loss to Tolar.

“I really hope we are in some games where we have to overcome some adversity,” Escobar said. “Last year we played Albany and Tolar, two tough teams, and Early was a good football team that we got behind and scored about 28 unanswered points and that was big turning point for us. I hope we’re in a situation like that again where we’re behind because I want to see how we react. That will help us overcome tough games in district and the playoffs.”

Looking ahead to the district race, Escobar isn’t as convinced it will be as one-sided as many prognosticators have suggested.

“It’s going to be a tough district,” Escobar. “Jacksboro is very athletic and does a great job, they’re going to be tough to beat. Eastland had a bunch of sophomores last year so they should be much better. Dublin and Merkel are up and coming, Millsap always does a great job and has a couple of transfers coming over from Brock that should help them out. I think it’s going to be a tight race, I really do. I don’t know who’s going to be the front runner. I think we’re all going to beat each other up, but hopefully not too bad that all us can’t have a good run in the playoffs.”

As for what it will take for Comanche to earn a second straight district championship and make a deeper postseason run, Escobar said, “The offensive line has to come together, be together and understand how to help each other. That’s going to be the key. We also need to be more balanced. We ran the ball really well last year and we threw for 1,700 yards, but we still had a lot of mistakes like the four turnovers against Bells. It’s hard to beat really good teams and to do that we have to eliminate turnovers and grow on the interior.”

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COMANCHE INDIANS 2023 VARSITY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 25 – at Brady, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 1 – Bangs#, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 8 – at Early, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 15 – Tolar, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 22 – Albany, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 29 – OPEN

Oct. 6 – at Millsap*, 7 p.m.

Oct. 13 – Jacksboro*, 7 p.m.

Oct. 20 – at Dublin*, 7 p.m.

Oct. 27 – Merkel*, 7 p.m.