GRIDIRON GLANCE ‘23: Goldthwaite Eagles

August 11, 2023 at 7:32 am Derrick Stuckly

GOLDTHWAITE – The Goldthwaite Eagles found themselves on the outside looking in at the playoff picture in head coach Andy Howard’s first season, but with five starters back on each side of the ball the program is out to push for a postseason berth from District 5-2A Division I.

Goldthwaite reached the playoffs in both the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, but were kept out of the win column a season ago. With a full year in charge of the program under his belt, Howard feels the Eagles are better prepared to compete in all aspects in 2023.

“Our expectations here are to win today,” Howard said. “We have a tough schedule and we know that, but we invite that. We’re the Goldthwaite Eagles and we have extremely high expectations to be successful. We want to be a top tier program and to get there you have to play these types of guys. We invite those games, we want to play those guys throughout the year and we expect to be competitive with them.”

The familiarity with both Howard’s system and his day-to-day expectations are among the biggest strengths for the Eagles coming into the season.

“Our biggest strength has to be our knowledge,” Howard said. “Coming into this year, showing up day one and day two it’s totally different in terms of knowledge with what we’re trying to do. Our kids have bought in 100 percent, so we’re not going to have to do a lot of teaching during the middle of the football season, so that’s going to put us ahead of the game from where we were last year. We’re trying to perfect our craft and get better at it.”

Another aspect of the team that Howard expects to carry the Eagles in 2023 is the play in the trenches.

“Another one of our strengths is going to be up front, we’ve got some size and experience there on our offensive and defensive lines,” Howard said. “Our weakness is depth in the perimeter. We’ve got a good set of receivers, DBs and outside backers, but we don’t have much depth behind them.”

Players to keep an eye on include Daniel Barrera along the offensive line, Ethan Deeds at quarterback, and Luke Sanderson and Malachi Thomas in the secondary.

“Daniel is a guy we’re going to have to run behind and we’re excited about him,” Howard said. “Ethan is going to be playing some quarterback for us, Luke was a first-team all-district defensive player as a sophomore, and Malachi is going to get a lot of time at free safety as a sophomore.”

Prior to district competition, the Eagles will attempt to build positive momentum against a schedule that includes the likes of Crawford, Santo, Rosebud-Lott and Granger.

“I want to see us win some ball games,” Howard said. “It’s a tough pre-district schedule, but we have to stay healthy and be playing at a high level going into Coleman the first week of district. We need to be at district speed and ready for the money games. We want to use the first few games to prepare ourselves for the money games, and the way you do that is to be competitive and win some of those games.”

Tolar and Coleman are considered the preseason front-runners in District 5-2A Division I, but Howard expects Goldthwaite to give both teams all they can handle and compete for one the league’s four playoff berths.

“You have Tolar and Coleman on top of the district and I feel like we can play with both those guys and give them a run for their money and be competitive against them,” Howard said. “We definitely want to win the rest of them and that’s our goal and our mindset.”

Regarding what has to happen for the Eagles to return to the postseason in 2023, Howard said, “Health is the main thing. We have to stay injury free which is tough to do because our kids play so hard. We also have to believe we can show up and beat people. Our kids have had some success through the spring and into the summer with our lineman challenges and 7-on-7. There’s some success there, but we have to believe we can do it out here on a Friday night.”

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GOLDTHWAITE EAGLES 2023 VARSITY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 25 – at Crawford, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 1 – Santo, 7 p.m.

Sept. 8 – Rosebud-Lott#, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 15 – at Granger, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 22 – Coleman*, 7 p.m.

Sept. 29 – at De Leon*, 7 p.m.

Oct. 6 – Bangs*, 7 p.m.

Oct. 13 – OPEN

Oct. 20 – at San Saba*, 7 p.m.

Oct. 27 – Tolar*, 7 p.m.