Projected Playoff Teams:
Burleson, Summit, Timberview, Mansfield

Vitals:

    
     Each of the last few years, District 4-5A has been one of the most difficult to predict.  Although Summit has looked like an easy pick to win the district year in and year out, they’ve only actually won the district once in the last four years. 

    Although Summit will be strong again this year and will certainly be in the hunt for the district title, the Burleson Elks are our pick to win the 4-5A race.  Last year, the Elks returned just 21 lettermen and 3 All-District players from a 4-6 team and all they did was run through district play undefeated.  This year, Burleson returns 4 All-District players and 31 lettermen with a good balance of experience across the board.  RB Brandon Young and WR Courte Gilbert are the Elks’ top returning offensive threats, while LB Cade Mercer and DB Jacob Owen return to lead the defense.  Burleson could very well be 9-0 heading into their season finale against Summit.

    Speaking of Summit, the Jaguars are loaded with talent once again.  Last year was supposed to be the year the Jaguars would announce their arrival as a 5A power, but their porous defense led to an unexpected first-round exit.  Overall, Summit returns 6 players that received All-District honors last fall and 4 of those are defensive players.  DE Adam Visosky, DT Kameron Basset, LB Tevin Dial, and S David Cato will need to be even better this year to offset the huge loss of QB John Chiles, who led the offense to over 40 ppg last fall.

    A team to keep an eye on in the 4-5A race is the Mansfield Timberview Wolves.  Timberview returns 5 All-District players from a year ago including dual-threat QB Antoine Hicks.  Hicks has game-changing potential and is capable of leading the Wolves to wins over either Summit or Burleson.  Timberview also returns RB/LB Jay Tolliver, who averaged over 7 yards per carry as a Junior.  Defensively, the Wolves will benefit from the return of OLB Tristan Harris, S Ricky Booker, and CB Marcus Crowmartie.  They lost by double-digits to both Summit and Burleson last fall, but Timberview has enough coming back to make this really interesting this time around.

    The Mansfield Tigers and the Weatherford Kangaroos will likely battle for the district’s final playoff spot.  Last fall, Weatherford defeated Mansfield 35-29 and finished just one game ahead of the Tigers in the final district standings, which was just enough to secure the final playoff slot. 

    Mansfield is our favorite to take the final playoff spot since they get Weatherford at home this year and because they’re returning the more experienced team.   Mansfield returns Jr. RB Stephen Taylor, KR/DB A.J. Miller, FS Kenji Jackson, and SS Dan Jackson who all played key roles last year.  The Tigers also return multi-threat athlete Donovan Roberts, who may end up playing QB.

    Weatherford does return imposing DE Kapron Lewis-Moore, who is one of the most sought-after recruits in the country, but most of their other key players were lost to graduation.  DB Fred Thomas and QB Kyle Wilson are good players, but the Kangaroos will need the younger guys to step up big-time if they’re to make the playoffs.

    North Crowley, Granbury, and FW Paschal are likely to find themselves at the bottom of the district standings unless they’ve got some great underclassmen on the way.  Typically, North Crowley can be counted on to be a factor in the district race, but a poor showing last fall combined with a lack of proven returning players doesn’t bode well for the Panthers.

     Granbury returns one of the most unheralded good players in the state in QB Steven Darrow.  Darrow outperformed Timberview’s Antoine Hicks last fall rushing for over 800 yards and 11 TD’s while throwing for over 1,300 yards and 10 TD’s.  However, the Pirates struggled mightily, beating only one 5A team all season…and that was 0-10 Paschal.