2023 Lufkin Panther Football thread

Coach Quick in the hot seat?

LP back in the playoffs in 2023 after missing out the last two season?

Lufkin better be better this season or they may as well get use to losing for a long time.  Their coach is mediocre at best, but they still have tons of talent.  No excuse for them to have not been to the playoffs the last two seasons.  If they don't get in this season they might be toast for a while.

I'm pulling for Lufkin.....

But they got a tall order head of them.

Lancaster and Longview look like they are the cream of the crop in the district.

I think Forney, McKinney North, Tyler, and Lufkin battle it out for the final two slots....which means 2 of them will be left out.

Should be a great race. Good luck to the Panthers this season.

Lufkin will be much stronger this season than the last couple of years. Not going to speak about coaches, it's definitely a point of topic for why the program has fallen off. As in all sports everywhere, the rise and fall of a program, the buck always stops at the coaching, whether or not the supposed talent was there or not.

If Lufkin has a question, it might at QB, he is not a bad QB, I would say average until proven otherwise. T J will be a 3rd year starter and far be it for me to judge the situation, he has certainly had his highs and lows as a QB. Nothing bad at all to say about the kid, his ability just seems average.  IMO, Gavin Phillips, our Jorvorskie Lane type H-back, TE, RB and WR could very well be the better QB we have right now.  However at 6'3" and 250 lbs they have a better use for him to go along with RB Kedren Young. If T J can manage the game and use the talent around him, we will be fine.

Don't be so sure that Lufkin automatically loses to Longview or Lancaster.  The Lobos have to find a QB too, and some rumors say Taylor Tatum might be it because the other two prospects need to prove themselves. Longview is loaded as always at RB so that may work out for them.

The Lufkin D will be stout and will have one of their best front 7 groups since the 2017-18 season, maybe even better. DL players Williams and Alexander are two big tall 300lbs who are quick to the ball.  Lufkin and their coaching have lots to prove, they have not met the quota in a long time. In fact most coaching staffs would not have lasted this long allowing a prestigious program to fall this way. I think the 2017 season maybe save Quick some time, but that has worn off now, especially missing the playoffs the past two years. The real Lufkin football fans have not been happy in a long while, so something much better must happen the next 2 or 3 years or there may be no saving the program under the current leadership. Fortunately things will be improved the next 2 or 3 years, if only because talent-wise, it will pull them through to better.

We will find out again what transpires in the fall of 2023. For me, I'm looking at the season from the prospective innocence of a fresh laid egg. 

Longview doesn't respect anyone.  I think we're going to shock some people this season.  Hopefully we shock the high and mighty Lobos.  

I didn't think things were that bad in Lufkin.  Two years without the playoffs isn't the end of the world.  It happens to most programs.  Besides Longview has any of the 5A schools had a 15-20 year playoff streak?  I can't think of one.  Seems normal for most teams.  Before the last couple of years Texas High hadn't won a playoff game in almost a decade and we missed the playoffs the whole time we were in division I.  I'm not up to date on what's been going on in Lufkin, but it doesn't seem as bad as some are making it out to be.  Just the cycle of ups and downs most programs go through.

The talent at Lufkin the next couple of years might be phenomenal.  But there are three other programs in this district that will have MORE talent than Lufkin.  Longview, Lancaster, and McKinney North.  If that's the case, then that puts yall in fourth place, which isn't good enough for most Lufkin fans.  But who do you upset in those three?  You aint beating Longview in the next 5-6 years.  We have have talent at every postion 2-3 deep going all the way down the 8th grade football.  Lancaster is a machine too.  Only place for a possible upset is North which has suspect coaching of a ton of talent.  I think Lufkin will have a lot more talent than they have the last few years, but it won't matter because everyone else around them will be better too.  The best thing for Lufkin (and Tyler tbh) would be to drop down to division 2 and be in the district with Nac and Whitehouse like they were in 2014 and 2015.  They would dominate that district year year and probably go 2-3 round deep.  Seems like a good situation for them, even though I know most Panther fans don't want to drop.  I would be looking for a way to cook the books with enrollment to make that happen.

I don't worry about Lobo fans.  Some are real good at hijacking threads of other teams, others are sensible about it all, just like any fans. I have no denial that Longview is the premier 5A or 6A football program in all of East Texas, they have talent running out their ears. In fact they have already sized up the 2023 7-5A football season to be between themselves and Lancaster, maybe McKinney North.  Everyone else is an after thought, maybe Forney because they will be good too.  

Lufkin's talent comes along at the same time that the Lobos and others in the district also have improved talent.  The bottom line is Lufkin will only have one more year in this district, next year hopefully the Panthers will be somewhere else, probably South again. Longview and Lancaster could possibly be 6A, hard to tell, so this year may be the last before realignment in the same district together. Not because Lufkin does not want to be in the same district with Longview, it's the travel to Mesquite, McKinney and Forney that's the issue.

No mater how one lays it out, Lufkin probably can never avoid Longview, either in district or non district or playoffs depending where everyone lands in the future. That's even if Quick and King are no longer there, it's the years of tradition and rivalry, which currently is ALL in Longview's favor.  We'll see how things work out, you still need to play the games, you don't win it on paper.  There's no doubt 7-5A will be more competitive and talented than last year, some good teams will not make the playoffs, but that's HS football. Longview and Lancaster no doubt are the favorites, and for good reason. I'm still looking forward to the season to see how Lufkin performs and just watch some good HS football, which ever the side of the ball I'm watching.

Who said Lufkin doesn't want to play Longview to have an easier road into the playoffs?  We would rather be in the Houston district because the drives are shorter.  Why do we want to drive all the way to McKinney, Mesquite, and Lancaster when we could just go south and play the Caney and Humble schools with much shorter drives.  Lufkin isn't afraid to play anyone.  you are living in a dream world.

You don't like playing Longview.  You say it with almost every post you mention us.  You hate knowing yur going to lose before the game is even played.  You hate Lobo fans because you think we're arrogant and obnoxious.  We aren't really, we're just confident while you have no confidence in your own team.  Same thing with Marshall.  Same thing with Tyler.  Same thing with Lee.  Everybody hates us.  At least the blowhards from Carthage and Gilmer talk big about giving us again.  All these East Texas teams either avoid us or we have some sort of mind block about playing us.