The first week of Texas Friday Night Lights is upon us.  The UIL counts forward with week # 1, being “0” .  Second week, is week one, and so on.  Whatever, it has been about 44 weeks since the Llano Yellow Jackets took the field in a real game.  And barring any weather complications due to Hurricane Harvey, the Jackets will play the Smithville Tigers in Llano Friday night, September 1.

Smithville has had a hard time of it the past few years.  I believe that they have not had a winning record in at least 10 years, but feel free to correct me on that.  An old friend, Joey McQueen was the coach at Smithville when they last had a good season..  He parlayed that into a three year stint at Lampasas, where I know they won 9 games one season, maybe two.  Joey now coaches at Comfort. But last seasons the Tigers were 0-10.

What was worrisome to me was the Tigers played Llano pretty darn tough last season in the home opener at Smithville.  And this year, they have 19 starters back.  A returning running back that had over 1,000 yards, and  good overall size.  The Tigers will be looking for a turnaround season, with the Jackets being first on their bucket list.  Over looking Smithville would be bad medicine.

I really liked Llano’s effort last Thursday night in the scrimmage with Comanche.  Lots of gang tackling on defense.  And on offense, great mixture of running and passing.  Jackets out scored the Indians.  Comanche won their 3-AAA District last season and are picked by DCTF magazine to win it again this year.

The Jackets return about 10 starters from last season.  But I do believe that our strongest point will be seniors that are hungry to win.  I think these seniors have something to prove, not only to others, but to themselves.  I see really good players on defense and that will be where the Jackets can make the biggest improvement.  The offense sometimes takes longer to get into sync.  A new quarterback,  two or three new running backs , a new offense is all about timing and getting comfortable with the teammates.  This will come.  The Jackets new Coaching staff seems like a serious bunch to me.  Coach Green did not come to Llano to go 4-6.  But in week 0,  the Jackets win # 1.  See you Friday night at 7:30 PM.