The Jackets have had the week off as have all the teams in District 13-AAA. Three teams enter the final three weeks undefeated and three have not won a district game yet. That will change this week. The Jackets, Ingram and Marion all carry a 2-0 record into the third district game. The Jackets play Randolph this week. If there has ever been a game to trip up on, this is it. The strong rivalry between the two teams started as soon as the Jackets entered 13-3AAA Division 6 years ago. Randolph has always had a good program. Randolph neat Llano in 2023.

Last year the game played at Randolph went down to the final series. Randolph drove the field and scored. To win, they needed to go for two. And a great play by the Jacket defense stopped the two points and Llano won by one point. Randolph went into the play offs and ended the season with a 10-3 record. The Jackets finished at 12-2. The 7 returning starters off that Randolph team have good memories. Llano can expect a very good team to show up in Llano.

Llano has had a good run up to this point. An offense that is averaging nearly 50 points per game. A defense that is allowing 14 points a game. All things said, on paper the Jackets look good and confident. But the Jackets can’t let the success go to their heads. They have to play one game at a time, and know any one left on their regular season schedule could beat them. I think Jacket fans all know about Randolph and their potential of making a comeback in district play. Looking ahead of the Ro Hawks would be a bad mistake. Randolph is looking at this game as their turn around game, and a revenge game from last season. Beating Llano in Llano rarely happens. It need not happen Friday night.

Just observing. Jarrell got beat last Friday night 35-34 by Wimberley. But Salado had beaten Wimberley the week before. Jarrell plays Salado this week. Could be a district that ends up with a three team winner. I only mention this as the Jarrell game was a real test for the Jackets. And a good barometer on how we might stack up. I still expect the 4-AAAA Jarrell team to have a great season.

One of the strongest parts of the Jacket team is that so many players have caught passes and run the football. 10 players are adding yardage to this offense. That many contributing sure makes for a strong team. They may need all ten Friday night.

I don’t usually say much about stats during the season, and this season several players will end up with their names in the LHS record book…but that is after the season is over. One stat that stands out to me is the number of quarterback starts.

In 1965 Butch Stovall was the returning Yellow Jacket quarterback and a senior. He was the District Champion in the high hurdles his junior year in track. Butch was fast. In the second game of the 1965 season, what was thought at the time to be a pulled muscle in his lower calf, Butch came out of the game. The pulled muscle turned into gangrene in less than three days. Butch was whisked to San Antonio where the doctors removed over half of his lower leg muscles. Butch never walked the same.

Dennis Raesener, a sophomore, was the back up quarterback. Dennis lead the Jackets to the last game of the season playing for the district championship against Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg won that game and went on to the state semi-finals. Llano finished 7-2-1 in 1965. At that time, only one team from each district went to the play offs.

Dennis would start all of the games at quarterback his junior and senior years. He ended up starting 28 games at quarterback, the most in school history. Luke Davis will start his 27th game at quarterback for the Jackets Friday night. Should all go well…stay healthy, Luke will hold the school record at the end of the season. Something I find that really stands out.

Llano 28 Randolph 14