REMEMBERING ART

The 2026 football season has finally arrived. Eight months of ringing hands and walking the floor, and watching basketball…and soccer! And a little baseball. But few things can take the place of football.

In my first article in 2020, I said that that season was the “most anticipated” season I could ever remember. Our strong rivalry in district play with Lago Vista. So many great returning players. Quincy Prince…Jarod Beasley…Case Kuykendall…and that line…wow. And despite COVID putting a cloud over all…it was magic. I still will never forgive Somerset High School for backing out of our regular season game. Oh…they played that week, but did not play Llano as scheduled. The Jackets great season ended with Halletsville in game number 14 for the Jackets. Had Llano played Somerset, the 14-1 season would have been best ever. But Llano was 13-1. Matched only by the 2022 13-1 team.

The 2026 team faces a schedule like no other in the history of the school. What happens to a great program like the Jackets…no one wants to play you. Llano is 64-14 over the last six years. Dave Campbell’s Texas Football ranks every high school in the state over a six year period.

Llano was ranked the 9th highest in the State over that period in Class 3AAA, Div. 1.

Llano plays 9 teams this year that made the State play-offs last season. Bandera at 10-1 last year. Jim Ned was 11-2. Blanco was 10-3. And that is pre- district. Bandera, Burnet and Lago Vista are 4AAAA schools. Our new district will take getting use to, but Ingram from our old district follows Llano to Region 1.Ingram had a very good team last season, and returns 8 offensive and 8 defensive starters from their 7-6 team…going three deep into the play offs after coming in second place in our district last season.

Our new district…3-3 AAA, Div. 1 includes San Angelo TLC and we play them in our last home game of the regular season, October 30. We play Early in the last game of the regular season November 6 in Early. The Jackets also travel to Ingram on October 16th. But the first district game is against Wall…16-0 State reigning Champion. Craig Slaughter is the Hawks head coach, and was the Llano Head coach for 7 seasons. Texas Football picked Wall to win our district. We play Wall in Llano October 9. I would expect it to be the largest crowd in Jacket Stadium history.

More details next week. Most anticipated? Maybe. But Concerning is my adjective. This is one season the Jackets get to play one game at a time. It would be foolish for any of us to look ahead. Every game is a chance to stumble. And maybe stumble is a bad description, as every team we play is good. Some very good. It’s August. Time to get serious. Football season is upon us.