Class 4A Rankings to Live By

Over the weekend I received an e-mail I'd been waiting a while for, one from John B. Cargal.

For those who aren't familiar, John, or "Buck" as he loves to go by, is a Texas high school football guru, who is famous for setting lines on high school football games and really setting the world on fire with his dead-on predictions for high school football across the state. He revamped his Web site this year to HuddleUpTexas.com instead of the former BuckInFootball.com.

He released his Top 25 preseason polls for every classification, including Six-Man and private, but for the sake of brevity I'm leaving out Six-Man and 1A because the DFW area is a little big for such schools.

In the Class 4A polls, Cargal reaffirms what many already knew -- the Metroplex is loaded with quality teams.

In the overall poll, which includes schools from both Division I and II, the top dog is Longview, which lost to juggernaut Lake Travis in the Division I title game last year and kicks off the season against Class 5A No. 1 Allen in what will be an epic matchup, but after the Lobos there's a good number of local teams lined up.

The No. 2 and 3 teams are Division II teams as Denison checks in at No. 2 behind speedy quarterback Jordan Taylor and all-state running back D.J. Jones. Ennis is the No. 3 team behind its lethal pass-catching tandem of QB D.J. Betik and WR Kyle Guinyard, who tallied 111 catches last year in the Lions' pass-happy offense.

Then, there's the new kids on the block in Denton Guyer, which lost in the Division I state semis last year to Longview after going 1-19 in its first two seasons of existence. The Wildcats grew up quick and are now set to be perennial powers in the area behind junior QB J.W. Walsh, senior RB Jaimaine Wilhite and a stout defense led by man-beast Taylor Bible at defensive tackle, a UT commit. The Wildcats check in at No. 4 in the overall poll and No. 2 in the Division I poll.