Here are five thoughts from Week 8 of the 2026 Texas high school football season.
New coaches’ success
New head coaches are having a ton of success this season.
The obvious ones are North Crowley and Waxahachie under DeMarcus Harris and Lawrence Williams, but besides the coaches at two of the top teams in the Dallas area, plenty have hit the ground running.
Denton Braswell, under Justen Evans, has won six games for only the second time in its existence after a 38-14 win over Flower Mound Marcus. If the team clinches a playoff spot, it’ll be only the second time the young program’s reached the postseason.
Despite a loss to Frisco, Marc Bindel has Celina rolling at 6-1 in its first season in Class 5A Division II.
A trio of head coaches have programs at 5-2: Shane Tolleson at Denton Ryan, Stephen Jackson Jr. at Lancaster and Jeremy Williams at West Mesquite.
After a pair of humbling losses early in the season, Lee Munn has Southlake Carroll back on track with four consecutive wins, including a 40-28 win Friday over previously unbeaten Keller. And despite a loss to Longview on Friday, Rockwall-Heath’s Casey Dick has the program positioned well in district at 3-1.
Cedar Hill handles business through adversity
One of the more impressive wins this week was Cedar Hill beating Mansfield Legacy 39-23. Just hours before the game Thursday night, head coach Nick Ward was placed on administrative leave for the second consecutive season. Despite the news, Cedar Hill won the critical game and remained in the playoff hunt at 2-2 in District 8-5A Division I.
District 5-6A is loaded
Sit with this for a second. One of these teams is going to miss the playoffs: Denton Braswell, Flower Mound, Denton Guyer or Hebron. Those are all playoff-caliber teams based on this season so far, and one will unfortunately be staying home.
All of those teams sit at 3-1 in District 5-6A, meaning they’re all walking on eggshells. Next week’s Guyer and Hebron game becomes a de facto elimination game with the loser needing a lot of help to stay in the playoff hunt. Flower Mound still has Lewisville, Hebron and Guyer on the schedule, while Braswell still has Lewisville and Hebron. Although Lewisville is unbeaten, the tight standings don’t give the team much room for error.
If you want to see a district whose standings could look vastly different each week from here on out, this is the one.
The best receiver you don’t know yet
There’s a receiver putting up big numbers who hasn’t gotten a lot of love in a talented D-FW wideout scene.
Colleyville Heritage senior wideout Trevi Preische has been a matchup nightmare in the slot all season, standing at 6-3 and third in the area in receiving yards with 855, trailing only Lovejoy’s Coleman Reaugh (973) and Argyle’s Julian Caldwell (925). Preische has almost doubled his junior season total of 498 yards and has already doubled his touchdown total with 12, trailing only Caldwell (16) and Rockwall’s Ryan Wiley (13) for the most receiving scores in the area in any classification.
He’s helped make life easy for sophomore quarterback Lane Vargas in his first season as starter. Preische, who’s also the starting catcher for Colleyville’s baseball team, had one of his best games this Friday against Nevada Community with 125 yards and five touchdowns.
Previously 0-4 North Forney will make the playoffs
You read that right. North Forney started off winless until Oct. 9, when the team beat Tyler Legacy 63-21, but I’m still picking the team to make the playoffs. Marcus Shavers’ squad rebounded for a second consecutive week Friday and knocked off rival Forney 28-7, vaulting into fourth place in District 10-6A.
North Forney should be favored in at least two of its remaining games against Royse City, Rockwall-Heath and Mesquite Horn.
Running back Cordai Woodard had 185 yards and 266 yards in his last two games, respectively. Good luck to any teams trying to stop a tear like that the rest of the season.
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