All across the state of Texas, high school football coaches, players, fans and reporters reacted to the University Interscholastic League’s 2020-2022 realignment, including Rockdale’s head coach and athletic director Jeff Miller.
“There’s always pros and cons when you see the realignment for the first time,” Miller said. “First thing that stood out to me was how difficult it’s going to be.
“We lost three teams and brought three in, and the three we brought in are really good football teams.”
Moving to District 11-3A-I from 10-3A-I with Cameron, Troy and Academy, Rockdale lost non-playoff teams Jarrell and Manor New Tech and fourth place Lago Vista while gaining Caldwell and Lorena, who move down from Class 4A and a McGregor team that barely missed the playoffs but only loses nine players to graduation this spring.
“The truth is you would be hard-pressed to find any tougher district in 3A and thats been the consensus from the ‘experts’,” he said.
However, Rockdale is now in a different region than two-time state champion Grandview, who eliminated the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs the last two seasons.
“The second thing I saw was that some really good teams moved out of our region,” he said. “Grand-view and Whitney are now in Region IV. But, three really good teams moved out of Region IV into Region III with Yoakum, Hallettsville and Columbus.
“But, Grandview is the two-time state champion and have just about everybody coming back so not having them in the region is very helpful.”
Miller also talked about the changes to the non-football district.
Rockdale lost Franklin, Troy and McGregor and gained Florence and Caldwell.
“In the other sports, (realignment) benefited us. Losing Franklin and Troy certainly helped, but Caldwell is really solid in everything, so that didn’t help. I’m kind of surprised we didn’t get Lorena, who is also good at so many things.”
SCHEDULE–
After realignment was announced, Miller was able to craft the final copy of the 2020 Tiger football schedule.
Rockdale’s winningest coach in school history said the main thing he was focused on was challenging his players when putting the schedule together.
“One thing that hurt us last year is that I don’t think we played enough good teams and when we did play good teams, we didn’t win,” he said. “We played what I considered eight good teams and we lost to six of them.
“We need to play better teams and that’s what I was looking at for non-district.”
After scrimmaging Jarrell and Mexia, Rockdale opens the season at Class 4A La Grange before restoring a 108-year-old rivalry with Class 4A-I Taylor in week two at Tiger Stadium.
In week three, they cross the Lee County line to face Lexington for the second straight season. Although Rockdale obliterated the Eagles 45-13 in week three last season, Lexington made it to the third round with a young team.
Rockdale wraps up non-district play with a battle in Bellville against a Brahma squad that went three rounds deep in the Class 4A-DII playoffs last season.
Miller also mentioned the Tigers were close to getting a Brock rematch, the team they defeated 45-29 in the 2017 UIL Class 3A football state championship game.
“We had Brock on the schedule and right after realignment they sent me a text to confirm the game, but two hours later they called to tell me they found someone closer to them to schedule and didn’t want to play anymore.” Miller said.
“This is the most difficult schedule we’ve had in several years and I’m excited about it,” he added. “But it will be a challenge each and every week.”
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