Football title games remain in Arlington in 2020
The UIL football state championships are already set for AT&T Stadium for the 2019 season, and officials confirmed the games will be played in Arlington once again in 2020.
It wasn’t an official announcement at the UIL’s meeting with the press at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention on Monday at the George R. Brown Convention Center, but there is little surprise in the move.
AT&T Stadium has hosted UIL football state championship games six of the last seven seasons, with Houston’s NRG Stadium hosting in 2015 because of a scheduling conflict with the Dallas Cowboys.
Many coaches in the Houstonarea prefer a rotation between the state’s three domed stadiums, including San Antonio’s Alamodome. Some of the resistance against AT&T hosting the games annually is the home-field advantage for teams from DallasFort Worth. The resistance against Houston, among other things, is geography with the city not being centrally located.
Since returning to AT&T Stadium, attendance surpassed the 200,000 mark each year.
Instant replay is rolling on
UIL athletics director Susan Elza said something Monday that might have been lost in all the excitement from A.J. Carter’s game-winning touchdown catch to push North Shore past Duncanville as time expired in 2018’s Class 6A Division I title game.
“The very last play of the 6A game, we needed instant replay to make sure that that was a catch,” Elza said. “That’s just a sign of the times.”
Last year’s UIL football title games were the first in which instant replay was implemented.
Other state associations such as Alabama and Minnesota were already using instant replay.
One year later, and it has its detractors in Texas. Highland Park football coach Randy Allen said after the 5A Division II title win over Shadow Creek last December the reviews took too long.
But as Elza said, it’s the UIL catching up with modern technology, and Elza has been bullish about talks of extending it to other sports.
Blindside hits are a hot topic
A new rule concerning blindside blocks was a topic Monday. The hit is punishable on any play with a personal foul and 15-yard penalty.
“It’s a judgment call,” Friendswood coach Robert Koopmann told the Friendswood Journal this month. “Do I think the rule is needed? As excited as we get when we see those blocks, I do think it’s probably a good rule change.
“There’s viciousness to that block. A lot of those blindside blocks are head-to-head, which is illegal anyway. It’s something else we need to address.”
There is also an update on the targeting rule. Targeting comes with an automatic ejection from the game, but the UIL has modified the rule to allow referees more leeway.
UIL athletic director Susan Elza said there are two levels to targeting — targeting with intent to harm and without intent.
Targeting with intent to harm comes with an ejection but without intent doesn’t. However, two targeting calls on a player comes with an ejection, even if both were without intent.
New offseason rule yields positive results
Whether or not football head coaches will ever get involved in coaching 7-on-7 football games is still a hot-button issue. UIL officials said that the new rule — implemented this summer for all sports — that allows for two hours per week of non-contact sport-specific instruction has been a boon.
The hope is to offset the rise of private trainers, which all teams may not be able to afford. Allowing football coaches to get more involved in 7-on-7 is thought to give players even more access to offseason training, and while UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt said there are coaches who would love to be more involved in the summer, there are some who are concerned about burnout and heavy workload.
Early spotlight on North Shore
It’s never too early to talk preseason rankings.
MaxPreps is on hand at the THSCA Convention and released its preseason rankings. Checking in at No. 4 is defending state champion North Shore, with Duncanville (No. 7) and Allen (No. 20) rounding out the top 25.
California’s Mater Dei, Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy and California’s St. John Bosco rank ahead of North Shore.
MaxPreps crowned North Shore as 2018 national champions after the Mustangs’ 16-0 campaign, which created some debate on social media between Texans and Californians last fall.
Expect North Shore to show up early this season on TV as well. The season opener against Katy on Aug. 29 will be televised by ESPN, according to people familiar with the situation.