Big Country Game of the Week: Jim Ned battles surprising Vernon for District 3-3A DI title
TUSCOLA – There were times this season when the Jim Ned football team wasn’t sure about its identity.
Gone were standout quarterback Tate Yardley and running back Xavier Wishert – two guys who were key contributors during the teams’ two-year run when it was a combined 26-2 and won a Class 3A Division I title in 2020.
Even last year’s team was undefeated before losing to eventual state finalist Brock in the region semifinals.
They’ve grown accustomed to winning at Jim Ned, and doubt crept in once the team began the season 0-3.
“I felt like we kind of dug ourselves into a ditch,” said Troy Doran, Jim Ned’s senior quarterback. “I don’t think we knew exactly who we were supposed to be or how we were supposed to play.”
Part of the problem was injuries. Jim Ned had 10 starters out in the season opener, and it has taken time for the team to get relatively healthy.
The other part of the equation was moving on without Yardley and Wishert.
Yardley, now playing baseball at Texas Tech, threw for 3,585 yards and 39 TDs his final two seasons. Wishert ran for 4,830 yards and 65 TDs in the same time frame.
That’s some awful big cleats to fill, and Brayden Shipman, a junior running back, believes the 2022 Jim Ned team was trying too hard to be the 2021 team.
“I think that’s how a lot of our team was at the beginning,” Shipman said. “We tried to be those guys, not realizing we needed to step up and be ourselves. We’re not those guys. We’ve got to step up and be something different.”
Yet enduring an 0-3 start – losses to Hawley (30-7), Holliday (41-19) and Wall (3-0) – was not easy as the team tried to get healthy and mold an identity.
“They were hard,” Shipman said. “Having so many people out, I understood why were where we were. But our morale was just so low. It almost seemed liked people stopped caring.”
Never mind that those three teams Jim Ned opened the season against are currently 23-1 and each is state ranked - Hawley No. 2 in 2A DI and Holliday and Wall are Nos. 2 and 10, respectively, in 3A DII.
On the upswing
Since that 0-3 start, Jim Ned has reeled off five consecutive victories – including its first three District 3-3A Division I games.
The Tuscola team – 13-0 in district play since 2020 – can clinch at least a share of the district title and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs with a victory over Vernon (5-3, 2-1) on Friday in Tuscola.
It’s the Reporter-News' Big Country Game of the Week.
Getting from 0-3 to 5-3 has been no easy task. The team has taken shape in part through trial and error, as well as necessity because of injuries.
Doran began the year as a starting receiver, while junior Grant Glidewell ran the team as quarterback. But the coaching staff approached Doran about playing quarterback after the Week 2 game with Holliday.
While he had taken snaps as Yardley’s backup the previous two years, he hadn’t actually played the position in a game since eighth grade.
“I honestly was worried about it at first,” said Doran, who is good friends with Yardley. “But after I got used to it, it was not bad at all. Now, I’m glad to play quarterback.”
Jim Ned coach Matt Fanning wanted to keep Doran at receiver.
“He really was our most productive guy coming back,” Fanning said. “So, we wanted to leave him in that role.”
Yet Doran, who started as a safety on the 2020 state title team, while playing some receiver that year, was too good a playmaker. Fanning needed to get the ball in his hands.
“He was always in the mix as somebody we had confidence in,” Fanning said. “The hope was we would be able to leave him at receiver and somebody else would take the reins and we would keep that production. That’s not really the way it worked out.”
Doran made his first start in a 22-21 win over Rockdale in Week 4. He threw for 86 yards and a TDs with one interception, while running for a game-high 123 yards and a TD on 14 carries.
He’s been the starting quarterback since.
“He’s done an outstanding job,” Fanning said.
Riding the Shipman
Then there’s Shipman, who was not going to be the team’s featured back. That job belonged to junior Sergio Hernandez – the heir apparent to Wishert.
“From an athletic standpoint, as a drop off from Xavier Wishert to Sergio Hernandez, that wasn’t a huge drop off,” Fanning said. “We were going to do some multiple things (with Hernandez).”
Hernandez, though, went down with a season-ending injury in the Rockdale game. That opened the door for Shipman to take on a bigger role – one he’s handled just fine.
Shipman leads Jim Ned with 658 yards and five TDs on 125 carries – a 5.3 yard per carry average.
While Shipman has thrived as the go-to guy, he had to adjust to living in Wishert’s shadow.
“After having Xavier Wishert out here, everybody expects you to fill those shoes and be just as good,” Shipman said. “It was hard at first, but after a couple of games, I started liking the work. I just really like going out there and seeing what I can do.”
Doran, who is second on the team in rushing (74-624, 9 TDs) said it took some time to adjust to the loss of Hernandez – a guy Fanning calls his best two-way starter.
“I think losing Sergio Hernandez took away from (finding that identity),” Doran said. “Then Brayden stepped in his place and found his way after a couple of games. I think it just took a little while for us to get used to what we had to deal with.”
Now, at least on offense, Jim Ned has found an identity behind Doran and Shipman’s 1-2 punch.
Both are different runners, too. Doran is elusive and shifty. Pin him against the sideline, and he’ll cut back across the field and run forever. It doesn’t matter how far he has to run – he’ll keep going until he finds daylight.
“Troy’s going to do whatever Troy has to do to be successful,” Fanning said. “One of the mentally toughest and physically toughest kids I’ve had the pleasure of coaching. He’s just a winner.”
Then there’s Shipman, who prefers to run straight ahead and plow over defenders.
“I’m more pound it straight up the field and try to run over as many people as I can,” Shipman said.
Together, Doran and Shipman keep defenses on their toes.
“I think it combos very nicely,” Shipman said. “Honestly, I don’t think the defenses know what to do.”
Greg Beasley, a sophomore running back, is third on the team in rushing (58-368, 1 TD). He’s expected to play this week after setting out last week’s 32-25 win over Breckenridge with an injury.
The line of fire
Talking to Shipman and Doran, they believe the team began its turnaround with the Rockdale win. Fanning believes it started a week later at home against Eastland – Jim Ned’s first game with a healthy offensive line.
“One of the big keys for us finding our offensive identity was the Eastland game, when we finally had our five projected offensive linemen in the same game,” Fanning said.
Finally, the team had Gage Stanaland (right tackle), Barrett Browning (right guard), Maddox Cooper (center), Jake Whitley (left guard) and Zaiden Wishert (left tackle) all playing together.
Until that game, all but Stanaland, a 6-foot-5, 280-pound senior who recently decommitted from Navy and has offers from Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State and ACU, had missed some games.
Even tight end David Rodriguez, the team’s leading receiver (7-111, 2 TDs) had missed three games.
“We’ve had some really outstanding offensive linemen throughout the years and sprinkled in some greats like Xavier Wishers and Tate Yardley, guys like that,” Fanning said. “But the backbone of what we do is up front.”
Put it all together and you have a Jim Ned team that’s hitting on all cylinders. Doran ran for 182 yards and a TD on 20 carries in last week’s win at Breckenridge, while Shipman added 119 yards and two TDs on 19 carries, including the game-winning score with 55 seconds left in the game.
“I think after a while, we finally figured out that we’re going to have to be a hard-nosed football team – just run it straight down the line and see how many yards we can get every play,” Doran.
Not that they can’t throw it when it needed. Doran threw a 29-yard pass to Rodriguez to keep the game-winning drive going.
“We get slated as a run-at-all-costs (team), and we’re really not,” Fanning said. “We’re as multiple as we can be. We’ll take what you give us. We’re not as effective as doing that as we were in past year. We’re more effective with Troy at quarterback right now.”
Fanning isn’t surprised his team needed time to find its identity – not after losing the likes of Xavier Wishert and Yardley.
“When you graduate a bunch of guys like that, it’s always kind of a struggle for a team to find its identity,” Fanning said. “That’s kind of been the process. Who are we? What are we good at? What are we not good at? What are we going to focus on? Where are we comfortable, and who are we comfortable with?
“We went through that growing process – one we hadn’t had to deal with in two or three years. It’s interesting. It’s neat to see some of your guys grow up in a rapid fashion to became leaders.”
He gives a lot of credit Doran and Shipman, along with seniors Rodriguez, Cooper and Tanner Hussman.
“(They) really kind of saddled it up in the leadership role,” Fanning said.
And now Jim Ned is poised for its third consecutive unbeaten district title and a deep postseason run.
“I think we have a good chance to do some big things if we can continue to improve,” Doran said.
Fanning would agree with that assessment.
"I think we’re a football team getting better," Fanning said. "We’re trending upward. Our mindset is a lot better than it has been in the past. We’ve got to go beat Vernon.”
Here come the Lions
Jim Ned’s turnaround from 0-3 to 5-3, while remarkable, can’t compare to Vernon’s transformation under second-year coach Kevin Sherrill.
The Lions were 4-26 the previous three years combined. They made the playoffs in 2020, despite going 2-8 in the regular season. The two wins came in district and were enough to get them in the postseason.
They really got some attention this season when they dealt then-No. 5 Breckenridge its first defeat of the season – 28-21 – on Oct. 14 in Vernon. Yet last week, the Lions were upset 28-25 by an Iowa Park team that Breck beat 42-0. It was Iowa Park’s third win.
“There’s been improvement, no doubt,” said Sherrill, whose team was 1-7 this time last year. “I felt like we missed an opportunity against Iowa Park. Our kids played hard. They did.”
Yet sometimes the 2022 team reverts to the 2021 team.
“Even in the midst of turning a program around and trying to change the culture, sometimes that last-year attitude creeps in, like, ‘Oh, here we go again,’” said Sherrill, talking about how his team dealt with adversity in the Iowa Park game.
Then there was the high of beating Breckenridge.
“I was afraid coming off that game with Breckenridge, with kids who haven’t had a lot of success, a game like Breckenridge can almost be their Super Bowl,” Sherrill said.
Sure enough, Sherill said, his team practiced poorly the week leading up to Iowa Park, and they were flat during the game.
The Lions can still get a piece of the district title, maybe more if Jim Ned slips up next week. Sherrill just wants his team to remain hungry and not settle.
“I don’t want satisfaction to creep in for us,” Sherrill said.
Confidence shouldn’t be a problem for the Lions. They proved they can beat anyone with the win over Breckenridge.
“We beat them physically. That’s the biggest plus I pulled from the game, especially offensively up front,” Sherrill said. “I felt like we were the most dominant team.”
The pick: Jim Ned 27, Vernon 21
BEST OF THE REST
Early (5-3, 3-0) at Wall (7-1, 3-0)
The Longhorns have won three consecutive games, two by shutouts, and they’ve won four of their last five. Two of their losses have come against state ranked and unbeaten Tolar and 7-1 Comanche.
Wall, ranked No. 10 in the state, hasn’t lost since a Week 2 loss to 2A DI No. 2 Hawley 18-14.
This one will decide the District 2-3A DII title.
Comanche (7-1, 3-0) at Merkel (3-5, 2-1)
Comanche has been a tear since losing to Tolar, and it can clinch at least a share of the District 5-3A DII title with a win and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
The Badgers likely get in the playoffs with a win in their last two games, and they finish with Millsap (5-3, 2-1).
Breckenridge (6-2, 1-2) at Bowie (1-7, 1-2)
Breckenridge can all but clinch a playoff berth and snap a two-game skid with a win. Bowie beat Clyde 21-14 last week to end a 15-game losing streak.
The Bucks need a win to bolster their confidence, more than anything, and they should be able to take care of the Jackrabbits and Clyde (4-4, 0-3) these next two weeks.
May (8-0, 3-0) at Jonesboro (8-1, 2-0)
The No. 3 May Tigers battle No. 4 Jonesboro for the District 14-1A six-man title. What a great warmup for the postseason for both teams.
May made its second consecutive state title game appearance last year and seventh overall, while Jonesboro played for state in back-to-back years (2016-17).
BIG COUNTRY POWER RANKINGS
Class 4A/3A
1. Stephenville (7-1) – lost to No. 2 China Spring 38-36; Alvarado (3-5)
2. Brownwood (7-2) – beat Lubbock Estacado 52-13; at Andrews (5-3)
3. Comanche (7-1) – beat Dublin 77-7; at Merkel (2-6)
4. Jim Ned (5-3) – beat Breckenridge 32-25; Vernon (5-3)
5. Breckenridge (6-2) – lost to Jim Ned 32-25; at Bowie (1-7)
Class 2A
1. Hawley (8-0) – beat Olney 34-7; at Stamford (6-2)
2. Cisco (7-1) – Bye; Anson (2-7)
3. Coleman (6-2) – Bye; De Leon (4-5)
4. Albany (6-2) – beat Roscoe 55-0; at Hamlin (5-3)
5. Stamford (7-1) – beat Anson 44-6; Hawley (8-0)
Class 1A
1. Benjamin (7-0) – beat Harrold 62-0; at Chillicothe (2-5)
2. May (8-0) – beat Santa Anna 60-14; at Jonesboro (8-1)
3. Westbrook (7-1) – beat Hermleigh 62-14; at Ira (7-1)
4. Loraine (7-1) – beat Blackwell 28-8; Trent (5-3)
5. Gordon (8-0) – beat Lingleville 54-4; Baird (4-4) on Thursday
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Jim Ned faces off against Vernon for district football title
