Breaking down what's 'new' for Cleburne football in 2022

Jul. 25—The 2022 football season for the Cleburne Yellow Jackets will feature plenty of "new."

For starters, Cleburne will be under the direction of a new head coach as Jim Woodard tries his hand at getting Yellow Jacket football back to being a perennial playoff participant.

It is Woodard's first head football coaching position after spending the previous five years as offensive coordinator at Tomball Memorial, where he coached the Wildcats to a 36-18 record and guided offenses that established multiple school records. Woordard's coaching career also includes stops at Tomball High, Anderson-Shiro, Llano and Whitney.

In the 2020 season, Woodard coached Tomball Memorial's offense to one of the state's most productive (56 points per game) as the Wildcats went 11-1. Tomball Memorial had a down year in 2021 with a 2-8 record (33.3 points per game) but overall Woodard helped coach the Wildcats to the playoffs in three of the past five seasons, including a 10-win season in 2019.

But a new head coach isn't the only reason the 2022 season will feel different and new to Jacket backers.

Cleburne is in a new district, and a new division, this season in District 4-5A Division I as the Jackets made the jump up from Class 5A Division II to 5A DI.

With a new district comes a new schedule, certainly, but the Jackets' 2022 schedule takes that to the extreme compared to Cleburne's recent schedules.

The Jackets will face four opponents for the first time ever this season in Midlothian Heritage, Lake Belton, Killeen Ellison and Killeen Shoemaker.

Additionally, Cleburne's showdown with Killeen High on Sept. 9 will mark the first time those two teams have played in nearly 50 years (1975) while the Jackets last faced Red Oak in 1989.

So it's either the first meeting ever or the first matchup in more than 30 years for six of Cleburne's 10 opponents this season. See? Plenty of "new."

It's also been nearly a decade since the Jackets last played Waco High (2013).

The other three teams on Cleburne's schedule feature recent opponents, but still only one from last season — Houston Heights, which was an agreed-upon two-year non-district series celebrating the two teams meeting in the first-ever UIL football state championship more than 100 years ago.

Cleburne and Granbury last played in a week 11 non-district game in 2020, a game that was scheduled at the last minute after each team had games vs. district opponents canceled due to COVID.

And Cleburne and Midlothian last squared off on the gridiron in 2019 as district counterparts.

Collectively, Cleburne is 63-39-13 against their 2022 opponents all-time.

Cleburne owns winning records against five of the six teams it has played throughout its long football history. The only 2022 opponent the Jackets have a losing record against all-time is Waco High (15-20-5).

The Jackets are 1-0-1 vs. Houston Heights, 8-6 vs. Killeen, 24-7-1 vs. Granbury, 13-6 vs. Midlothian and 2-0 vs. Red Oak.

Cleburne's new football district is certainly spread out distance-wise. For the 2022 season, Cleburne plays five home games and five road games. On their five games away from Yellow Jacket Stadium, Cleburne will travel an estimated combined 864 miles round trip.

(And that's not even counting Cleburne's scrimmage Aug. 12 at Killeen Chaparral, which will be about a 250-mile trip there and back.)

Week 1 vs. Houston Heights will be the longest drive of the season for Cleburne as the Jackets and Bulldogs will meet at Sam Houston State University on Aug. 26. That's a good 3-hour trip there, 3-hour game and 3-hour trip home totaling somewhere around 355 miles.

After back-to-back home games vs. Midlothian Heritage on Sept. 2 and Killeen on Sept. 9, the Jackets make the short trip to Granbury on Sept. 16.

Following a week 5 home game vs. Midlothian, the Jackets will embark on their second-longest trip of the season on Sept. 30 at Lake Belton.

From there, it's home vs. Killeen Ellison on Oct. 7, a trip to Red Oak on Oct. 14, the Jackets' home finale vs. Killeen Shoemaker on Oct. 21, and then Cleburne's regular-season finale Oct. 28 at Waco High, a familiar — if not aggravating (see, construction) — drive to Waco ISD Stadium.

If you were looking for the Jackets' bye week through all of that, you didn't miss it — it's week 11. Having a week 11 bye week is an unfortunate draw as it means no midseason break. But if Cleburne can secure its first playoff appearance since 2016, it will provide the Jackets with a week of resting bumps and bruises while also giving coaches an extra week of game planning for the playoff opponent.

Additionally, if this was your first glance at Cleburne's 2022 football schedule and you were scanning it over looking for when the Jackets play Burleson and/or Joshua, no, you didn't miss that, either. Cleburne doesn't play the rival Elks or Owls this season as both programs stayed in Class 5A Division II. It will be the first time since 2009 the Jackets don't play Burleson or Joshua.

So there's a breakdown of some of the "new" in store for Cleburne football this season. Even if you're like me and you're still scratching your head at the UIL in regards to Cleburne's new football district (I'm a big proponent of districts/conferences/divisions making sense geographically), it will certainly make for an intriguing season for the Yellow Jackets, led by a new head coach, facing a bunch of new opponents in a new district.