Longview Gets Second Shot at Coppell in Friday’s Game in Allen

Longview Lobos

vs.

No. 10 Coppell Cowboys 

7:30 p.m. Friday

Eagle Stadium, Allen

Coaches

• Longview: John King
• Coppell: Joe McBride

Next week

• Longview: at Marshall
• Coppell: at McKinney Boyd

Last season

• Coppell 41, Longview 8 (season opener at SMU's Ford Stadium in Dallas)

Playmakers

Longview

• WR Dorian Leonard, Sr., 6-4, 198 (committed to Texas)
• S Stephan Maxey, Sr., 5-11, 186
• S Travin Howard, Sr., 6-0, 179
• QB Dezmond Chumley, Jr., 6-0, 188
• RB JaMycal Hasty, Jr., 5-9, 181
• DL DeRodrick Alexander, Sr., 6-0, 240
• OT Broderick Washington, Jr., 6-2, 285
• OT Kenny Andrews, Sr., 6-2, 261
• C Vernon Hutchinson, Sr., 5-10, 290
• CB Chris Coby, Sr., 6-0, 155
• TE/WR Jordan Whitaker, Sr., 6-4, 190
• RB L’darrius Peterson, Sr., 5-7, 150

Coppell

• DE Solomon Thomas, Sr., 6-4, 262
• LB John Herubin, Sr., 6-3, 235
• TE Blake Mahon, Sr., 6-5, 235
• OL Bill Webber, Sr., 6-5, 235
• DE Chris Biggurs, Jr., 6-3, 230
• QB Skyler Bonneau, Jr.
• WR Josh Fink, Soph., 5-10, 175
• RB Gavin McDaniel, Sr., 5-9, 170
• RB Eric Stevenson, Jr.
• RB Charles West, Jr.

Just the facts

• Coppell built a 34-0 third-quarter lead on Longview in last year's season opener at SMU's Ford Stadium in Dallas.
• Coppell outgained Longview 409-218 in their 2012 meeting.
• Longview senior defensive tackle and TCU pledge Zaycoven Henderson is out with a Jones fracture in his foot, he told ETSN.fm. Henderson is expected to miss the first five games of the season after Aug. 19 surgery to repair the fracture.
• Longview senior running back/linebacker Deionte Wall will also likely miss the season's first five games after having surgery to repair a foot injury, according to the Longview News-Journal.
• Coppell senior defensive end Solomon Thomas holds 28 offers, according to 247Sports.com: Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Stanford, Texas, UCLA, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, BYU, California, Clemson, Colorado, Houston, Iowa, LSU, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Ole Miss, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Tulsa, Vanderbilt, Virginia, and West Virginia.
• Coppell went undefeated in the 2012 regular season, finishing 11-1 with a Class 5A Division I Region I second-round playoff appearance.
• Longview junior quarterback Dezmond Chumley started nine games as a sophomore after the Lobos' original starting quarterback, ULM signee Bivins Caraway, suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first half of last year's season-opening loss to Coppell.
• Allen's Eagle Stadium seats 18,000 fans. It opened last fall and cost $60 million.

Key matchup: Longview's defensive line vs. Coppell's offensive line. The matchup most people are anticipating entering Friday night's season opener at Allen's 1-year-old Eagle Stadium is Longview's running game and Coppell's vaunted defensive front led by consensus five-star defensive end recruit Solomon Thomas. That's a great matchup, no doubt, especially considering this may be the largest front that offensive line guru and Lobo head coach John King has had during his decade-long tenure.

But the Lobos proved last year that they could run the ball at times against the stacked Cowboy defensive front. Tory White, now at Lamar, ran 20 times for 106 yards in the lopsided loss. What Longview could not do is control the line of scrimmage on the other side of the ball. Coppell ran for a pedestrian 117 yards, but it ran well enough to set up 292 yards and four touchdowns through the air. Gavin McDaniel ran 21 times for 83 yards and the Lobos couldn't prevent Coppell from totally dictating the tempo of the game when the Longview defense was on the field.

What's more is the absence of Longview defensive tackle stalwart Zaycoven Henderson, the TCU-bound anchor of the Lobo line. He rapidly progressed as a junior and by the time Longview played Austin Westlake in the third round, looked like the best player on the field for much of the game. A foot injury will keep him out of Friday's game and probably four more until mid-October. That leaves Longview with one experienced defensive lineman entering Friday's game, senior DeRodrick Alexander.

In other words, Longview will face Coppell's large, physical offensive front with the front six of its 4-2-5 defense almost completely rebuilt, including the linebacker positions.

Don't be surprised if: This year's edition of Longview vs. Coppell is far more competitive than the 2012 matchup. Longview had a lot of offseason roster turnover, but brings back plenty of experienced players who got time as backups a year ago. Coppell lost half of its starters, including some recognizable names: defensive end William Udeh (New Mexico), receiver Cameron Smith (Arizona State), and 1,900-yard passer Colby Mahon, among others.

Not having Henderson healthy for this encounter may hurt Longview psychologically entering the game, but once the teams are on the field, the Lobos will be too busy to think about his absence. Longview's offense looked good in the controlled portion of last week's scrimmage against John Tyler, which might not have a Solomon Thomas, but possesses a strong defensive front four with multiple college prospects.

Longview must establish its ground game early, then protect Dezmond Chumley. The Lobos couldn't protect Bivins Caraway in last year's game and that resulted in not only a season-opening blowout loss, but a season-ending knee injury for the eventual ULM signee.

Longview enters Friday's game as the underdog, which should be a good thing for a team with 14 new starters. The key could be not falling behind early. If the Lobos are in the game come late third quarter, they could be dangerous, especially if Chumley is in rhythm with what should be one of the best receiving corps in Longview history.

A Zero Week win would be great for Longview, but playing a competitive game and getting out of it as healthy as possible would be beneficial -- and is probably more likely.