LONGVIEW, Texas — Longview will hosts Tyler Legacy in a 6A showdown Friday.
Both teams had a rocky start to their season, with the Lobos overall record at 4-2. They were served two losses at home from South Oak Cliff and Ruston, their first back-to-back home losses since 2001.
They were able to bounce back the last two week with wins over Rockwall and Forney. That being said, they're not the same team that got the 28-7 win over Legacy last season. They've gone through a lot of adjustments with running back Taylor Tatum graduating, and quarterback Andrew Tutt graduating as well.
Coach King has been working on rebuilding his team's work ethic and confidence throughout the home losses. King spoke about the new team stepping up and adjusting to the new district and new playmakers.
"Everything's different now, it's just not 'coach speak', you'll have a different identity. There's different chemistry, different things that make them tick," King said.
Tyler Legacy has gone through some changes as well, their new quarterback is Grace transfer Zach Davis. They've gone 3-4 this season, but are coming off a win against Royse City 38-31, and their main focus is the next team after each game.
"Twenty-four hours after the game we just get back to work, you can't get any better if you don't go back to work, " said Tyler Legacy Coach Beau Trahan. "We'll go to Longview try to get a win, and then next week we'll go to Rockwall and try to get a win, we're gonna take it one week at a time. I know it sounds like coach speak, but it's the truth."
Coach speak or not, these teams are evenly matched with playoff implications and rankings on the line since there's only 4 more games left in the regular season.
Trahan was the Baylor offensive coordinator, and he has over 15 years of collegiate coaching experience so he brings that experience to high school.
"It starts with the schedule, starts with the work ethic, the schedule, we do the exact same thing we did at Baylor here," said Coach Trahan. "We have the same practice schedules so it's really about keeping our guys getting our work in, but also trying to keep our guys fresh and ready to go."
Longview vs. Tyler Legacy will kick off at 7:30 p.m.