DeSoto is ranked #1 in The Dallas Morning News preseason rankings.
Photograph courtesy of Rita Bell Photography.
High School Football America won’t release its Preseason National Top 25 until August 1st, but plenty of media outlets are getting a jump on things. Take The Dallas Morning News, which has released its Preseason Top 10 for Class 6A and 5A.
DeSoto, which finished #25 in our final Top 25 last year, gets the nod as the top team in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the newspaper’s initial release. The Eagles, who return a ton of talent, including 4-star (247sports rating) dual threat quarterback Tristen Wallace, who has given his verbal commitment to Ohio St.
Former offensive coordinator Todd Peterman is the new head coach at DeSoto, taking over for Claude Mathis, who left for a college job at SMU.
Below you can listen to our interview with Peterman in February, right after he was promoted to head coach.
The biggest difference since our chat with Peterman is the depth at quarterback that he discusses in the interview. Junior-to-be Jaylin Nelson has transferred to Duncanville High School, now coached by Reginald Samples, who left Skyline at the end of 2014.
Nelson played extremely well for DeSoto last year when Wallace went-down in the second game of the season with a broken ankle. In Wallace’s absence, Nelson threw for 1,827 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also ran for 931 yards and 14 scores.
Duncanville and DeSoto are in the same district (8-6A), so the Wallace/Nelson match-up will add to the match-up.In
Right behind DeSoto in the preseason poll is Allen, which has won three straight High School Football America “mythical” national titles and three straight Texas state titles. The Eagles, who will have their recently-repaired Eagle Stadium to play-in this year after 16 road games last year, will have to find a replacement for all-everything quarterback Kyler Murray, who was undefeated as a high school quarterback and now at Texas A&M.
All six of the top teams in The Dallas Morning News 6A preseason rankings, finished 2014 in the High School Football America final national Top 25 rankings — Allen #1, Cedar Hill #11, Skyline #14, Southlake Carroll #22, Euless Trinity #23 and DeSoto #25.
All six are also in the running for a place in our 2015 Preseason Top 25.
The Dallas Morning News Preseason Rankings
6A
1. DeSoto
2. Allen
3. Skyline
4. Cedar Hill
5. Euless Trinity
6. Southlake Carroll
7. Arlington Martin
8. Denton Guyer
9. Mansfield
10. Arlington Lamar
Class 5A
1. Manfield Timberview
2. Lancaster
3. South Oak Cliff
4. Mansfield Lake Ridge
5. Lake Dallas
6. West Mesquite
7. Lovejoy
8. Ennis
9. Mesquite Poteet
10. Mansfield Summit
