Three weeks into the season, there isn’t much mystery left about whether De Leon’s fast start is legitimate.
The Bearcats answered that question emphatically Friday night.
Albany came to Bearcat Field undefeated and ranked No. 6 in Class 2A Division II by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. The Lions left with a 42-7 loss, becoming the third straight opponent to score exactly seven points against De Leon.
The numbers are impressive, and the way De Leon is producing them may be even more telling.
Under second-year head coach Brennan Whitaker, the Bearcats are beginning to play with a steadiness that hasn’t always been easy to find. You don’t get too high when things are going well, and you don’t get too low when they aren’t. You keep playing the next snap.
Whitaker has a phrase for it.
The standard is the standard.
Through three weeks, that standard is beginning to show up on Friday nights.
De Leon opened the season by holding San Saba to seven points. A week later, the Bearcats overwhelmed Stamford 57-7. Against Albany, facing their biggest test yet, they didn’t suddenly become a different football team.
They simply did it again.
De Leon led 14-0 at halftime and 28-0 after three quarters before finishing off the 42-7 victory. The Bearcats have now outscored their first three opponents 134-21.
And Albany’s seven points don’t quite tell the whole story.
The Lions were held scoreless until their final offensive play of the game.
More than one way to beat you
Lane Couch once again produced the biggest number on the stat sheet, rushing 19 times for 215 yards and three touchdowns.
But focusing solely on Couch would miss much of what has made De Leon dangerous.
Hud Price completed 17 of 21 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns, both to Bryce Burkeen, who caught 13 passes for 104 yards.
And much of De Leon’s offensive success continues to start up front.
The Bearcats rushed for 291 yards on 30 carries, averaging 9.7 yards per attempt behind an offensive line that controlled the line of scrimmage. Couch took advantage for most of three quarters, but when he left the game late in the third, the production didn’t disappear with him.
Ed Garcia stepped in and carried eight times for 53 yards and a touchdown in roughly a quarter and a half of work. The offensive line continued creating room, and Garcia kept the offense moving.
That’s becoming an important part of De Leon’s identity.
There are individuals putting up impressive numbers, but this doesn’t look like a team waiting for one player to rescue it. The line is creating opportunities, and the backs are taking advantage of them. Price has been efficient distributing the football, and his receivers are producing when defenses devote too much attention to the running game.
Against Albany, it added up to 449 yards of offense. Albany finished with 191.
Seven. Seven. Seven.
As productive as De Leon has been offensively, the defense may be making the loudest statement.
San Saba scored seven.
Stamford scored seven.
Albany scored seven.
Three games. Twenty-one points allowed.
Against Albany, De Leon recorded six tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and six quarterback hurries while keeping the Lions off the scoreboard until the game’s final offensive snap.
Gage Heinz finished with five tackles, two tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble. Kayden Tobar led De Leon with nine tackles. Keegan Bostic recorded a sack and a tackle for loss, while Eli Garza added another sack and tackle for loss.
Again, the production came from everywhere.
That’s what makes this start feel increasingly like a team story rather than a collection of individual performances.
The defensive front is creating pressure. The players behind it are doing their jobs. The offensive line is controlling the trenches. De Leon can run the football and throw it. And when someone’s number is called, another Bearcat has generally been ready.
The standard is the standard
Talent hasn’t necessarily been the missing ingredient in De Leon.
Consistency has been harder to find.
That’s what makes the early returns under Whitaker interesting. Now in his second season leading the program, the Bearcats are beginning to establish the kind of week-to-week identity successful programs eventually have to develop.
The coaches are coaching them hard, and the players appear to be responding. And perhaps most importantly, De Leon isn’t allowing one result to become bigger than the next job.
That’s easy to preach, but it’s considerably harder for teenagers to live by when they’re winning football games by 28, 50 and 35 points.
The standard can’t change because the opponent is ranked. It can’t change because everyone tells you how good you looked the week before. And it can’t change when things eventually stop going your way.
So far, De Leon has shown an ability to stay remarkably level through all of it.
If Albany was supposed to be the measuring stick, the Bearcats didn’t leave much room for interpretation.
They beat the No. 6 team in Class 2A Division II by 35 points.
Now they have to keep doing what they’ve shown through three weeks.
Move on.
Seven points meets 47
The next test may be the most intriguing one yet.
De Leon travels to Goldthwaite next Friday for a matchup of 3-0 teams, with the Eagles ranked No. 10 in Class 2A Division II.
If De Leon’s defining number has been seven, Goldthwaite brings a very different number into the matchup.
47.
That’s how many points per game the Eagles are averaging during their undefeated start.
A De Leon defense allowing seven points per game will meet a Goldthwaite offense averaging nearly seven touchdowns per game. And while Goldthwaite carries a state ranking, De Leon remains unranked to this point.
There will be plenty of time this week to dissect what that matchup means.
For De Leon, the immediate challenge is simpler.
The opponent changes. The ranking changes. The expectations may be changing, too.
The standard doesn’t.