A year after it made its first state championship game appearance, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Early College High School (LBJ) Jaguars football team is preparing for the tougher gauntlet that is Class 5A.
Austin NBC affiliate KXAN reported that the Jaguars, who fell 38-21 to Stephenville in the 2021 Class 4A, Division 1 title game, not only look to make a much successful turn to state, but they want to prove the doubters wrong.
According to the station, LBJ was just two spots shy of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s preseason Top 10 rankings for Class 5A, Division 2, much to the chagrin of LBJ senior running back Sedrick Alexander.
Alexander took his team’s No. 12 ranking as a sign of disrespect, per KXAN.
“We’re going to show them this year that we’ll be No. 1,” the rusher told the station.
After a memorable junior season, the Vanderbilt pledge is expected to help power the Jaguars offense for head coach Jahmal Fenner, who coached in the championship game amid the heartbreak from losing his son.
KXAN reported that Alexander reeled off 2,204 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns in his penultimate prep season.
There’s just one thing he wants to accomplish in his last year suiting up in the familiar purple.
“Our goal for this year is to win state,” Alexander told KXAN. “We’re preparing all our young players to be successful in the classroom so they can play.”
Fenner sees the benefits of playing in a higher class.
“It gives up an opportunity to compete at a higher level, and we won’t have to travel as far,” the coach said, according to the station. “Football is football. We feel like we have an identity and a system in place, and we feel good about our chances in 5A.”
According to MaxPreps, the Jaguars last year went on a 15-0 tear before suffering their lone loss in the championship game.
LBJ’s first game as a 5A team will be a road matchup against Pflugerville Weiss on Sept. 2, with their home opener a week later against Dallas Parish Episcopal, the top-ranked private school per the Dave Campbell publication, KXAN reported.
The station reported that the Jaguars defeated the Panthers 44-42 in the second week of last season.