NATHANIEL MATA| STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — As reliable as scorching heat in August, Bill Littleton is starting the season with one of the best-looking rosters in Valley football.
Six starters return on offense, and six are back on defense. Plus a pipeline of players is chomping at the bit to contribute in a major way.
Like clockwork, the McAllen Memorial Mustangs are favorites not only to finish atop 30-6A but remain undefeated in the district for the fourth year in a row.
A confident aura surrounds the Mustangs. Their star tailback, Campbell Speights, is entering just his second year, and he’s looking to run even harder as a sophomore.
“It’s been a long summer,” Speights said during the first week of August practice. “Football is what we love to do, and when it comes around, we’re very excited for it.”
As a freshman, he led 30-6A with 1,320 rushing yards and 20 TDs. He posted those numbers while still splitting the responsibilities with then-senior Emilio Mendez, who exceeded 1,000 yards and had 14 touchdowns of his own in 2016.
Speights will likely carry the ball even more than his 160 attempts last year. When asked how he will handle defenses throwing more defenders at him and selling out to stop the run, he smiled.
“Just stay calm. Stay confident,” Speights said. “I trust my guys. I trust my coaches. I know they’re going to do the right thing. My job comes easy when you have a good O-line, good quarterback and good coaches.”
It might be difficult for Speights to avoid drawing comparisons to his older brother, Trevor, who preceded Campbell as a standout on campus before joining Stanford’s football roster.
The younger Speights doesn’t feel the need to follow exactly in his shoes. Instead, he continues to learn from and communicate with his role model.
“My brother, he’s my mentor. Everything I know, most of it’s from him,” Campbell said. “Of course, all the great camps and the great coaches. He’s the guy that I sit down with. He shows me, ‘Hey, you’re doing this wrong. You need to do this.’ He helps me improve, and I thank him for that.”
Under center for the Mustangs is Angel Almaguer, a field general capable of facilitating the offense. He attempted less than 60 passes last season but only turned the ball over three times.
BAPTISM BY FIRE
Memorial won’t ride the successes of previous seasons to prove itself. The team starts with two road games, and the schedule demands midseason form early.
Littleton wanted no mistake made about how tough his non-district schedule is going to be.
“It’s Pioneer, Weslaco East, San Benito and it’s Los Fresnos,” Littleton said. “Those teams are about as good as they come in the Valley. We’ll definitely be tested. It’ll be good. We’ll kind of know where we are. We’re excited about it. We wouldn’t want to play anybody any less. You talk about giving up points. You’re going to give up points when you play teams like that.”
Those four opponents combined for an impressive 34-15 record a season ago, and all four were playoff teams.
Littleton is no stranger to the tough competition, and Speights is getting acclimated, as well.
“It’s a benefit, because it shows us who we are,” Speights said. “But yet again, we treat every game like it’s just another ballgame. It’s a tough schedule, but we’ll get through.”
BETTER THAN PAPER
Memorial aims to be a well-rounded unit, capable of outscoring and out-defending.
Defensive end/middle linebacker Frank Opazo is ready to lead the defense. He led the team in tackles for a loss with 19 last year as part of his 59 total tackles.
He said his squad is in shape and always ready to return to the field if the offense scores quickly.
“We don’t try to get to get too comfortable, because we know it can bite us in the butt again,” Opazo said. “This summer, a bunch of our teammates have been seeing each other in strength and conditioning. We’re getting ready for the season, and we know our defense needs to be good in order to beat those teams high up there in the third round. We don’t try to get to get too comfortable, because we know it can bite us in the butt again.”
The Mustangs overpower often in their wins, making statistics like yards and points allowed difficult to gauge. They allowed 231 points and 294.5 yards per game last season, ranking around the middle of the pack in the district.
Littleton felt like those stats could be misleading, factoring in lopsided wins during which Memorial gave up meaningless scores.
“We feel really good about our defense,” Littleton said. “Our defense has played pretty good overall. Yeah, we gave up some points, but it’s been late in the ball game sometimes.”
The defense will want to be better against the more potent offenses it will face. Memorial’s record was 1-3 when the team surrendered more than 30 points last season.
READY TO ROLL
“It’s Texas, it’s football, and it’s August, what more could you want?” Littleton said.
The boys in Colombia blue and gold are poised to erase their first-round playoff exit from last year. They know that they can’t fix that immediately. Instead, they will tackle their major goals in week-sized portions.
“Of course we have high expectations for ourselves, but we like to take it a game at a time,” Speights said. “Practice, work on practice, and from there we’ll work on the game. We like to take it a game at a time and get the job we need to get done, done.”
PROGNOSIS
Campbell Speights will be the player to watch in the Valley, and his team around him will play with a chip after a first-round exit. Look for another strong team.
2016 record: 8-3
Retuners O/D: 6/6
COACH’S TENURE
Coach: Bill Littleton
Year at school: 14th
Record at school: 88-58