When it comes to junior college football, there are a handful of states that just do it better than anybody else.
Seriously.
There’s Mississippi – you know, the home of “Last Chance U,” from Netflix, with East Mississippi Community College, Hinds, Northwest, Gulf Coast and the like.
There’s Kansas, with Butler, Hutchinson, Garden City, and the rest.
And then there’s the Southwest Junior College Football Conference, made up largely of Texas teams, with New Mexico Military Institute and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO) thrown in for good measure.
NMMI, the alma mater of one Roger Staubach before he went to the Navy, won an NJCAA national championship three seasons ago, and Kilgore College was in the JUCO final four last year.
KC has won the Texas conference – abbreviated the SWJCFC for short – the last two years and has claimed the conference title more times than anyone in the conference’s history. That college is also the home of the drill team, the Kilgore College Rangerettes (Kilgore College Rangerettes). Just sayin’.
At any rate, it’s little wonder the Rangers do so well in recruiting, that head coach Kilgore College head football coach Willie Gooden is so good at winning.
It starts when he walks into a room.
Gooden, the third-from-the-last coach to speak Thursday at the conference’s media day at Hollytree Country Club in Tyler, was smiling, laughing and having a good time with his future opponents – the coaches from the other programs – and the media members present the entire time.
It didn’t stop when he got up to speak.
Someone forgot to silence their cell phone, and their ring tone, the theme from “The X-Files,” the science fiction TV series, began playing just as Gooden arose from his seat. It seemed everyone laughed, and one of the coaches made it worse.
“That’s about right,” he said, to more laughter.
“That’s my theme music,” Gooden told the group, with a smile.
Gooden can smile because he’s the coach of the two-time defending SWJCFC champions, coming off a season in which he led the Rangers to an appearance in the NJCAA’s four-team national championship playoff, as well.
KC finished the 2023 season with a 9-2 record, a conference championship, and playing Iowa Western in the national title semifinal. It didn’t go their way – there were some injuries to be dealt with before they got there that affected the game plan, as well – but they were there, representing the conference.
Gooden was simply glad to be back at media day representing his team after last year. He addressed his absence immediately.
“First off, it’s an honor to be here,” he said. “I feel like it’s been forever. And I say “been forever” – within the past two seasons, I’ve been through four surgeries, and on the same knee. So I’m very, very fortunate to be here.”
Gooden thanked his own administration, conference officials and the club for hosting the event and then began his address.
“Going back to me being fortunate enough to be here – those four surgeries, those four surgeries kind of equal two championships. …So, you’ve got to go through what you’ve got to go through to get where you want to get. It was all worth it. I’m not as good as I once was, and you know the rest.”
He referenced two coaches who came with him: assistant coach and defensive coordinator Russell Thompson, and offensive coordinator Paul Burgos.
He bragged on the current staff. “I’ve been associated with Kilgore College for almost two decades. Everybody that’s on our staff right now either played for Kilgore College or been there for 10-plus year. Coach Thompson is on his third tour at Kilgore College – that’s my right hand, like I said, very fortunate to have him as defensive coordinator, and coach Burgos, he played here, fortunate to have him as well.”
Gooden mentioned a coaching departure, Eric Osborne, who left for the University of Houston, where he’ll coach the defensive line. “It’s kind of a bittersweet moment for us. Replaced him with Trevaun Calahan.”
Calahan, a former defensive back at both KC and Grambling University out of Jonesboro, Louisiana, returns to coach DBs for the Rangers. Another coaching addition, Gooden said, will be another former Ranger, J.T. Mackie, a former KC receiver who will return to Kilgore to coach just that: wide receivers.
Calahan won a conference title with KC in 2015, and Mackey won a title with the Rangers in 2018. “Everybody being Kilgore College, been there, we’re all family – can’t wait to get to work with these guys,” Gooden said.
And work is coming quickly.
The Rangers open their season early this year: they’re home at R.E. St. John against Monterrey Tech – a team from Mexico! – this Saturday, Aug. 24, then are off for what amounts to two weeks before playing a tough conference opener against New Mexico Military Institute on Sept. 14.
And besides, there’s only so much “simulating” you can do putting your own players against one another in practice, anyway.
Right, Willie?
“You go through spring, you go through summer, you go through all these different scenarios,” he said. “But all you’re doing is simulating what it’s gonna be. Well, it’s finally really here. Yeah, so we can stop the simulation. We report next week. August 1 is the day. We play our first game within a month and we’re excited about the opportunity to do away with the simulation and get to some real football.”
After the game against NMMI, they visit Navarro in Corsicana on Sept. 21 for a rematch of last year’s conference championship game. Then, KC is home for back-to-back games against Cisco (Sept. 28) and a non-conference opponent, Community Christian (Oct. 5).
The Rangers take an open date Oct. 12 before going to Trinity Valley on Oct. 19 in Athens, and then visit Tyler Junior College – the only game between the rivals this season – at CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium to close out October, on Oct. 26.
KC hosts Blinn on Nov. 2, and then ends the regular season with a trip to Miami, Oklahoma to face Northeastern Oklahoma A&M on Nov. 9.
The conference playoffs begin on Saturday, Nov. 16 for the teams that are the top four in the conference standings after Nov. 9.
Both the coaches and media polls, oddly enough, read the exact same: both favor Kilgore College to win the conference for what would be a third straight season. Both have Trinity Valley picked to come in second, and Navarro picked to come in third. Tyler is picked to make the playoffs in both polls, but to come in fourth.
New Mexico Military is the consensus fifth-place pick, followed by Blinn and Cisco, and NEO is picked in both polls to finish last again.
In the media poll, Trinity Valley got a first-place vote and TJC got a first-place vote; the other six first-place votes all went to Kilgore College. In the coaches poll, KC got six first-place votes; TJC got a first-place vote in the coaches poll, and NMMI got one, as well.
He said KC brought in about 25 transfers and a solid freshman group.
“I’m not really big on sitting here talking about these guys that are unproven, because these guys can run fast, yeah, these guys are tall,” he said, and then alluded to a coach earlier in the day acting like he was looking up at KC players. “We look up at Kilgore players like this. But I’ve seen ‘em look like that and play like Jane. We’ve all seen those. I’ll start talking about them once we’ve seen them put a helmet on, and seen what they look like on that big stage. That stage is big.”
Gooden talked about the strength of the conference.
“A lot of people – they don’t know. I’m up here flashing this ring, and yeah, I’m doing that on purpose,” he said, to laughter from the group. “But, I’m saying, every game is a dogfight. No matter if you’re traveling on 20 west going out there to Cisco, Texas – and I promise you it’s a trip that you’d better be ready for – or you’re trying to find your way to Highway 6 to get down to Brenham, where coach Mahon has circled the wagons and he’s got a team full of freshman and a Brenham High School quarterback and you don’t know what’s gonna happen, because he looks like Johnny Manziel out there.
“Or, you’re on 31, and you know what’s on 31. It’s all of us, it’s Tyler, us, Navarro and Trinity Valley. It’s an overly-competitive conference, and I’m glad to be a part of it, and we have nothing but respect for you guys.”
Moving to personnel, Gooden said it was nice to have a quarterback returning. They did lose Cam Peters, who was injured before the game against Iowa Western, but coming back is Tyler Webb, from Waco, who had transferred in to KC from Idaho before last season and got playing time late.
“We’ve got some other guys, but the guy is proven is 1-1 right now, got thrown into the fire in the conference championship,” Gooden said. “He played well enough for us to win. Second trip didn’t go so well when we took our talents up North. We all know about that, won’t talk about that; we’ll make sure we do a better job the next time we have a chance to represent this conference on a national stage.”
Gooden said he feels like Webb has grown as a player.
“I feel like we’re one,” he said. “He did something the other day and he said, ‘Coach, you didn’t say it, but I knew what you were thinking,’ and I said, ‘I like that.’ I love that! The fact that we can be in sync like that, that’s awesome. Tyler Webb, man, excited about having him.”
Also back are some players up front on the offensive line, including Jadarlon Key, a player Gooden said might be on his fourth year at KC.
“Hey, if the train’s got more eligibility, let’s roll with it,” he said. “You talking about a humongous human being? He is a humongous human being: probably 6-foot-8, 400. Now, we’re on a diet right now trying to trim that down. His name is Jadarlon Key, but his nickname is Big Mike. So you know why they call him Big Mike. Hopefully he’ll get his hands on some people and clear some lanes, and knock some people down up front.”
Gooden pointed out that also returning on the O-line are Austin Yeager, a transfer from Incarnate Word.
At running back, Dominique Williams is back, another IW transfer, with what Gooden said is home-run-hitting speed, and wide receiver Melvin Polk. “He’s about 5-10, 5-11, but he can go,” Gooden said, of Polk. “He can win the one-on-one matchups. He did it all spring, but he did it a couple of times in the fall last year. With that group of receivers last year, to even be able to step on the field with those guys, you know he has talent, especially as a true freshmen, that says a lot.”
Defensively, another longtime player returning is defensive end Wilburn Smallwood. “He’s one of those hybrid rush ends, outside linebacker-types. His nickname is ‘Swamp.’ You want a defensive player who’s nickname is ‘Swamp,’ I promise you,” Gooden said, to more laughter.
Dionte Marry, a linebacker from Carthage, returns. “He’s got an overly-high football IQ, which I love,” Gooden said.
Several safeties are back, including Jaylon Webb and Marus Moultrie. “Both of those guys sparked a bunch of Division I interest throughout the spring,” he said. “We’re very, very fortunate to be able to hold on to ‘em.”
He also mentioned safety Izeal Jones, a player he called KC Athletic Director Courtney Pruitt’s favorite player.
“I can say this about Izeal: He’s a young man from Pearland, Texas who’s talent has finally caught up with his mouth,” Gooden said, to roaring laughter from the crowd, including the coaches. “I’m telling you, I’m telling you, he’s one of the ones who could talk a good game from the day he stepped on campus. But in midseason, started to see athleticism and playmaking actually catch up with it, and it was nice to balance out, because it made me to be able to tolerate him a lot easier, I’m telling you. That’s Izeal Jones. And he calls himself ‘Honcho.’ I flat-out refuse to call him ‘Honcho.’ But that’s his self-proclaimed nickname, ‘Honcho.’”
The roster is one Gooden is proud of, he said.
“We feel like we have some of the best athletes in the nation right now,” he said. “We feel like we can match up with pretty much everybody.”
Let’s lace ‘em up and go.
“I’m ready for another overly-competitive 2024 season,” he said. “I know what it’s gonna be.”
He turned to the other coaches. “I’ve inherited some gray hairs and it ain’t because of getting old. I’m only 42. It’s because of burning the midnight oil having to prepare for these guys. And I wish all of y’all a healthy, prosperous season – other than when you roll into R.E. St. John and play them Rangers. Let’s get to it.”
