By Jason Chlapek
Cove Leader Press
Now the games mean something.
When the Copperas Cove and Temple football teams meet at 7 p.m. Friday at Wildcat Stadium in Temple, it’ll be the District 12-6A opener for both teams. The Bulldawgs come into Friday’s game fresh off a 49-15 win at Round Rock Westwood, while the Wildcats suffered a 53-14 setback at Hutto.
“We are getting better every week which is what you want (going into district play),” said Rodney Southern, Cove Head Coach.
In last Thursday’s win, Cove (2-2) was led by quarterback Craig Davis III. The senior threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another.
Temple (1-3) didn’t fare much better against Hutto than Cove did two weeks ago. The Hippos beat the Bulldawgs, 64-21, Sept. 11.
The Wildcats are led by junior quarterback Kylan Basinger (801 yards, 10 TDs passing; 306 yards, 4 TDs rushing) and junior running back Eric Shelly Jr. (446 yards, 4 TDs rushing). Bradyn Williams (21 catches, 240 yards, 5 TDs) is the top receiver for Temple’s spread attack.
Defensively, linebacker Isaiah Ellis leads the way with 29 tackles. The Wildcats operate out of a 4-2-5 alignment defensively.
“We have to execute at a high level in all three phases of the game,” Southern said. “We also need to eliminate mistakes.”
Some of the biggest wins of Southern’s coaching career took place against Temple. As a member of Jack Welch’s staff from 1994-2001, the Bulldawgs were 5-3 against the Wildcats before he became the head coach at Marshall in 2002.
During his first year at Cove as defensive coordinator, the Bulldawgs upset Temple, 7-0. The win ultimately kept the Wildcats, who at the time were defending state semifinalists the previous year (1993) and state champions two years earlier (1992), out of the postseason.
Cove finished 5-4-1 that season – its first winning campaign since 1976. Temple won the next three meetings (1995-97) before the Bulldawgs struck again in 1998.
After starting 6-0, Cove dropped district contests against Ellison and Waco, respectively, and needed to win at Temple to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Bulldawgs dominated the Wildcats, 45-7, and annihilated Killeen, 58-0, in the regular season finale to reach the postseason for the first time since 1961.
Cove reached the Class 5A region semifinal round that season and lost to eventual state champion Midland Lee. The Bulldawgs were 10-3.
The third big win Southern had against Temple was in 2009 when he led Belton to a 17-6 victory in a game televised by ESPN. That season, Southern led the Tigers to a district championship and a 10-2 record with one of those losses being a 10-0 setback against Cove.
“It is a good rivalry (between Cove and Temple),” Southern said. “Each win has its own value. The 1994 win here was exciting because of where the program was and where we wanted it to go. The 2009 was special because it was a Thursday night on ESPN.”
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