The Bulldogs are back in town in Tioga, with the Bulldogs football team returning to the practice field to get ready for the 2025 season.
In their second season under the direction of Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach, the 9-3 Bulldogs were the champions of 2A-1 Region II District 6 and finished as the runner-up to the Kerens Bobcats in the 2A Area Championship.
“We had a great season last year,” Birdwell said. “We found ways to win in non-district, ran the table in district, including a very solid game against a good Wolfe City team to win the district and had a great round one [playoff] game, but we’re looking to build off of it and make the jump from great to elite. We believe the elite teams play in Thanksgiving and in December, and we fell a little short of that last year, so we’re looking to build off the positives, fix the negatives and be back in the mix.”
Birdwell said the Bulldogs are already off to a great start in Year 3 after a promising offseason.
“We had an unbelievable offseason,” he said. “We showed a lot of growth in aspects of strength and speed, but also toughness, mentally and physically. We also developed some new leaders in the offseason, and I think that played a huge part in that. … We had unbelievable numbers this summer, and we may have just finished up the best Week 1 of any fall camp I’ve been a part of.”
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football has the Bulldogs as the 23rd-ranked team in 2A Division I and has them predicted to finish second in their district.
“It fits right with our motto for this year, and that’s ‘habits over hype,’” Birdwell said. “We had a whole lot of hype throughout the season last year, and we found out at the end of the day that hype isn’t real, and hype’s not going to win you games; your daily habits are. … Those determine our future, so that’s our biggest focus right now. We believe we have elite daily habits, and our district championship isn’t going anywhere.” With only four starters returning on offense, the Bulldogs will look for their more experienced defense, led by defensive back Jake David, who had 135 tackles and 4 INTs, to help set the tone in the early portion of the season as the offense gets up to speed.
“We have a group of kids out here that are in year three of this program, with seven returners [on defense], that should know exactly what they’re doing,” Birdwell said. “That’s going to allow them to play with all four of those qualities, and especially with us feeling some positions out early on, on the offensive side, being able to lean on that defense is going to be big for us.”
Last season the Bulldogs’ offense piled up the points and yardage, averaging over 40 points and 450 yards of offense per game, and Birdwell said the new starters on offense, led by QB Cole Boyd and receiver Greeley McAden, are chomping at the bit for their chance to continue the trend.
“We’ll have some youth and some inexperience, and I don’t know exactly how long it’s going to take for us to not miss a beat from last year, but we have a group that’s been working for two years, that’s hungry and that ultimately has been waiting for this opportunity,” he said. “We’re a program that emphasizes showing up every day and being ready to eat, and these guys finally have their seat at the table.”
With the start of the season right around the corner, Birdwell said his message to the team remains the same as it’s been all offseason.
“Continue to fall in love with this process, continue to live in the Top 5 percent, continue to be elite in everything that we do, and if we have elite habits, we’re going to have elite results,” he said.
