Brent Davis Press Conference: "I'm proud of this class and this group that we had."

SAN ANGELO, TX — Brent Davis’ final press conference of the season gave the Central High School football coach a chance to reflect on this year’s season and how special this team was to him. 

The Bobcats’ senior class is Davis’ biggest in terms of the number of players set to graduate, and he talked about how proud he was of them and what they accomplished.  Davis also took time to talk about wide receiver Tanner Dabbert and the way he represented the school (0:50). 

“I can’t say enough about that kid (Dabbert), his leadership, and how he played for this football program his whole high school career.”

The next question was about the rising crop of players that he will be coaching.  He talked about the abundance of talent in Glenn and Lee middle schools, who were both undefeated until they had to play each other, as well as the success of the junior varsity squads. 

Davis is aware of how each teams’ season went and is excited for them to get into the building and start practicing.  He did, however, say that he has not had the time to truly study them or know who will fit where, “We haven’t studied it to the point where we have an idea yet, obviously the season is just now over, but we’ll go to work on that.  We’ll do that this week. [We’ll] start testing, getting ready for the offseason, and we’ll come back from Thanksgiving and hit it hard.”

The biggest focus in the offseason will be improving the secondary and finding offensive and defensive linemen.  Central’s defensive backs this season were often outmatched physically by the talented receivers in the Metroplex, and Davis addressed the need to get bigger and faster in that area. 

“We have to have better athletes in those positions.  We have to get faster as a team. We have to get stronger as a team.  I think all that showed against Martin. We’re not at that level yet.”

The next couple questions addressed quarterback Malachi Brown and the receiving corps.  Brown, who is a junior, will have one more year at the helm but will lose two of his best wide-outs, Tanner Dabbert and Christian Gabaldon. 

Davis said that it is juniors Joseph Gathecha and Malik Haywood’s time to step up and take advantage of the opportunity before them. 

The press conference ended with Davis giving an idea of what next year’s realignment could look like and who he would like to play inside their district.  He showed his desire to be back in the Little Southwest Conference again adding, “Playing out west with our traditional rivals? Yeah our games are better… There is a lot of pride there… I would like to be there again in the future.”

After talking about the district, Davis teased the non-district schedule saying that Central will play Shoemaker and Cedar Park again but would not mention who the third or fourth game will be.  He said he has been in talks with teams that will challenge them, but nothing is official yet.