McIvor's Commitment Could Hint at Resurgence for Bobcats

SAN ANGELO, TX-- The Central Bobcats have been stellar under head coach Brent Davis, who took over in 2009. They’ve made eight-straight playoff appearances and have won six District Championships in the last seven years, including five in a row.

On Monday, Central High School’s star quarterback, Maverick McIvor, made his verbal pledge to the Texas Tech Red Raiders. He will join fellow Bobcats Eli and Henry Howard, who are on the Red Raiders’ roster.

While a verbal commitment is not legally binding like a National Letter of Intent, it is a sign of what’s to come.

It came as no surprise that the gunslinger picked the Red Raiders instead of the 14 other who came calling. After all, the Red Raider's offense is paralleled by the Bobcat’s offense and Texas Tech is the de-facto home team for the West Texas region.

But what should be looked at is the timing of McIvor’s commitment. The senior-to-be made his choice well before fall practices for the 2018 campaign began for the Bobcats.

Everything said about Central’s quarterback regards him as a team guy. He wants the best for the team.

That’s why he made his decision when he did. He doesn’t want any semblance of a distraction for his team during this first year in the Dallas-Fort Worth-based District 3-6A.

Now that McIvor has made his verbal pledge, his focus is solely on 2018 where the stakes are high for the Bobcats.

The Bobcats have their streak of district titles and are entering a tough district with perennial power Euless Trinity, Class 5A Quarterfinalist North Richland Hills Richland and an Abilene High squad that appears to have made leaps and bounds ahead of 2018.

In those five years, Central has not been able to get past the DFW hump.

In 2013, they lost to Keller Fossil Ridge. In 2014, the Bobcats made an incredible run in the playoffs only to fall to powerhouse Southlake Carrol. In 2015, Denton Guyer halted Central’s season in the third round of the playoffs. Allen came to San Angelo and fended off a valiant effort by the Bobcats the following year. And, lastly, Central fell to Mansfield in the Area Round in 2017.

In 1991, the Bobcats made it to the Class 5A Semifinals with a team led by Bobcat Hall of Fame QB Shea Morenz and legendary head coach Dan Gandy.

Not since then has a Bobcat team, let alone a quarterback, been able to deliver that caliber of success to San Angelo, even with countless district championship and playoff trophies in the trophy case from the last five years.

But this Bobcat team has the offensive pieces to do just that. They have the legendary coach (Brent Davis), the quarterback, the offensive line, returning slot receivers, a solid running back corps and possibly the route to get past that playoff hump in 2018.

McIvor is one of few Bobcat QBs to return for a second year at the helm of the offense under Coach Davis. In fact, only two quarterbacks for Davis’ Bobcats have started multiple years in Logan O’Brien and Mickey Scott.

Any player for Central will make it clear they know the importance of the 2018 season and proving they can conquer the beast that is DFW-area teams.

Regardless of whether they would be Division I or Division II in the playoffs, another playoff berth will put the Bobcats in a favorable position to make a deep run.

But it will come down to how McIvor and his new outside receivers gel heading into the regular season. The Bobcats and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Crane love attacking downfield.

McIvor was able to grow a lot with veteran Henry Teeter and Jesse Scott in 2017, his first year as the starting quarterback for the Bobcats, as well as during his time as a receiver in his sophomore year of 2016. That experience will be invaluable for the Bobcats in 2018 and the growth of the outside receivers.

However, the offense, which averaged 38.3 points per game in 2017, can only do so much. The Bobcat defense is depleted from graduation and will need guys like Daylon Green and Jashon Hall and their defensive tackles to step up in 2018.

If there was ever a year for the Bobcats to surge back to where they were in 1991 and even the 1960s, this is the year for Central to do that.