quarterback Blake Hoffman , hadn ’ t been injured in the second quarter of the Area Round playoffs . Blake , a two-time Del Thrash Award winner ( as the best player in the Golden Circle ), lost just three district games in three years and ran and threw for a combined 7,032 yards in his Tiger career . Without him , the Tigers fought hard and lost 28-21 to Burleson Centennial . They haven ’ t won a playoff game since .
Hal Wasson got the Tigers to the playoffs in 2019 , but they lost in the opening round Denton Braswell and haven ’ t been back to the postseason . Wasson , who has won just about every coaching award ( including National Coach of the Year at Southlake Carroll ) reached the postseason just once .
The Tigers had won just four games and had not won a district game in the two years prior to Rogers ’ arrival . That ’ s not just a bleak losing record , that ’ s a streak that steals a team ’ s confidence and empties hope in the program . There ’ s more . Not only have the Tigers lost games . They ’ ve lost players recently — talented players who left Corsicana to play for other programs .
That ’ s the hole Corsicana ’ s program was in the day Rogers took the job . He took the job with a big smile and a blast of confidence and optimism that touched the hearts of Tiger fans , young and old , fans who were ready to see the Tigers return to power . Rogers even had the phrase R2D printed on shirts , reminding his
Tigers and Tiger fans of his goal to “ Return to Dominance .”
Nothing has come easily for the Tigers , who improved in several spots in the lineup , but lost too many close games that a more seasoned and more confident team would have won . Rogers knows that , and he knows that ’ s his biggest hurdle .
When he as asked about his team in early January , Rogers said : “ 19 weeks , that ’ s when we start the new season .”
He ’ s counting down every week , every day , every hour to be ready for 2025 ..
Here ’ s the way he looks back at the 2024 season , a season he felt should have been better .
“ I feel we put the kids in the best position to win ,” he said . “ I believed in the plan we put forth . The players believed in us and trusted us throughout the first game and when things got tough they did not lose that trust in us as we eventually won the first game .
“ We went into the second game with the same mindset thinking we would win . It ’ s very difficult to win a game if you have more than three turnovers . I think in the second game we lost the the trust of our team because the defensive kids played lights out and we had three turnovers and could not overcome that so they fell back into the old mindset .
“ Coming back home with the third ballgame versus Hallsville I feel that the athletes lost the trust and the faith that they could win and they played like that we would not win .
“ We then regrouped for our first district game versus Terrell and again the kids played the first half lights out , but we just could not overcome negative events and continued to shoot ourselves in the foot , which is why we lost the district opener to Terrell .
“ I felt like the officials did not respect us . We continued to play without confidence to win football games during the middle of our district .
“ For Open Week we regrouped and prepared to win against Poteet and Greenville and we led in both those games until the fourth quarter but we just couldn ’ t get out of the way of ourselves and they eventually pulled those games out and beat us . “ We just couldn ’ t get over the hump of believing and preparing to win football games . We are currently in our offseason now preparing mentally to win by doing the small things to prepare to win football games in the fall .”
Spring 2025 | Explore Corsicana 17