The Class 4A Division II No. 24 Brownwood Lions conclude their preseason slate of scrimmages Thursday on the road against the Class 4A Division I No. 12 Alvarado Indians.
Alvarado is coming off a 12-1 playoff season and despite its lofty preseason ranking, the Indians are still picked to place third in District 4-4A Division I, behind No. 3 Springtown and No. 7 Decatur, according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
Head coach Aubrey Sims has moved over to his alma mater from Weatherford this year, as the Indians return just three offensive and two defensive starters from 2025, led by quarterback Kameron Jenkins, receiver Kenneth Lomack, and defensive end Zyon Brown.
“Aubrey Sims, the head coach, has supposedly told someone this is the best team he’s ever been associated with, but he’s also said his numbers are extremely low and that was a concern for him,” Brixey said. “So his numbers are low, but the players he has are really good.”
The scrimmage format this week will be different from what the Lions experienced against Class 4A Division II No. 6 Brock at Gordon Wood Stadium last week.
“We’re only going to play one set of scrimmage plays,” Brixey said. “We’re going to go 10 plays with ones offensively and defensively and 10 plays with our twos. Then we’re going to play two live regulation quarters. We both felt like our kids need game-time experience. There will be no live kicks or punts, but that’s the only part that won’t be live in regulation.”
As for what Brixey hopes to see from the Lions against Alvarado, he said, “Defensively, as well as we played the other day we need to tackle better. I don’t think we tackled well at times the other night. We had some blown assignments and miscues that you want to see get better. We also need to run to the football a little bit better, be in better shape.
“Offensively, we have to do a better job in both our run game stuff and our pass protection was not good at times the other night. At other times it was really good, but I would like to see marked improvement in that part of the game.”
Avoiding injuries is also crucial, as against Brock the Lions lost fullback Boudy Humphries indefinitely to a shoulder injury.
“It’s another chance to get better,” Brixey added. “Every week you’re either getting better or getting worse, there’s no status quo. Even if you’re the exact same you were last week, compared to what you should be doing, you’re worse because you should be getting at least a little bit better. And the teams that play a long time are the teams that get better every week.”
Beginning at 6:30 p.m., a traditional pre-game warm-up will take place for both the Lions and Indians.
“Coach Sims wanted to do that and I felt like it would be good for us so when we go out to Abilene next weekend it won’t be the first time we’ve gone through our pre-game warm-up for this year,” Brixey said.
JV and freshman action begins at 5:30 p.m. on the opposite ends of the field, working in eight-minute sets opposed to a certain number of plays. After the first eight-minute set, a two-minute break will follow, then teams will switch offenses and defenses.
“However fast you want to run plays is what you get,” Brixey said.
Reflecting on last week’s scrimmage against Brock, Brixey said, “We played well defensively, and I was fairly pleased with our offensive line from a physical standpoint. There’s still a ton of things we have to get better at, but our kids battled, they played hard, and they didn’t back down. With our ones and theirs, they scored one touchdown in the quarter and we were going in to score at the end of the quarter and just ran out of time. We got a lot out of the scrimmage and I think we got a lot better.”
The Lions kick off the 2026 high school football regular season at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28 at Class 5A Division II Abilene Wylie.