Preseason Blitz: Carthage looking for back-to-back state titles

CARTHAGE, TX (KTAL/KMSS) — Last season, the Carthage Bulldogs and head coach Scott Surratt broke Texas High school football records, winning the program’s 10th state championship and making Surratt the only coach in Texas High school football history with 10 state champion titles.

This year, the Bulldogs hope to make it 11.

“I don’t think there’s toping in a championship, but hopefully we can just make it back and do the same thing,” senior quarterback Jett Surratt said.

The seniors at Carthage have seen a state championship two of the three years they’ve been in high school. To them, there’s only one way to finish their final year of high school football.  

“We’ve had a long, long ride, long trip together, we’re gonna just try to finish it off with another ring,” senior Carson Crawford said.

The Bulldogs may be slightly on the younger side this season, but with the senior class passing down the Carthage standard, you can expect to see the same level Bulldog team.

“The word speaks for itself. I mean, we play harder than anybody else,” senior KJ Edwards said. “Others just think we just win by skill or we just Carthage, but no we just play harder than other teams.”

There’s not much to change when one has had the success that Carthage has had.

“I don’t know if we can surprise anybody at this point,” Scott Surratt said. “Hopefully, you know, they’re gonna see the same thing, we’re gonna line up very well because I got great coaches and we’re gonna play extremely hard.”

But for Surratt, this season is different, with his son Jett and his longtime friends nearing the end of high school football.

“I want to send these seniors out, I’ve seen them play every game they’ve ever played from 7th grade on up and, with Jett being on the team, yeah it’d be special to send these guys out with a championship that’d been awesome,” Scott Surratt said.

Football is 24/7 for the entire Surratt family.

“We never quit talking about football, whether we’re at home or up here just it’s a blessing but it’s a lot that’s for sure,” Jett Surratt said.

But it’s not just the father-son bonding that makes this class so special, but the moments they’ve been able to share growing up together.

“It’s been good just seeing, I mean since 8th grade until now, just hearing all the guys succeeding, getting offers and committing to some big time schools,” Edwards said. “It’s just a surreal moment for all of us, just seeing like what we dreamed of doing and like what we are doing now.”

The relationships are more than just football.

“We’re buddies beyond that so that’s always enjoyable, just hanging out with each other on a deeper level than just football,” Crawford said.

But don’t worry, not much takes them away from even the thought of football.

“Football has kind of been everybody’s main goal. If you come to Carthage, you’re playing football for the most part, so I mean that’s kind of everybody on everybody’s mind,” Crawford said.

Carthage opens the 2025 season at Kilgore on August 29.