The Odessa Permian Panthers, or “MOJO” as they’re known to the Permian faithful, seem to be fighting their way back into deep playoff contention. It’s been somewhat of a drought for West Texas schools in the playoffs lately, the last championship team the storied region produced in big-school football was the 2009 version of the Abilene Eagles. This isn’t to diminish West Texas as a whole, teams from the South Plains routinely plunder the smaller classifications with relative ease.
The legacy of West Texas power was solidified by the dominant Permian teams of the ’70s and ’80s. During that 20 year span, the Panthers took home seven of their thirteen total state titles. Than means if you took a random year generator and set it from 1970-1989, there’s a 35% chance you’d land on a year where Odessa Permian won a state championship.
Odessa Permian went 10-2 in 2015, and their rap sheet features a bunch of blowout wins and close losses.
Head coach Blake Feldt might be the guy to take them back to previous glory. The Panthers haven’t been awful in the years since the ’80s, they were pretty good in the ’90s too, winning two state titles in that decade too. However, that level of previous dominance wasn’t there. It seemed inevitable that the Panthers were going to the playoffs. From 2000-2004, they were 25-25, going a flat .500. Darren Allman went 38-11, but never stayed long enough to build anything. While those years are great by most other team’s standards, anyone who’s familiar with Permian knows that their standards are much higher than “pretty good”.
Odessa Permian went 10-2 in 2015, and their rap sheet features a bunch of blowout wins and close losses. Their two losses came by a touchdown apiece to San Angelo Central (who ended up winning the district) and Amarillo Tascosa (who lost in the next round to Denton Ryan). The games that the Panthers won, they won by bludgeoning opponents. In Permian’s wins, the closest anyone came to them was Abilene, who they beat 37-17.
The Panthers lose QB Trey Potter and RB Brandon Bailey, the two main cogs in their offensive machine. Bailey rushed for 2,017 yards in 2015, and Potter passed for 1,419 yards with a meager two interceptions. WRs Kobe Robinson and Javorian Miller return, and will be integral parts of the offense, as both have been used at quarterback before. The quarterback starter will be integral to the Panther’s success in 2016, no matter who is blocking or catching the ball.
On the defensive side, Permian has lost some studs as well. They graduated their top three tacklers in Josh Nguyen, Jax Welch, and Deylan Moreno, and they’re sending cornerback Desmon Smith to Texas Tech. Permian is revamping most of their defense, but that hasn’t been an issue in the past. The traditional Permian teams have been set up to be led by seniors, and last year’s Permian team was no different.
The Panther’s pre-district schedule is particularly intriguing, as they’ll play a team all the way from New York in their fourth game of the year. They’re bringing Bishop Timon-St. Jude in for one of the premiere out of state matches. Bishop Timon went 8-4 in 2015, so they definitely won’t be a pushover.
In district, Permian will face both of the teams who beat them last year back-to-back. They’ll square off with Tascosa in Amarillo then face San Angelo Central in October. With the Abilene schools being realigned to different districts, those two weeks will likely decide who claims the district championship.
Odessa Permian is one of those schools that’s continuously hard to predict because of their senior-laden depth charts and how well they reload. We can say that Permian lost a bunch of high profile contributors and they have some firepower in the roster. Both of those statements can be logically argued. Until we know more about the up and coming seniors on their team, there’s no real way to rank them.
Based solely on the record of Blake Feldt, I’m going to say that Permian holds steady at either 9-3 or 10-2. They have a great chance to get revenge for their regular season loss with San Angelo Central coming to town, and Tascosa is the only other threat during the district season. They’ll face a tough task in Vandegrift and Bishop Timon-St. Jude during the pre-district season, but Permian has the athletes to take those games home.
