KTBB sports director Bill Coates asks a question to Kilgore College football coach Willie Gooden during SWJCFC Media Day on Thursday at Garden Valley Resort & Golf Club in Lindale.

LINDALE — Not that the football rivalry needs more spice to the mix, but Tyler Junior College Coach Thomas Rocco and Kilgore College Coach Willie Gooden may be adding a jalapeño topper.

The two coaches are discussing adding a traveling trophy to the winner of the Highway 31 series, much like the Texas-OU Golden Hat, the Michigan-Minnesota Little Brown Jug and the SMU-TCU Iron Skillet.

“We have been talking about a trophy,” Rocco said during the annual Southwest Junior College Footbal Conference Media Day on Thursday at Garden Valley Resort & Golf Club. “We need to get our art departments together to design the trophy. It is a good old-fashioned East Texas showdown.”

Also, it is back two games this year with the Apaches hosting KC on Sept. 4 in a non-conference game while the SWJCFC constest is Nov. 11 in Kilgore.

“I’m a Ranger,” said Gooden, who played on KC’s unbeaten team of 2001. “I love all the pageantry and the rivalry of Kilgore and Tyler. It is a great rivalry and we want it to continue growing. I was talking to Rocco about coming up with a trophy. Maybe a six-shooter gun and an Apache spear?”

Until the trophy is ready, the teams and the Apache Belles and Rangerettes will battle it out.

Also, seven of the eight coaches were in to discuss their teams. All but Cisco coach Ryan Taylor were on hand.

As for the preseason poll, it is believed for the first time the coaches and media agreed on the rankings, Manny Almanza, Media Day emcee and Kilgore College Marketing and Enrollment Management Department director, said.

Cisco College is favored to win the Southwest Junior College Football Conference championship as the teams return to field just three months after completing the spring competition. The Wranglers won the league title for the first time in their history and finished No. 3 in the nation. All the coaches tipped their hat to Taylor.

Following Cisco in the poll were Kilgore College, Trinity Valley Community College, New Mexico Military Institute, Navarro College, Tyler Junior College, Blinn College and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M.

In the coaches’ poll, the Wranglers received four first-place votes with KC (2) and NMMI (1) also receiving top tallies. In the media poll, Cisco had five first-place votes with Kilgore receiving four.

Kilgore finished the season at 7-1, with its only loss to Cisco.

Gooden said he has 40 players returning, a big number equated to a COVID-19 season that allows gridders a free year.

He added “hometown hero” Kenneith Lacy, a standout running back, is returning along with playmaker Willie McCoy (WR, Houston) and two All-America players — offensive lineman Wallace Unamba (Rowlett) and defensive end Maurice Westmoreland (Houston).

Rocco said the disappointment of the 3-5 spring season has fueled the desire for a turnaround in the fall. He said they recruited well and the summer workouts are going good.

Gone is quarterback Brendon Strickland, who started the first six games of the season. He transferred to Navarro. Back, though, is QB Landry Kinne, whose older brother G.J. Kinne was a star at Tulsa and is now offensive coordinator at UCF. Kinne’s grandfather played on the 1960 national championship team.

Rocco said the QB position is open with La Vega’s Kinne, Allen’s General Booty, of the famous Booty family from Shreveport, Louisiana, Crosby’s Deniquez Dunn, Beaumont’s Braden Sheldon, and Mansfield’s Hunt Young in the hunt.

Some other noted Apaches include: offensive lineman Chance Billington (John Tyler graduate), WR Torrance Burgess (Pearland Dawson), DL Ralph Carter (Langham Creek), TB Azhaun Dingle (Bayonne, New Jersey), DL Jacob Humphrey (Lake Charles, Louisiana), TE Mark Patton (Tyler Lee), DB Kobe Savage (Paris), OL Montae Lynch (Leesville, Louisiana), Jailyn Robertson (TE, Gladewater) and RB Kywon Morgan (Conroe Oak Ridge).

Rocco is hopeful qualifiers Jeremiah Cooley (WR, Big Spring) and Nic Rempert (WR, Batavia, Illinois) will be back.

Two Texas Tech transfers will be keys — LB Darryl Minor (Lake Dallas) and athlete Xavier Benson (Texarkana Pleasant Grove). Defensive back Adrion Taylor (Grand Prairie) is a transfer from the Naval Academy.

The season begins on Sept. 4.

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