It's a big deal at Cowboys Stadium today

Herbstreit Kickoff Classic – Texas
When: Labor Day
Where: Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas
TV: All games live on Fox Sports Net.
Game 1: No. 1* Shiloh Christian-Springdale, Ark. (1-0) vs. No. 1** Trinity-Euless, Texas (1-0), 10:30 a.m. (CT). See preview.
Game 2: St. Thomas Aquinas-Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (0-0) vs. Skyline-Dallas, Texas (0-1), 1:30 p.m.
Game 3: Cedar Hill-Texas (0-1) vs. Guyer-Denton, Texas (1-0), 4:30 p.m.
Game 4: DeSoto-De Soto, Texas (1-0) vs. Bowie-Arlington, Texas (1-0), 7:30 p.m.

* - MaxPreps Freeman rankings; ** - MaxPreps Xcellent 25

ARLINGTON, Texas – If old-school thinking prevailed, they’d do away with these darned fang-dangled cross-state football extravaganzas.
 
They’re killing high school sports. The prep game is meant for local rivalries, regional showdowns, cross-town match-ups.

At least that’s the traditional wisdom.

So you can figure exactly where a legendary figure like St. Thomas Aquinas coach George Smith stands.
The winningest coach in Florida history – he’s won five state titles, 346 games and entered three Hall of Fames – is no doubt thumbs way down on the travel, national TV, the spotlight, the highlight reels and glitz of it all.

When asked if he thought these high profile events – like today’s mega affair, the Kirk Herbstreit Kickoff Classic in Arlington, at super sensational Cowboys Stadium – was ruining high school sports, Smith, 62, had one clear, immediate and stout opinion.

Just not one any would expect.

Phooey!

Well, that wasn’t exactly the word he used.

“It’s crap!,” he said a day before flying his 88-man team half way across the United States to play one of four games on national TV.

“The once-in-a-lifetime experience these kids get by going somewhere new you can’t learn in a book. You can’t learn it in a classroom. These are life experiences and team-building bonds you carry for the rest of your life.”

Don’t get Smith wrong. Kids learn them too playing close to home as well.

But this is accelerated learning. This is excitement, fun, expansion and challenging all wrapped into one three-day trip.

“It’s a big deal,” he said. “And it’s much more than playing a high school football game.”

It doesn’t hurt playing in an NFL stadium. Not any stadium, of course, the super of all super domes, the $1.2-billion Cowboys Stadium with its monstrous 72-foot tall video board that weighs approximately 1.2 million pounds.

"I'm sure when they walk in and look around they'll say 'what?,' " Smith said. "When I walked into the building for a press conference (last month) I said 'what?' 'Huh.' " It's a pretty remarkable place."

Shiloh Christian coach Josh Floyd was equally flabbergasted. And impressed.

“Frankly, playing at Cowboys Stadium was just too good to pass up,” Floyd said.
 
When organizers approached Floyd and his rapidly rising national power, they hadn’t decided – or at least told him – that Shiloh Christian would be playing established national power Trinity from nearby Euless.

Turns out, both are ranked No. 1 in the country by MaxPreps.com – Trinity in the Xcellent 25 writers’ poll and Shiloh Christian in the Freeman computer rankings.

All of that doesn’t matter now and certainly not then to Floyd. A five-hour bus trip isn’t a major inconvenience – not if you’re playing in heaven and on national TV (all four games will be televised on Fox Sports Net).

“It’s just a great opportunity, there’s no other way to put it,” Floyd said. “You don’t get chances like this every day. It’s really once in a career thing.”

Though the Trinity-Shiloh Christian game has earned most of the attention – see our preview here - the rest of the lineup is star-studded with angles aplenty.

“This is the best lineup we’ve had here,” Dallas Morning News columnist and MaxPreps correspondent Matt Wixon said. “Outside of Skyline, who is very talented but so inexperienced, these teams are really, really good.”

St. Thomas Aquinas vs. Skyline
St. Thomas has sent more players (24) to Division I college programs the last two seasons than any high school in the nation. The Raiders won a mythical national crown in 2008 and were on their way to another before being upset in the Florida 5A semifinals last season by Mantee, 28-20.

They are 88-10 the last six years combined.

The fact the Raiders are supposed to be a little down this year is all relative. “It’s a new team, we’re young on the offensive line and we’re not real big on defense,” Smith said. “But we’ll be OK.”

The Raiders "only" have six or seven D-I kids in this class, including Iowa-bound quarterback Jake Rudock, and receivers Phillip Dorsett (Miami) and Rashad Greene (Florida State).

They led Coral Glades 41-0 at halftime in a scrimmage last week and appear to be as high powered as ever offensively. They’ll certainly be tested against a Skyline team that lost to another Florida team last week, Glades Central (Belle Glade, Fla.) 6-0.

“Well they may be young, but man can they play defense,” Smith said. “Wow.”

It’s hard to wow Smith, but Skyline is one of the few teams nationally that can match up with his team athletically year in, year out. The problem early on for the Skyline – also the Raiders – is they return just six starters, four on defense.

“There’s not a deeper well of talent for any program in Dallas (than Skyline),” Wixon said.

The most talented from this senior class is 6-2, 220-pound linebacker Anthony Wallace, who has offers from Miami, Ohio State and Oklahoma, Oklahoma-bound safety Franklin Shannon (6-0, 202) and Minnesota-bound linebacker Michael Moore (6-1, 213).

According to the Dallas Morning News, Skyline will be without two key starters – junior offensive lineman Marlon Brown and junior wide receiver Thomas Johnson, a transfer from Arlington who already has several scholarship offers, including ones from Texas and USC. Both players are out with knee sprains.

Skyline coach Reginald Samples told the paper he is taking every precaution because “we’re thinking about November and December.”

Cedar Hill vs. Guyer
Cedar Hill lost a tough season-opening 33-27 game to Allen (Texas) last week, but is still considered one of the best teams in Texas.

With seven returning starters back from a 12-1 team and an onslaught of talent up from a 9-1 JV team, Joey McGuire’s squad isn’t expected to lose two straight at any point this season.

Especially with quarterback Driphus Jackson (6-0, 190) at the helm. He was terrific in defeat last week, completing 22 of 31 for 348 yards and three scores and also rushing 17 times for 76 yards.

The team’s main running threat is Ronnie Green and Lovett Gibson (6-2, 190) and Kelton Specks (5-9, 160) are possible next-level receivers.

Guyer has been a 4A power for years and has moved up to 5A. The Wildcats opened with a 45-7 win over Waxahachie thanks to Oklahoma State quarterback J.W. Walsh, who was 15-for-20 for 340 yards and four touchdowns. He’s ranked the No. 8 dual threat quarterback in the country by MaxPreps.com/CBS College Sports recruiting expert Tom Lemming.

The Wildcats return 12 starters from a 13-2 team in 2009. They were also 13-2 in 2008. Walsh threw for 2,599 yards and 30 TDs last year and rushed for 1,563 and 25 scores more. Texas A&M-bound cornerback Josh Stewart and Oklahoma State-bound defensive end Jimmy Bean are other standouts.

“That should be a fantastic game,” Wixon said.

DeSoto vs. Bowie
So should the finale, which features perhaps the second-most intriguing storyline, as DeSoto’s TCU-bound receiver Cameron White, was Bowie’s leading receiver last year with 53 catches for 728 yards and 10 touchdowns.

White told Corbet Smith of the Dallas Morning News that he’s still close with many of the Bowie players, including defensive backs George Adams and Malcolm Surrell, whom he’ll be going head-to-head against.

“Ever since this week of practice, I haven’t talked with nobody,” White told Smith.

DoSoto, which opened with a 56-35 win over Leander, lost much of a very talented senior class to graduation, but returns Ryan Polite, a 6-2, 195-pound senior with speed and an arm to match. He threw for 4,056 yards and 39 touchdowns last year. A third-year starter, he has not only White to throw to but David Porter, who had 64 catches for 1,143 yards and nine touchdowns.

The Eagles have a slew of good running backs, including sophomore Dontre Wilson, who coach Claude Mathis calls “one of the fastest backs DeSoto has ever seen. Teammate Alex Lyons had 152 tackles from his linebacker spot last year.

Bowie, which opened with an impressive 37-7 win over Odessa, is led by one of the state’s most coveted junior running backs Russell Hansbrough (5-7, 175), who had 131 yards against Odessa. He was the district’s top newcomer last year. Hansbrough and Delenzia Turner-green, who had 91 yards last week, is a terrific one-two punch.

The defense should be stout with lineman Michael Amaefula (6-3, 230), and backs Quentin Sargent (6-0, 185) and Malcolm Surrell (5-8, 180). ,

Though Bowie lost White, they return coach Kenny Perry, who has helped turn around a struggling program. The Volunteers are 41-11 the last four seasons plus under Perry after going 1-10 in 2005.

Look for our live blog from today's action, as well pictures, photos, notebooks and game stories the next two days.