Every year, high school football players look forward to senior night as a celebration of their years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears they’ve put into their program. For the Lampasas Badgers, that celebration comes this week during their home opening matchup against non-district opponent Pflugerville Connally.
Lampasas has played Connally four times in its history. The first two occasions came in 2006 and 2007 when both teams were members of the 4A-II District 25. In those two years, the Cougars blew out the Badgers, winning 55-29 in 2006 and 38-0 in 2007. The two teams did not meet again until 2022 when they were once again sorted into the same district.
The Badgers took the upper hand in those meetings, beating Connally in dominant fashion, 4413 in 2022 and 36-28 in 2023.
Badgers’ head coach Troy Rogers has never lost to the Cougars in his tenure, and he doesn’t plan on changing that fact this season.
“Connally’s good,” Rogers said. “They’re very fast, very athletic, they’re well-coached. Their coach is going on his fourth year, and they bring that dynamic that we want to see, the speed, and that’s really why we’re playing them. We just want to see that speed.”
Compared to last week’s contest against Gatesville, Connally presents a completely different type of challenge for the Badgers. Rogers describes his team as a blue-collar, hard-nosed, hard-working group of young men who are physical and technical. Teams like the Cougars who specialize in pure athleticism are an excellent matchup for the Badgers, according to Rogers, especially this early in the season.
“(Connally’s) got good, fast, athletic kids,” he said. “Like Gatesville is a blue-collar, physical, strong type of team and that’s what you want to see is that physicality. Connally doesn’t bring that. They bring speed and athleticism to where if you flinch, they’re going to get by you. If you miss a tackle, they’re going to get by you. So those are things that we need to see. We need to be able to play those different types of teams. You don’t want to just play the same type of team over and over and over because you’re not preparing yourself for what’s to come, so we try to sprinkle in some of those teams that have some different dynamics.”
Under coach Charles Burton — who took over the program in 2023 —the Cougars and 14-18. Last season’s run into the second round of the playoffs was the first for Connally since 2016. The Cougars eventually met Randle and fell, 59-28.
This season the Cougars return several key starters on the offense. Athlete Jonah Garcia was their leading scorer with 24 touchdowns in 2025. Wide receiver Rashaan Franklin earned all-district honors in 5A-2 Region III District 11 with over 800 yards and 12 touchdowns. Their quarterback from last season, Jase Watkins, threw for over 2,000 yards and 29 touchdowns. This offseason Watkins transferred to St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida for his junior season. Who will be stepping up into the quarterback position for the Cougars is unclear, and the change may or may not be a breaking point for Conally.
Also of note, the Cougars will make their 2026 season debut at Badger Field on Friday night, after having their bye week last week.
In addition to losing their quarterback, the Cougars lost several leaders on the defense to graduation, including Didier Thorpe who led the team in tackles and sacks. Their No. 2 leading defensive producer, Bryson Reed, will likely step into that role of causing havoc for the Badgers’ offense.
“(We want to see) improvements made across the board,” Rogers said. “If it’s the communication, getting aligned right, making sure that we don’t have any of those ‘Oops, I forgot we’re doing this instead of that.’ We should be seeing vast improvements from the first game to the second game.”
“We should be seeing vast improvements from the first game to the second game”
Head coach Troy Rogers on the Week 2 contest versus Connally