Photo courtesy of Dave Campbell's Texas Football
Growing up in Texas, many of us are introduced to two distinct versions of the “Bible” – there is the one revered worldwide across virtually all Christian religions, and there is the one found on the desks of every football coach from Amarillo to Brownsville, Beaumont to El Paso, and all points in between. The latter would be Dave Campbell’s Texas Football (DCTF).
For those who are completely unaware, football – especially high school football – is a pretty big deal here in Texas. DCTF is THE source for high school (and now college) football in the state; they are the official record keepers, the official ranking authorities, and the official scouting and recruiting gatekeepers.
The magazine, the website, the podcasts, and the YouTube channel are all very big deals. Head Coaches, Sports Information Directors, and Athletics Directors at every level of competition understand what a mention by DCTF can mean for their schools, programs, and players.
In the past decade or so, DCTF has really expanded its reach into college football. With Texas having the most Division I college teams of any state in the country, and with recruiting in the state becoming such a massive cultural touchpoint in sports media, DCTF brought on a dedicated college football writer to cover the state of Texas college football.
Enter Mike Craven, current Senior Writer with DCTF and now at the tail end of his fourth season as the college football writer. Craven brings a strong background as a sportswriter for numerous newspapers in Texas, including the award-winning Austin American-Statesman.
As the 2023-24 season approached, the state of Texas would be fielding a 13th FBS-level football program – far and away the most of any state in the nation. And with the college football season set to now have 13 weeks, the germ of an idea formed for Craven – from it, the Dave Campbell’s Guide to Texas College Football was born.
Craven pitched the idea to his bosses about traveling to the best game in the state each week for each team. He’d talk about the teams’ histories, the stadiums, what makes each city and town unique, and what makes this all unique to Texas.
Photo courtesy of Mike Craven
I spoke to Mike recently with the regular season all wrapped up, and the madness about to begin for 2024-25 postseason play.
EM: Thanks for talking with me today, Mike. I’ve read your work for a long time now. For the readers who aren’t familiar with you or with DCTF, can you explain your role there and what it’s all about?
MC: My job is to cover the 13 FBS teams in the state of Texas, and kind of lead the direction of how we cover all 48 [college football] teams in the state of Texas. That’s writing, podcasting, we do some videos. I look at [it] as, for high school, we have our footing there as kind of the premiere high school site in Texas. My job is to raise the college coverage to that level.
EM: Perfect. Let’s talk about the book. Where did the idea for it come from and how did you go about pitching this to your editors?
MC: I kind of look at everything within my job on if it’s cool. If I’m like ‘hey, do I want to write this story or go on this assignment.’ The first thing I ask myself is ‘is this cool?’ I’ve always just tried to follow stuff that I think is interesting and my job is then to take that thing and present in an interesting way to everyone else.
When I realized that Sam Houston State was moving up [from the FCS level to the FBS level], and there’s 13 weeks in a season, to be honest, I thought it was just a way for me to do something that was fun. That’s go to a different stadium every single week and be the first person to do that in the state of Texas, because there’s no way to have done that before. For me, it was just a way to check off a bucket list item and have a fun year.
The way I thought I could pull that off was to pitch it as a coffee table book to commemorate [this first season with 13], while also making it a history of the programs across the state.
EM: As someone who travels to stadiums across the state on just a part-time basis, I’m curious how you were able to pull the logistics of that season and do your full-time job with DCTF. How were you able to coordinate that kind of schedule?
MC: Luckily, I’ve been on the job for a couple of years and know all the [sports information directors], I know all the coaches, and I have what I consider to be great relationships with all these schools. So, I just made a spreadsheet of every single schedule. Put them all next to each other, week 1, week, 2, etc. Then I just isolated the six or seven games that I just had to go to.
These were big times games, like Oregon at Texas Tech, Deion starting the season at TCU, those type of games. Also, Alabama at Texas A&M, those kinds of games were the ones I built the schedule around. Big games where the stadiums were full and that would provide the type of atmosphere to write about.
I just came up with what I thought was a solid schedule. It was a lot of fun. It was tiring, but everybody accommodated me pretty well. No big hiccups along the way.
EM: What surprised you on your visits?
MC: That’s a good question. I didn’t go anywhere that I hadn’t been. I’ve been to all of these stadiums before. I’ve talked to all of these coaches and been to all of these cities before. I guess the thing that continuously surprised me was, and I guess I already knew this, but this set it into stone, was that this state is humongous.
What that leads to is a uniqueness and a certain culture in all of these pockets of the state that is hard to explain to outsiders. Being in El Paso and being in Huntsville is being on two different planets. Being in Houston and being in Lubbock is two different planets. Austin and Waco, they’re only an hour and a half away [and] are just different.
It always fascinates me at just how different and unique the communities are within the state of Texas and that also holds true for the cities that are home to our biggest universities.
EM: What about the atmosphere and the tailgating scenes? Who really stood out to you on your visits?
MC: I think A&M is the best place to go watch a football game. Their insistence on tradition is fun. I grew up going to Texas Longhorns games because my grandfather was the rehab specialist for UT since Darrell K. Royal was there. If you go to a Texas game now compared to when I was a kid, it’s a completely different thing. None of the songs, except for the ones that are school oriented, are the same. The marching is different. Everything is different.
At A&M, everything is the same. You feel like you could be experiencing something that your grandfather or great-grandfather could have experienced. They show up for New Mexico State the same way they show up for Alabama, and there’s something cool about that.
I think Lubbock and Tech is probably the most underrated spot in the state, especially if you get to a big-time night game. And, El Paso is near and dear to my heart. The Sun Bowl can’t be beat, and the food outside of UTEP football games is probably the best that I came across.
EM: Great stuff, Mike. Where can people find the book?
MC: Yeah, you can find it at texasfootball.com. We only published 3,000, so we’re kind of limited now. Come find me on Twitter or my social media stuff and we’ll get you figured out.
Comments