I have no clue who the good prep football teams are

Anytime you’ve been doing something for a long time, you develop a sense of comfort in knowing that you can handle just about anything your job shoots your way.

When it comes to prep football, the above statement is usually true as we can usually tell in the opening weeks of the season who are the contenders, pretenders and the teams that lay somewhere in the middle of the pack.

But as I sat in the bleachers of a local prep football stadium this weekend and tossed down my delicious hot dog with chili (stadium food is the absolute best), I realized something I think all of the 11 prep football coaches in our area already knew.

I don’t have a clue what is going to happen in the 2014 prep football season.

No idea.

Nadda.

Zip.

I couldn’t tell you with any certainty who will win the games this coming Friday. Likewise, I have no confidence in any prediction that I make regarding who will make the playoffs or who will possibly be able to make a run and win a couple of games while there.

Trust me, it’s not a lack of effort.

Believe me when I say the nerd in me is analyzing all of the numbers and is trying to figure out who the top dogs are for the current season.

But there’s just too much parity for anyone to decipher anything from the early weeks of play. And that’s odd in local prep football. This is the first time we’ve enjoyed such parity in my now-five seasons covering the sport in the Houma-Thibodaux area.

Let me give you an example.

I really like Thibodaux High’s football team. I think the Tigers have playmakers all across the field and with Chris Dugas, Thibodaux reaps the benefits of arguably the best and most innovative head coach in the entire area.

Thibodaux has proven my logic right in the early stages of the season, rushing for 400-plus yards against Shaw to open the season – a comeback road win. They followed that up by demobilizing Vandebilt at home – a revenge game for the Tigers, who fell to the Terriers in a close one last season.

While all of those things look sparkling on paper, the question remains the same: What do we really know about Thibodaux? How will they respond over the long haul without All-Everything halfback Donta Johnson? When will teams be able to bottle up the run and force the Tigers to throw the ball? If that happens, will Thibodaux miss standout receiver Jason Richard, who graduated after last season?

Again, like we said – we just don’t know.

Or what about South Terrebonne? I think the Gators are a mean machine that have a chance to win somewhere in the range of seven-to-nine games this season, if not more.

Blending experienced seniors with a star-studded group of sophomores in the school’s much-heralded Class of 2017, the Gators opened 2014 with a big win over H.L. Bourgeois in a game that was played in a complete and utter mud-pit at Terrebonne’s stadium.

They followed that easy win up with another in Week 2, getting past cross-parish rival Terrebonne – a game that was more competitive but still tilted in the Gators’ favor.

But with the 2-0 start in-hand, we now ask the same thing of the Gators that we asked about Thibodaux.

In reality, what do we really and truly know about South Terrebonne?

What will happen in the coming weeks when the Gators host both Belle Chasse and Warren Easton – two schools predicted to be big-time playoff contenders in Class 4A?

Will the team’s sophomores be able to handle the pressure? In the preseason, veteran coach Richard Curlin said the Gators “absolutely, positively” had to stay healthy. Will they be able to do so? If not, how much of a drop-off will their talent level take?

We just don’t know.

Are you sensing a theme here yet?

Or what about my alma mater South Lafourche – the school that everyone accuses me of being a homer toward throughout the season?

The Tarpons were slashed and burned on opening night of the season – completely picked apart by Landry-Walker in a game played in Algiers.

But the Tarpons rebounded from that loss and cruised past South Plaquemines on Friday night in Galliano – a game that was seemingly over before it ever even got started.

Landry-Walker is a bear. South Plaquemines is not.

Are the real Tarpons the team that got pushed around in Week 1 or the team that did the pushing in Week 2?

I know South Lafourche is ravished with big-time injuries, but how much will the hurt players contribute to the team when they get back? Will it be enough to get past Hahnville, Destrehan and East St. John – the new River Parish kings of the Bayou District?

Do I even need to say it again?

We just don’t know.

But that’s a good thing because it means there will be a lot of storylines to follow and a lot of things keeping us busy in the coming weeks on the high school gridiron.

We might not have a clue what will happen, but we’ll surely be there to see it all unfold.

For the first time in my five seasons here, this thing that we call prep football is a tangled up mess of uncertainty and question marks.

And I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love it this way!