Everyone knows Katy — or even better, King Katy — just doesn't lose very often, especially during district play.
The Tigers, who own nine district championships (and three state titles) in the past 10 years, have been perfect in league play the last two seasons. They dropped one district game in coach Gary Joseph's first season in 2004, and lost twice in district in 2002 when Hastings was the 6-0 champion.
Other than those rare instances, Katy has owned the district, and this year, according to most, nothing should change.
But remember, college football started with Appalachian State winning at Michigan, so anything is possible, such as Alief Taylor (2-1) knocking off mighty Katy (3-0) in Saturday's 2 p.m. District 18-5A opener at Rhodes Stadium.
"You might as well call them King Katy because they really have been such a dominant program," Alief Taylor coach Trevor White said. "Katy is so sound and so well coached. They just don't make mistakes, and it's hard to beat a team with that kind of talent if they don't make mistakes."
White's Lions were off to a perfect start with wins over Bush 35-7 and Kempner 27-10, but mistakes (six turnovers and seven penalties for 70 yards) got in the way in a 31-21 loss to District 17-5A favorite Cy-Fair two weeks ago in their most recent outing.
With the open date, Alief Taylor has had two weeks to prepare for the Tigers, who own one-sided victories against Klein 45-0 and The Woodlands 48-0, and last week at A&M Consolidated 41-14.
"You could have two months to get ready for Katy and that probably wouldn't be enough time," White said. "We went back to the basics during our open week and corrected some of the mistakes we made against Cy-Fair. Having two weeks has helped us because we were a little confused at times in our last game, but we've made adjustments and progress in those areas.
"Against teams like Cy-Fair and Katy, you just can't make mistakes and be successful."
Katy has outscored two opponents 93-0 at Rhodes this season, so the Lions would like nothing better than to score early and then often in Saturday's district opener.
"Katy's offensive and defensive lines are just so physical," White said. "They've just manhandled all three teams they've faced, and with Katy, everything starts with (senior running back) Aundre Dean (539 rushing yards and six touchdowns in three games). He's a great talent and a great kid."
Alief Taylor quarterback Donte Elliott accounted for 381 total yards (275 passing; 106 rushing) and two touchdowns (one rushing; one passing) against Cy-Fair, but all those mistakes allowed Cy-Fair to score 31 straight points and take the victory.
"We have a good group of kids with good leadership, and they've been down this district road before," White said. "Every game and every week is important, and our goal continues to be to improve in every game and every week.
"It's going to take that in our district because Mayde Creek is much improved, Katy Taylor is starting to figuring things out, and Elsik and Hastings are both very good."