Irvin Nimitz was pleasant surprise for coach

By LANCE FLEMING / Staff Writer

Irving Nimitz head football coach Mike Farda wasn't exactly sure what to expect this season.

After all, he had to replace eight three-year starters who had won District 9-5A championships in both 1994 and 1995. And he started the season against Haltom and Arlington Lamar.

The Vikings lost both those games, and also lost to cross-town rival Irving MacArthur in district play.

Nimitz got it together, though, going into District 6-5A play, and went down to the wire against Duncanville. The Panthers won that game and the district championship, 25-15, in the last game of the regular season.

"We finished 6-4, but the four teams that beat us were a combined 37-3," said Farda, a 1963 graduate of Odessa Permian and a former head coach at Colorado City. "Duncanville and Haltom were undefeated, Lamar was 9-1 and MacArthur was 8-2. It just took us a while to get going. Offensively we weren't bad in the first two games, but we weren't very good defensively.

"We knew that we wouldn't be as good early as we were last year," he said. "We just graduated too many good players. But I thought if we worked at it real hard we'd have a good chance to compete for the district championship. And that's what happened."

Now the Vikings (8-4) go against Cooper on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Shotwell Stadium for the opportunity to advance to the state quarterfinals for the first time.

Nimitz has never advanced past the third round of the playoffs, and the last time it reached this level was in 1988. And to get to the next level, the Vikings will have to beat a talented Cooper squad while making its longest road trip in quite some time.

"This is always a strange weekend," Farda said. "The kids are not in school, and they get out of their routine. When that happens it bothers kids. It's our first long road trip, but I'm not going to build in any excuses. If we win, that's great. If we lose, it won't be because we had to on the road."

Nimitz has gotten to this point via the ground game, which has produced 3,679 yards in 12 games. The Vikings, in fact, have thrown for just 338 yards all season.

Nimitz has really poured it on in the playoffs, rushing for 937 yards in two playoff games and not completing a pass in just two attempts. The Vikings had 406 yards rushing in a 49-10 bi-district win over Keller and 531 more in last week's 45-0 win over DeSoto.

Junior Sells has led the way in the playoffs with 381 yards and two touchdowns rushing in two games. Quarterback P.J. Traylor has six rushing touchdowns in the playoffs and rushed for 59 yards last week against DeSoto.

The Vikings have done this without leading rusher Correy Harris, who missed last week's game with two bad ankles. Harris, who has 1,202 yards and 12 touchdowns, will play against Cooper.

"We've been a running team the last few weeks," Farda said. "We've just been in a situation the last few weeks where people have given us the run. We never got ourselves into a passing situation. We're pretty one-dimensional right now. We think we can be two-dimensional, but we haven't had to be. We'll see if we have to be Friday night."