Brady Carney and Garrett Patterson are pretty close.
Although they graduated four years apart, both grew up in Collinsville and graduated from Collinsville High School — Carney in 1994 and Patterson in 1998.
Their relationship has continued through their coaching careers, with Patterson considering Carney a mentor and both coaches regularly sharing advice about their programs.
“(Carney) always shoots me straight and tells me what he really thinks about our schemes, kids and how we can improve,” Patterson said.
Carney said the relationship works both ways.
“He’s not going to hurt my feelings, and I’m not going to hurt his feelings,” Carney said. “It’s just two friends that are trying to help each other out. I try to do whatever I can to help Garrett out whenever I can. I consider him one of my good friends, and I’m here to help him as much as I can, and he does the same for me.”
That friendship will be put aside for a few hours Friday night.
Carney coaches at Muenster, where he has led the Hornets to three state championships, while Patterson is the head coach at Collinsville. The two undefeated teams meet at 7 p.m. Friday at Hornet Stadium in Muenster.
“I love coaching against Coach Carney, and I know we have to have a great plan to win against his teams,” Patterson said. “Muenster is always dangerous. Their kids play very hard, and they have one of the best coaching staffs in the state. Obviously, graduation takes a toll, but they are a traditional state championship-winning program, so they know what it takes to win big games.”
Carney has similar respect for what Patterson has built at Collinsville. He believes the Pirates have the pieces to make a deep postseason run.
“To me, this is kind of the year for Collinsville,” Carney said. “I really believe if they stay healthy, they get a chance to play for a state championship.”
Carney pointed to realignment, Collinsville’s position in Region III and a veteran group led by quarterback Paxton Davidson as reasons for his optimism.
“I think Collinsville is one of those top teams in both of those regions,” Carney said of Regions III and IV. “With the talent he’s got, especially at the quarterback position, if he stays healthy, I think he’s got as good a shot at playing for it as anybody does out of Regions III and IV.”
Both the Pirates and Hornets enter Friday night’s contest with 3-0 records. Muenster is coming off a 33-28 win at Windthorst, while Collinsville defeated Bells 34-14 last week.
The matchup is no longer a district game after Muenster, the defending back-to-back Class 2A Division II state champion, moved up to Class 2A Division I this fall. But neither coach had much interest in letting the series end.
“There was no question as far as us playing,” Carney said. “He wanted to play, and I wanted to play. We just had to find the right time to play.”
Carney said games against quality opponents are valuable even if they result in an early-season loss. Muenster finished pre-district play 3-2 in each of the past two seasons before going on to win state championships.
“No one likes to lose, but at the same time, our losses to Pottsboro and Holliday helped us out whenever we got to the playoffs and in district,” Carney said. “If you lose a game right now, in a good game with good opponents and good football teams, you get better from it, win or lose.”
Muenster has opened this season 3-0 despite working several younger players into the lineup.
The Hornets were without three key players for much or all of last week’s victory over Windthorst. Dustin Crofts is out with a torn ACL, Colin Otto missed the game with the flu and Brady Clement left after the opening series with a hip pointer.
That forced Carney to lean on as many as eight sophomores against an experienced Windthorst team.
“I think the main thing for us is I do see that we’ve got a lot of fight in us,” Carney said. “We fought our tails off and never gave up. We had a lot of sophomores get really big-game experience last week, and they showed that they know how to fight a little bit.”
Carney said the Hornets still have plenty to clean up before district play.
“I feel good about our effort,” he said. “I still don’t feel like we’re executing like we’ve been coached to execute and doing things the right way all the time, so we still have a lot of stuff we’ve got to work on.”
Senior quarterback Carter Heller leads the Muenster offense. He has passed for 320 yards and five touchdowns while also leading the Hornets with 504 rushing yards and eight scores.
Collinsville counters with Davidson, whom Carney called an “exceptional player.”
In the Pirates’ victory against Bells last week, Davidson threw for 239 yards and three touchdowns — all to Caysen Sheppard — and ran 11 times for 70 yards and a score. Sheppard had 12 catches for 90 yards and three touchdowns, while Chase Sheppard ran 16 times for 96 yards. Rylan Brown added five carries for 25 yards and a touchdown.
“On offense, of course, it all runs through the quarterback,” Carney said. “Paxton’s an exceptional player. He throws the ball well and is a physical runner.”
Carney said one of Patterson’s challenges during the early portion of the season is balancing Davidson’s ability as a runner with keeping him healthy for district and postseason play.
“A loss is not going to affect what he does eight weeks from now as much as losing him,” Carney said. “He’s got to be smart with his touches because everything runs through Paxton.”
Carney also has been impressed with Collinsville defensively.
The Pirates limited run-heavy Bells to 198 rushing yards and no passing yards last week. The Panthers attempted just one pass.
“We had to play physical in the box, our defensive linemen did a great job of playing low, and our outside linebackers played the edge very well,” Patterson said. “Our defense rallied to the ball all night long and played very physical.”
Carney said Collinsville’s new defensive scheme is still developing, but its experience is evident.
“You can see they’re still trying to figure a few things out, but the Sheppard kid, Paxton, the Schafer kid — all those guys,” Carney said. “They’ve been playing since they were freshmen.”
The Pirates nearly matched Bells on the ground with 195 rushing yards. The Panthers were led by Westin Hicks with 67 yards on seven carries, while Tyler Whitman scored on a 63-yard run on his only carry. Quarterback Jax Pitt also had a touchdown run.
“I don’t know that it sends a statement because every Friday night we have to adjust to new schemes from different opponents,” Patterson said. “But stopping the run is a huge component in winning big games like Friday night.”
Collinsville is looking for its first victory against Muenster since a 51-27 win in 2023.
For Patterson, beating his friend and mentor will require the same kind of complete performance the Pirates showed last week.
“It’s going to be tough. Winning against them is tough, but playing them in Muenster is even harder,” Patterson said. “We will have to play a complete game like we did last week. The kids will have to have a great week of preparation.”
For Carney, Friday represents another chance for two friends to test their programs against one another — before going back to helping each other once the game is over.
“We’re always here for each other to help each other out and hopefully improve our football teams,” Carney said.
