TNG Timeline: Lake Travis Cavaliers
At worst, state semifinals in six of last seven seasons
The purpose of this feature is to help provide some historical context behind the Elo ratings referenced throughout the blog - methodology/primer here.
If you’ve missed the previous releases in our TNG Timeline series, those can be accessed here… Historical Superlatives. Next up, a program that has about as many trophies as there are annotations on the chart below, our preseason #10 ranked Lake Travis Cavaliers.
Lake Travis moved into the state’s top enrollment classification following an unprecedented run of five state championship wins at the 4A level from 2007 through 2012. Current Cavaliers head coach Hank Carter won two of those 4A state championships after taking over for Chad Morris.
Since Lake Travis has moved up, they’ve been in the state conversation nearly every season. While they haven’t put together a run of consecutive state championships as a 5A/6A program, they’ve been a state finalist twice and advanced to at least the state semi-finals multiple times to go with the state title won in 2016.
Making the jump up is not an easy one for any program to manage, but, as the chart above supports, Lake Travis has been more successful than any program not named Southlake Carroll at managing the transition.
What’s most remarkable about this program, talent wise, is the consistently elite performance they’ve had at the quarterback position. From Garrett Gilbert to Baker Mayfield to Hudson Card and Bo Edmundson most recently, this is a run at the position perhaps only Denton Guyer can compete with over the last decade plus. It is the toughest position to field elite talent, and to cultivate the consistently high level found in this program makes Lake Travis a true outlier compared to the rest of Texas.
One of the most underrated factors in Lake Travis’ success has been their defensive toughness. The Cavaliers were actually carried more by their defense when they first moved up from 4A, and it was a big part of their success over the 2016 and 2017 seasons in particular.
Lake Travis has enjoyed great continuity thanks to head coach Carter and his staff, and the Cavaliers will carry the program tradition forward into the new season on the back of another state semi-final appearance in 2021. While Westlake and recent playoff bogey team North Shore (responsible for three of the last four playoff exits for Lake Travis) remain as obstacles in the path to state glory, the Cavaliers are expected to be right back in the thick of it in 2022 with a state top 10 billing to start and a Division 1 projection for the state playoffs.
Lake Travis enters 2022 as our #10 rated team: TNG Preseason Top 50
See below for videos corresponding to the chart annotations above:
2007-2011: Five consecutive 4A state titles prior to making the jump up in classification
2013: Lost in the State Semifinals to eventual state champ Cedar Hill, 19-10
2015: Lost in the State Championship to Katy’s all-time greatest team, 34-7
2016: Bounced right back the following year to hoist their 6th overall title, first in the highest classification
2017: For the third year in a row, the Cavaliers find themselves in another state title game. Senior starting quarterback Matthew Baldwin (4,400 total yards, 54 TDs) injures knee on the first series of the game forcing the Cavaliers to ride sophomore starting wide receiver Hudson Card the rest of the game. Game came right down to the wire with Allen prevailing by only a couple points.
2018: Cavaliers drop another state semifinal to yet another one of #txhsfb greatest teams of all-time in North Shore.
2019: Same opponent, same round, similar result.
2021: For the third season in the last four years, the North Shore Mustangs end the Cavs season in the state semifinals.
The team Timelines are great, big thumbs up to the admins.
Being a big Westlake fan, I have to say the 2016 Lake Travis team was the best high school football team ever (no fake IMG, any California team, no one would ever come close).
By Lake Travis HS standards, the past few years have been below what they expect but what most teams would be grateful for. Hoping the can joint Westlake in the elite five in Texas.