**CORRECTED to reflect that Jack Dallas has only been offered by Lamar and has not committed**

WEST ORANGE — About this time last year, Cornel Thompson said his West Orange-Stark football team was rebuilding after finishing as 4A Division II state runner-up.

What a rebuilding job the Mustangs they did. They won the state title last December, their first since 1987 and third overall.

Apparently, the experience from that 15-1 season has helped the Mustangs progress faster in preseason camp than last year.

“We retained, with the number of experienced people we’ve got, a lot of our techniques and stuff, so we were able to install stuff quicker this year than we were last year because of people returning at their positions and stuff,” said Thompson, who is 62-11 over the past five years at WOS. “Conditioning is about as good as it’s been the last couple of years.”

And the complacency is down. Thompson said the Mustangs have picked up their speed on offseason workouts since shortly after winning state.

“We got back here and probably owe them an apology,” he said. “We’ll find out later on. But we got back here and seemed pretty focused because they got back here in physical shape.”

Thompson doesn’t have as many holes to fill among returning starters this season. Eight starters have returned on offense, including quarterback Jack Dallas, who was offered a scholarship to Lamar, and nine on defense.

“We’ve got a couple of new faces,” Thompson said. “We’re working hard on developing our depth and stuff. We’ve got some prospects or suspects, whichever you want to call it, at the guard position. We’re looking to fill those positions.”

Thompson added the Mustangs have yet to find a go-deep receiver, but he does have wideout K.J. Miller returning. Miller averaged nearly 19 yards per catch in 2015, while Keion Hancock, who missed much of last season, tries to better his 14.4 average.”

This week, they get to focus on an opponent for the first time this season when District 22-5A co-champ Nederland visits. It will be the first meeting between the programs since Nederland pulled out a 21-20 win in Thompson’s first season as head coach in 2011.

The Bulldogs have had to replace six starters on each side of the ball, but Thompson said in studying Larry Neumann’s team he knows what he’s always known about them.

“They’ve got people coming back and enough people on the sideline that want to play,” Thompson said. “They’ll plug them in. Just like here, their daddies, uncles, cousins all played at Nederland. The game of football is important in Nederland, Texas, and you’ll have to play for 48 minutes to win the football game. We’ve got to be executing our defense and our offense and the kicking game against these people. You’ve got to play for 48 minutes because they are well-coached. I’ve got the utmost respect for coach Neumann and his staff. They do a great job of coaching.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews