The best of Memorial's defenders certainly starts with two-year regular Hines, but tackle Stanton Smith has been the biggest surprise of the spring. Ends Trashard Lewis and Darrell Johnson are among the improved linemen.

Hines needs to be a demanding leader and help to raise the work of linebacker cohorts Javonte Stephens, Paul Roy and Ashton Wilson. Michael Johnson has to be very attentive to Tony Brown's requests in order to lead the secondary.

Harrison has earned and deserved the reputation of being a good guy. Yet Kenny has had to shed some of his 'nice-guy' image in order to lead this staff and these players.

"That part has not been that hard, really," he said. "One thing they took on real early were my work habits..."

No matter how impressive or improved they become, the Titans are climbing a tall 21-5A district mountain. Memorial's opening league opponent, Galena Park North Shore, owns a state-record regular-season winning streak of 78 games dating back to Nov. 2000.

Instead of being intimidated by that reality, the Titans face their realities, evaluate themselves, and ask themselves, "Is that part of our game good enough to beat North Shore."

That's how the Big 12 football league became so tough. When Texas and Oklahoma began to dominate, the others began to ask if this or that was good enough to beat OU or UT. Now the Oklahoma States, Texas Techs and Baylors are all becoming competitive.

Harrison and his staff are setting extremely high standards. Excuses are a thing of the past.