Ready or not, the high school football season starts tonight. And one of the first games to kick off will be Memorial’s 7 p.m. matchup with the Central Jaguars.

The Jags are a very capable team with a lot of looming questions. In a lot of ways, the same thing can be said about the hosting Titans.

Both teams are coming off somewhat disappointing 4-6 seasons in 2007 in which neither team made the playoffs. Both teams have critical question marks at quarterback as well. Memorial's situation is a matter of Jareal Alexander's health.

There are no concerns with Alexander's ability to lead the Titans but whether his thumb will hold up and for how long. The senior had pins placed in his thumb to repair bone damage in early July and had those pins removed in mid August.

He was just cleared to play Aug. 21.

Head coach Ronnie Thompson said he feels as if his starting quarterback will be able to play. What he is not sure of is how long the 5-11 gun slinger will be able to last.

If he can't go, the Titans options are with underclassman Stedman Haynes and Corwin Keal.

Central's quarterbacking situation is rather simple. Can its starter Michael Richard make the right decisions in Beaumont's option attack?

Richard, who made a couple of starts last season, was given the nod late this preseason because the expected starter moved to a different high school.

Memorial has to figure the Jags will keep the plan simple for Richard, calling for their quarterback to rely on the dive play to fullback David Mayfield. And this begs for the final and biggest question going into the season opener.

Can Memorial stop the inside running game?

While the inability to stop the run has plagued Port Arthur for nearly three seasons, Memorial did show some signs of improvements last year and returns seven players from that defense.

The one area the Titans continued to struggle with in the 2007 campaign was stopping the inside run. More importantly, Memorial never shutdown the dive play.

Even more importantly, Memorial never shut down Kingwood, which runs the same flexbone-option offensive scheme that Central uses. Kingwood hammered the Titans to the tune of 369 yards on the ground in last year's meeting.

Defensive coordinator Curtis Viola and the rest of Port Arthur will have a decent idea of what to expect in its run defense after tonight.