The gist
- Gilmer travels to Chapel Hill on Friday, Sept. 5 for the second game of the 2026 season.
- It's a non-district road opener after the Buckeyes kicked things off at Pine Tree the week before.
- The chatter on smoaky.com is buzzing — Gilmer fans have this one circled.
- Our lean: the Buckeyes hit the road in East Texas and settle in fast. This is a get-right game.
The matchup
Gilmer at Chapel Hill. Friday night. Sept. 5. That's what we know for certain, and honestly, in East Texas high school football, that's usually enough to fill a parking lot and empty a barbecue joint.
This is Week 2 for the Buckeyes and their first true road trip of the year — they opened at Pine Tree the Friday prior, and if you want the full pre-season lens on that one, we did a whole Gilmer vs. Pine Tree preview before the opener. Chapel Hill is a non-district game, which sounds like it doesn't count until you remember two things: momentum matters, and every August-into-September rep is film for the district gauntlet that starts stacking up in October.
We're not going to hand you invented records or a fake series number. What we can tell you is that Gilmer's schedule turns the burners up quickly after this one — Kilgore comes to town Sept. 12, then it's on the road at Sulphur Springs. Chapel Hill is the last chance to iron out anything that got exposed at Pine Tree before the calendar gets mean.
Key to the game: Handle the road environment early. First quarter on the road in East Texas in September is a mood — humid, loud, and everybody's still figuring out where their spots are. If Gilmer scripts a clean opening drive, this thing tilts fast.
Around the barbecue
The Buckeyes have a passionate crowd on smoaky.com, and this week the Gilmer – Chapel Hill thread is already going. Gilmer fans on smoaky are dissecting the road trip in real time, and there's a companion Pine Tree postgame thread where folks are still chewing on takeaways from Week 1. Local pickem regulars are also flagging the Week 2 deadline, so if you're on that forum you already know it's a Thursday-at-5 lock-in.
Also worth a look: East and Central Texas Player of the Week nominations from Week 1. That thread is where the region's fanbases push the guys who popped early, and it's a good pulse check on who the community actually saw ball out — not the algorithm's opinion, the neighbors'.
Attribution matters: none of this is a prediction from smoaky, it's Gilmer fans talking on their front porch. But it's the right front porch.
Our take
Three things we actually believe about this game:
1. The road doesn't scare Gilmer. This is a program with a modern trophy case and a culture that shows up in September, not just November. A Chapel Hill road trip in Week 2 isn't a trap — it's a checkup.
2. The Buckeye offense finds a rhythm faster than it did in Week 1. Openers are ugly by nature. A second week means the play-caller has actual film of his own guys, not just install-week guesses. Expect cleaner tempo and quicker answers when Chapel Hill throws something new.
The pick: Gilmer, comfortably. This is the kind of night where you show up in East Texas, punch first, and let the crowd figure out how they want to feel about it in the fourth quarter.
3. Whoever wins the special-teams battle wins by two scores. Every early-season game in this region gets decided by one flipped field or one blocked kick. Bet on the team that ran fewer wind sprints in August, and Gilmer is not the team that ran fewer wind sprints in August.
If you're a Gilmer alum in the Longview market who has strong feelings about this pick, good. That's the point. Yell at us on Monday. We'll be right here.
Chapel Hill on Friday night. Buckeyes on the road, Upshur County making the drive. Lock in your picks before Thursday at 5, and we'll see you on the other side of Week 2.