– Senior quarterback Khyrie Francisco stepped into the 2025 season with a positive attitude after an injury cut his season short the year before, and the effort showed in a seasonopening win over St. Martin Parish rival Cecilia High School.
Francisco led the Tigers to a 34-29 win with 164 passing yards and 128 rushing yards and three touchdowns total — one passing and two rushing — at home on Sept. 5.
“It’s really just all about being positive,” Francisco said before the season started. “Injury, that’s the last thing I’m worried about. I’m worried about getting better. That’s it.”
Francisco and the Tigers traveled to Lafayette this past Friday, facing the team against which he suffered his season-ending injury the year before.
But for the Tigers’ signal-caller, this season is not about the past but about the present.
“I want to go to state and I want to win,” he said. “I want to be part of the team that’s the best team that St. Martinville’s ever had.”
Francisco said he feels the team has the ability to get there, the players just have to work together.
“We’ve got the athletes, we’ve got the skills, it’s really communication,” he said. “Communication and laser focus.”
Francisco might not say to others that missing 8 1/2 games last year bothers him, but first-year SMSH head coach Garrett Kreamer said that his quarterback feels he has something to prove.
“He’s definitely got a chip on his shoulder from last year,” Kreamer said. “But we expect a great product from Khyrie this senior go-around. He’s shown leadership ability. He can make all the throws. He’s really learning the offense and doing well, so I’m excited to see what he can do his senior year.”
Francisco said that the Tigers have done a good job picking up Kreamer’s spread offense. “It’s going smooth,” Francisco said. “It’s RPOs (run-pass options), options, it’s all of that all in one.”
Francisco said the Tigers had their biggest summer participation in years, and he did his part to ensure that by going to other players’ houses to make sure they were going to practice in the offseason.
He said he wants to go out with a “big bang” this season.
“I just want to tell everybody on the schedule to look out,” he said.
As his Week 1 stat line showed, Francisco can do it all. He competed 12 of 17 pass attempts and rushed the ball a team-leading 26 times.
“Very athletic guy,” Kreamer said. “He’s going to be a dual threat. We’re going to ask him to run the ball a lot and also throw it, so he’s got to be a big-time playmaker for us.
“We rely on him to make a lot of correct reads, whether it’s to hand the ball off or to throw it. We do give him some freedom to make some checks at the line, so he’s got to be a true quarterback and make the right play and get us into the right situation. So far he’s done that really well and he’s going to continue to get better.”
